Was Cus D Amato too over protective of his fighters? Floyd Patterson.

When wasn't he?

 

I disagree. Levels. Patterson was by far the superior fighter.

 

What Joey Olivo got paid in the 1970s and 80s fighting at the Forum for another promoter in California has no bearing at all on what the top pound-for-pound champ Ricardo Lopez was making fighting in featured title bouts on huge Don King cards in the mid to late 1990s.

Ricardo Lopez didn't make less than Butterbean. Ricardo Lopez didn't make less than Joey Olivo. They never fought on the same cards. They didn't have the same promoter.

And I have no idea what any of this has to do with Floyd Patterson.

 

Eddie Machen, Zora Folley and Willie Pastrano were the top contenders in the National Boxing Association ratings in the fall of 1958.

Over a 30-day period, there were three upsets. Eddie got knocked out by Ingo, Zora lost to Henry Cooper and Willie lost to Brian London.

Cooper turned right around and fought London, and beat him, too.

Patterson offered Cooper a title fight, but he turned it down because he wanted more money. So they offered the same money to London, and he took it and fought Patterson.

Then Floyd fought Ingo.

If Machen had beaten Ingo, and the other two upsets still ocurred, I think Floyd still fights London first. And then he probably fights Machen.

 

good points.

I often wonder if this was deliberate on Cus’s part. As time has went on it seems rather creepy that Cus wound up with so many young boys.

I don’t think this stands up. Can you show an example the next worse bunch for comparison?

This is the biggest scandal in boxing. You rightly identify the biggest problem in the sport.

Me too. I just don’t think it was worth Floyd waiting for a machen v Foley rematch or taking Liston over the Ingo rubber match.

I think the tax threshold created this problem.

They had better careers than Harris but after Foley and Machen drew with one another in an official title eliminator, a fight that stank so bad nobody wanted to watch a rematch, Roy Harris probably looked a more exciting option. He was the next highest rated heavyweight.

 

Harris being white probably gave better money as well.

 

Had Machen fought Ingo the way he’d fought Liston and Ingo I think he’d have won quite handily.

 

I think hiding behind quality of opposition by using the political posturing of the crooked boxing organizations speaks for itself. Short and precise enough ? The joke is you're defending D'Amato using the same organizations he fought against his whole life.

 

No, this was not an answer to anything I asked. Let's go again: Why was it "absurd" to say that Floyd defended against his nr 1 challenger three times?

Who should have been nr 1 instead of Jaclson in early 1957? Instead of Ingo in early 1958?

I presume you don't think Liston's nr 1 rating was due to corruption. But the ones above?

 

Right after the boring draw of Machen vs Foley, Harris would have looked better all round. Roy cut and shoot Harris.