Very good or great? Volume 8: Floyd Patterson

Great. The man shouldn't have even been a heavyweight really. He was a blown up light heavyweight with great skill. He had no business in the ring with a Sonny Liston.

 

This isn't even debatable to me. Patterson's longevity is great, first of all. Second of all, his ability is ****ing insane. Power in both hands, great movement, hand speed like Roy Jones Jr. Third of all, his resume is great. Quarry, Ellis, Cooper, Bonavena, Johannson, etc. He did get knocked out brutally to Johannson, but at least he avenged that loss. Losing to Liston and Ali is no shame- and he did put up a real good fight against Ali the second time.

 

Very Great.

 

I agree.

 

I wouldn't class Floyd Patterson as a great heavyweight though.
Pound for pound he was great.

 

:deal

 

Who EXACTLY did Patterson beat to be considered great... He has NO all time great victories on his resume... The ATG he did meet... literally showed themselves to be in a different class. So Walcott can beat ATG's and be very good.. Patteson losses to all the ones he fought and he's Great... ODD criteria some have here.

 

ok...the "should have been at light heavy" point i can't really consider....as he competed at heavyweight and that is what we are judging him on...it's about what he did, not what he should have / could have done.

he is one of my all time favourite boxers...heavyweight or otherwise...i'm a huge fan.

is he a great heavyweight...unfortunately not for me....very good? yes...yes he was.

its hard to get away from the liston losses and even the johannson loss...although i think he beat ellis...had a superb long career....but as billb pointed out, when listed among all the other top heavyweight champions who would you actually take him to confidently beat ?

saying that...two time heavyweight champ sounds great on paper...as does youngest heavyweight champ

very good for me....again, one of my all time favourites

 

NAME me these people Patterson beat to be consider GREAT by some of you.. Every ... literally EVERY great fighter he fought outclassed him. Yet he's voted great by some of you.. Jesus H. Christ.

 

So which ATG Hw did patterson beat again?

 

That isn't a requirement to be great. Holmes beat a shell of a great fighter. Holmes' resume is also alot stronger than Pattersons, but I don't think either of them beat great fighters.

 

beating great fighters isn't a requirement now... ummmm.. I most certainly think it's. It's not the ONLY requirement but it's certainly a main one.

 

No it's not. When you have a resume as good as Floyds you don't need a victory over an ATG. If you're really going to use this reasoning, Floyd Mayweather is no great fighter either. I think everyone is going to put Floyd down as one of the all time greats like it or not, and his resume will probably lack an ATG win.

 

Yeah so that doesn't count. JMM wasn't nearly at his best. I'll give KuRuPt this. Most ATGs have defeated a great fighter. It's not a requirement though. Dempsey never beat a great fighter. Ricardo Lopez didn't beat a great fighter.