ike had what, two fights at world level? knocked out a natural middleweight.. big deal. i admit he looked promising. but hes just a "what if" guy
Knob head above me found it funny when I called Patterson the clearly more skilled fighter. Now he's claiming Ike isn't all that as he only knocked out a smaller man. Wish he'd make his mind up.
The one having a permanent shocker is the guy who writes off competative eras as weak just because some of the champions moved up in weight. Yes as a 16 year old Patterson was a middleweight, but he was a better fighter than Byrd. And the point is that's really the one scalp Ike has. It does not make him Sonny Liston. No matter how much anyone wants him to be. Sonny Liston was Sonny Liston because be went through a lot of good fighters. Ikes "lot" is Bryd.
At 20 Patterson only scaled 168lbs. Which of Floyd's successful defences featured opponents that would manage to survive until the last round against Ike?
Where is the evidence that Ike beat an elite fighter? Tua and Bryd were actually behind a lot of guys in the ratings when Ike fought them. It moved ike up the ranks but back then neither Byrd nor Tua were regarded as being on the crest of world domination. It takes more than one impressive knockout over a natural Middleweight. Somewhere out there is a nobody who knocked out a guy in his first fight that went the full distance with Joe Frazier and Ali. Nobody (rightly) remembers that guy or many like him. At least Floyd proved to have achieved the status of being able to beat any heavyweight sized boxer on the planet in his time.
Byrd never boxed pro at middleweight, for his debut he was 169lbs,you're being ridiculous describing him as a natural middleweight. Ike replaced the 8th rated Tua and Tua dropped to no 9.With his win over no 6 Byrd Ike went to no 4.