Roy Harris vs Eddie Machen 1957

:good

 

Because you say so ? The reality is none of us will know because Patterson was the most deliberately protected heavyweight champion in history. Jackson, Rademacher, Harris, London, McNeeley .. can you be serious ? D'Amato made sure that Floyd would keep the title as long as possible by ducking the dangerous guys entirely until he absolutely could not. To make it worse it was not a matter of an older champion , already established with an impressive resume and now taking a few light touches like a Louis, Johnson, Holmes or Ali .. this was a new champ in his physical prime. It was a disservice to both Patterson and the game itself. This is no knock on Floyd who was exceptionally brave and young .. all about Cus.

 

Patterson isnt even close to being the most deliberately protected champion in history. I can think of one small white guy (as Suzie like to say) who spent his entire seven year reign avoiding his #1 and #2 contenders. Patterson defended against 3 #1s a #3 and a guy who was #2 until his stint in the army moved him down.

You want to boil it down to Cus ducking and Floyd being protected because you take it completely out of context. Doesnt matter. When you can come back here and recite to me the ins and outs of Cus' feud with the IBC and admit to me that Machen turned down at least one shot at Patterson (maybe 2), talk about how unpopular Machen and Folley were, etc. then we can have a real discussion. Until then you are bleating like a child who doesnt have a clue what hes talking about and spewing hyperbole that simply doesnt have any basis in fact.