A brief chronology of all 13 heavyweight championship boxing matches featuring Floyd Patterson. This content is protected
Floyd Patterson is a classic example of a great fighter, whose natural weight class didn't exist. He came along when heavyweights were starting to get big, and there was no cruiserweigth division. The devil is in the detail here. He was ranked in the top ten by Ring Magazine, in more years than any other heavyweight champion. That shows an incredible run of form!
Floyd Patterson was a classy champion and man. He did not disrespect his opponents, his style dictates the Cus D Amato teaching, bobbing and weaving, peek a boo style, fast hard left hook. His right hand and combos were no joke. That left hook that almost laid to rest Ingemar Johannson, in round 6, on June 20 1960, in regaining his title, was a left hook of beauty. Floyd fought the best of his era, I thought he beat Jimmy Ellis, in their WBA Heavyweight Title fight on Sept 14 1968, in Sweden, he broke Jimmy's nose. Floyd an all time great.
I remember when I did a scoring experiment last year based on Ring's rankings, I was surprised to see how well Patterson fared because of exactly that which you mentioned. (I was likewise surprised that guys like Zora Folley and Eddie Machen fared as well as they did never having been champions).
