Patterson obviously used the peak-a-boo style Cus Dmato invented, but I noticed that his is quite differnt from Mike tysons in that he doesn't "weave" left and right, he only goes into that crouch. Anyone else notice that? I'm gonna guess that Cus evolved the style over the years and perfected it by the time Tyson came around.
Probably so. Tyson being so damn gifted helped, too. Ali says Patterson was the best technical boxer he's ever fought.
I believe him. Patterson was a ring genius. He had a strong defense and both good inside and outside offensive skills. Floyd was probably the transitional proto type bridging the gap between the old school fighters and the more contemporary. Of course, he was a bit small to represent the larger fighters of future generations, but he definately had the similarities in skill and athleticism.
Patterson was a fine fighter with a deep resume,he fought better guys after he had lost his titleand continued with successinto his late 30s,but he wasnt that great defensively ,he was dropped by just about everybody,when Champion ,and many of them werent big punchers,imo his defence is overated,he didnt have the side to side movement of Tyson ,he relied on his gloves to cath a lot of shots ,but they also blocked his view ,and to land a pumch he had to come up out of that peek a boo ,thats when he usually got nailed.
Thats a very good question. I haven't constructed a top list in quite some time, and I'm not exactly sure were I'd put Patterson. I would certainly like to think that Floyd is worthy of being in the top 15 or perhaps even top 12. He was the youngest heavyweight champion of all time until Tyson surpased his record, and was the first to become a two time champion. He also had a good 20 year run between 1952 and 1972 ( a rather competitive time frame ). Floyd is definately an all time great in my opinion.
a while back i saw some fight film of patterson from early in his career fighting at middleweight against another guy who's name i forget but was also considered a prospect.i was fascinated by the fact that patterson didn't utilise the peek a boo style in any shape or form instead he virtually never had his head off the other guys chest.he never took a backward step and just kept throwing lightning fast combo's it was really scintillating stuff,he stopped the guy i think in the 6th.if he could have stayed down there what a middleweight he would have been.i'm just wondering if d'mato developed the style when he started to fight the bigger guys.
i always think a bout how good patterson could of been if he was light heavy or middleweight. he was so fast and powerful, considering he knocked johanson unconscious for five minutes imagine what he could do to your average middleweight, and im sure his chin wouldnt have been as much of a factor at a lower weightclass and i bet he could of utilised and cultured a fast jab also, he would have been tall for a middleweight
Patterson's resume is criminally underrated. He lost badly to Ali, Ingo, and Liston, and is fairly criticized for his protected title run. However, its easy to forget how successful he was. He was a top 10 heavyweight from 56-69 if I'm not mistaken. He has 9 top 5 wins over: Jimmy Slade Tommy Jacksonx2 Archie Moore Roy Harris Ingemar Johanssonx2 George Chuvalo Oscar Bonavena Also some impressive wins over contenders Machen, London, and Cooper. His loses to Quarry and Ellis were also close and fairly controversial decisions. He belongs on the same tier as someone like Holyfield.
The regs here know I'm a Floyd nut-hugger being my fav athlete of all time. He showed some excellent side-to-side movement in his dismantling of Archie. The peek-a-boo didn't emerge until his 10th-15th fight so the poster is right; he just came boring in on fighters early in his career. Many mention how he should have stayed at LH...he couldn't, he grew to a prime, give or take, 189 the ultimate Cruiser... Lots of Floyd's knockdowns were of the flash or off-balance variety. Who ever clocked him OUT? Liston? Floyd was still getting up. Johannson? I've often wondered what the outcome of their first fight would have been if Ingo had nailed him with about 30 seconds left in round three. What the heck, in Lennox Lewis's two losses I saw him on ***** street much more than Floyd ever was. He simply beat himself in some of his losses. If he'd had more of a killer instinct (of course we probably wouldn't have loved him as much) he would have went 3-0 in the Quarry-Quarry-Ellis trifecta. I'll stop, one of my all-time heroes since my boxing loving dad introduced me to him as a youngster in the late-50's; he woke me up in 62 as a nine year old after going to the closed-circuit fight with Sonny and I cried myself to sleep after he told me the result... A big IF here but: Lifetime record 55-8-1...give him the Quarry Ellis fights and he's 58-6...give him the Maxim scrap which most writers at ringside said he won and he's 59-5...give him (I'm stretching my Johannson scenerio) and he's 60-4 with double losses to Sonny and Ali. He could have fought Sonny more intelligently (granted a loss regardless) and against Ali he had the back troubles in the first fight (again he wasn't going to win) and if that Devil Green (two years earlier) hadn't damaged his eye, Patterson was set to take Muhammad deep into their rematch tho a loss I'll agree... MY MAN FLOYD!!!!!!!
