June 1956 Floyd 'The Panther' Patterson used his lightning quick fists to defeat Tommy 'Hurricane' Jackson. Jackson, prizefightings preposterous son, survived 12-rounds of exposure to the lightning of Patterson's terrible quick-fists the other night in Madison Square Garden, with only a dent to his considerable pride. In the end, it was Patterson who suffered damage. Jackson's firm and unyielding head broke the fourth bone in Patterson's right hand. Though Patterson won the fight by decision, and the right to meet Archie Moore for the World's Heavyweight Championship in December, the broken hand could postpone that meeting. Though Petterson may not appericiate it, a delay in the fight (so his hand can heal) may be a blessing. On his showing against an inept but incredibly durable 'Hurricane' Jackson, Floyd Patterson at 21, may not be ready to beat Archie Moore at 42, or whatever the old boy's age is. Floyd hits hard, but he weighed 178 lbs. for this fight, less than he weighed in '6' months, and his punching power seems to suffer a trifle for lack of weight. Though Jackson was rated as the #2 man in the division, he showed no superior skills or punching power. Patterson, on the other hand, has not demonstrated that he can take a punch, for, as he pointed out, Jackson is not known as a puncher. In the fight, Floyd 'The Panther' tried to score an early knockout, as he landed a varied amount of punches on his opponent. He continued to land his punches in a blaze of fury, but Jackson took it and fought back, not effectually, but the best way he can. The 6th round was the best for Hurricane, as he was able to mount some kind of offense to slow 'The Panther' down. Patterson continued his onslaught, but he missed many wide open punches too. After the 9th round, the 21 year-old appeared tired. Over the last '3' rounds, Patterson used his right hand sparingly, and depended mostly on his left. Jackson threw more punches, but with little power, and they continued to land mostly on the arms and gloves. This fight took some of the gloss off of Patterson, solely because he did not score a knockout. This will be compared to Nino Valdes knockout of Jackson, which, however, counted as such only under the '3' knockdown rule, which automatically stops a fight after '3' knockdowns. Most ringsiders scored the fight 9-3-0 for Floyd Patterson. A rematch is not warranted here. The 'Hurricane' is a heroic kind of fellow, but he should be looking for another line of work. Just being durable, is not a way to earn a title shot. Though Jackson won himself a full-measure of respect for courage, tenacity and the rawest kind of toughness, the Patterson onslaught was the worst he has ever suffered. And his other loss to Nino Valdes came from blows considered pushes, not punches. For 'The Panther', he may be in for a long night against the man they call 'The Mongoose'.
Patterson had a broken hand in this fight. Jackson was a human windmill and this was probably his gamest performance.
The original 'Panther'........circa August 1956 Time Magazine The 21 year-old Floyd, fresh off his 12-Round Decision over Tommy 'Hurricane' Jackson 27-4-1, improves to 30-1-0 (22 KO's). Floyd who was 178 lbs. versus 'Hurricane' Jackson, will now have 5-Months to bulk up before facing Archie Moore for the 'vacant' World Heavyweight Championship. The boxing pundits, have suggested that Floyd let Archie go for the Heavyweight Championship, while 'The Panther' should aim for the 175 lb. Championship, until he builds up more upper-body strength and much-needed punching power. Floyd is obviously a Middleweight fighting in the Light-Heavyweight Division, but competing at the low-scale weight of the Heavyweight Division. Maybe Floyd should wait, and go after the Heavyweight Championship in another year or so, when 'Old Man River' Archie Moore gains more age, more girth and more whiskers. This content is protected
Good thread! As a Patterson 'historian' and nut-hugger a couple of points. SO many people have posted threads over the years saying Floyd should have stayed at Lt. Heavy?? That is just impossible. He was simply one of those MANY 'tweenies' in various divisions thruout the years. By age 21-22 he had grown into the 180's+. My hero simply had to move on and do what he could do with his circa 187-192 lb. prime bulk. Tommy Jackson? There's certainly an enigma. :rofl Hopefully you can read some of our legendary pundit John Garfield's posts on Tommy as he was there in NY around 1947 and beyond. According to JG, he was a strange sort of flake. No one at the gym at that time gave him a rat's chance in hell of EVER becoming a viable, contending fighter. No proper training technique, questionable skills. On the day of his fights, he often took his '22' rifle and went down to the Brooklyn dumps to shoot rats! Not to mention his double hook! or his double uppercut! Often thrown at exactly the same time! Let's coax John Garfield back on board. His insights into Tommy were so interesting!
I remember after Floyd disposing of Archie Moore so quickly and so easily, that many of the boxing pundits thought Archie pulled a 'tank job'. Then Floyd 'destroyed' Tommy 'Hurricane' Jackson, who looked so inept in their bout, that many asked him to quit boxing. It was the beginning of the 'Love-Hate Relationship' with Floyd and the boxing press.
June 1956 Sports Illustrated writer, Martin Kane. Labelled Floyd as 'The Panther', right after he defeated #2 Heavyweight, Tommy 'Hurricane' Jackson. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0083X5HPE/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=3375251&s=sports-collectibles"] This content is protected [/ame]
