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Floyd Patterson
was born on January 4, 1935. He was an African-American
boxer.
From a poor family in Waco, N.C. he was raised in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Patterson was one of eleven
children and an insular and troubled child. Always
skipping school and getting caught stealing he was sent to
New York City’s Wiltwyck reform school at aged ten, which
he credited with turning his life around. Four years later
he started to box and trained under Cus D'Amato at the
Grammercy Gym. Patterson won a gold medal at the 1952
Olympics while fighting as a middleweight.
As an early pro, he fought as a light heavyweight. The
first loss of his career was a controversial decision to
former 175-pound champ Joey Maxim. When Rocky Marciano
retired in 1956, Patterson seized his opportunity. With
the heavyweight title vacant, Patterson beat Tommy Jackson
in a title elimination bout and then knocked out
42-year-old light heavyweight champion Archie Moore in the
fifth round to win the vacant crown. He was 21 years and
10 months old, the youngest man to ever capture the
heavyweight title. At the time, Moore was the oldest man
to ever challenge for that title.
Patterson weighed only 182 1/4 pounds when he beat Moore
for the heavyweight title in 1956. He was still only 188
1/2 pounds when he was stopped in the seventh round by
Muhammad Ali in his last fight in 1972.
Patterson made four successful title defenses but his
reign came to an end in June of 1959 when Sweden's Ingemar
Johansson knocked him out in the third round. Again
Patterson would find himself in the record books when he
stopped Johansson in a rematch to become the first man in
history to regain the heavyweight title. Patterson's time
as champ ended for good when Sonny Liston knocked him out
in one round in 1962 and then again in a rematch 10 months
later. He challenged for the crown again in 1965 but was
stopped in 12 rounds by Ali. His final chance at the title
came in 1968 when he lost a 15-round decision to Jimmy
Ellis for the vacant WBA crown.
Patterson retired after a 1972 loss to Ali. In 1995, he
was named Boxing Commissioner for the State of New York a
job he held until recently. He also was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall Of Fame. He had a record of 55
win, 8 losses and 1 draw, with 40 wins by knockout.
Although Patterson has often been called one of the least
able men to ever hold a boxing title, he was a gentleman
outside of the sport. He once said that a champion should
conduct himself as one in real life as well as in the
ring.
Floyd Patterson died on May 11, 2006 at his home in New
Paltz, N.Y., at the age of 71. He had Alzheimer's disease
for about eight years and prostate cancer. |
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