Floyd Patterson

In the 1990’s I was in Las Vegas during the weekend of a major heavyweight title bout between two contenders whose names I do not remember.  Walking through the lobby of the MGM Grand, I found myself in a wide hallway standing near a sign advertising a chance to meet two other ex-heavyweight title holders in one of the adjacent rooms.  Entering the room I suddenly found myself face to face with none other than Ken Norton.  Standing there in his prime, Ken was an awesome physical presence and I could not imagine being toe to toe with him in a roped off arena.

Ken Norton

There were several people in a line waiting to chat with Mr. Norton and for a moment, I considered joining that line but then I notice another person sitting at a table a few feet away.  There was no line at the other table so I walked up and introduced myself to the man who first exposed me to professional boxing, Floyd Patterson.  I was only eleven years old when Floyd beat Archie Moore to win the title being vacated by the retiring Rocky Marciano.  Both fighters had stepped up from the light heavyweight division to claim the heavyweight title but Archie was 42 years old at the time, and Floyd was just 21.  In a unique matchup, Archie was the oldest ever to vie for the heavyweight title, and Floyd was the youngest ever to win it.

Floyd Patterson

I chatted with Floyd uninterrupted for almost half an hour and was surprised at how small he appeared in contrast to Ken Norton who stood just a few feet away.  It was difficult to imagine that they had both been in the same weight class.  Floyd had been the New York Golden Gloves champion in 1951 and 1952, and had won Olympic Gold in the middleweight division at Helsinki in 1952.  Floyd won the heavyweight division in November of 1956 and over the ensuing  30 months, he defended it four times, finally losing the belt to Ingemar Johansson in June of 1959.

Ingemar Johansson

In June of 1960, Floyd regained the title in a rematch and became the first man ever to regain the title after losing it.  After defending his title twice in 1961, he ended his career with two losses, both in the first round, to Sonny Liston.  Sonny held the title for just 17 months, after which began the 14 year reign of Muhammad Ali.  I walked away from that meeting with Floyd Patterson with an autographed T-Shirt and fond memories of a decent man.  He was a gladiator of modern times.  Professional boxing is a unique sport.  I’ve heard it said that you play football, you play baseball and you play basketball, but you don’t play boxing.