Floyd Patterson - the horizontal champion

Sharm de ALWIS

BOXING: Floyd Patterson who died on the 11th of May at the age of 71 years entered the annals of Boxing as the youngest to have won the heavyweight title and the first to regain the title.

He was also the first to have won the Olympic gold medal with a knock-out in the middle-weight division. He was only seventeen at Helsinki in 1952.

Patterson lived through an introspective and introverted childhood, 'cutting' school to hide in dismal sheds and dark places. He was yet another who was saved by Boxing which gave him a new direction in life.

To protect a glass jaw he adopted a peek-a-boo style but was always a candidate for a knock-out. The crafty Cus D'Amato nursed him to the top rungs, deftly avoiding pitfalls like Cleveland Williams and Sonny Liston.

After 13 wins former light-heavy weight champ Joey Maxim beat him on a decision in 1954 but when Rocky Marciano retired undefeated in '56 the 21 year old Patterson won in five rounds against the 'ageless wonder,' Archie Moore after a preliminary elimination on Tommy 'Hurricane' Jackson on a split decision.

The boy had arrived as a man and he defended his title successfully four times against the jetsam and flotsam of the day including Peter Rademacher, the Olympic heavy-weight champ who was yet an amateur and Roy Harris.

He then took on in New York in June 1959 Sweden's Ingemar Johansson. Even without pretensions to being a boxer of class Johansson equalled Jack Dempsey's record of 7 knock-downs of Luis Firpo in 1923.

Patterson went into serious training for the return bout in 1960 and won back his title in a 5th round knock-out and he revealed a sublime chivalry when he stooped to pick up the fallen adversary and take him to his corner.

Patterson had not been a man looking for revenge but for personal redemption from the humiliation he suffered in an ignominious defeat not far away from Waca, his birth place. The deciding third confrontation was also won by Patterson on a sixth round knock-out.

He defended his title once against Tom McNeeley, a nonentity from Canada before he had grand designs to take on Sonny Liston who pulverized him in 126 minutes of the first round in 1962. He vowed to do better in the return episode. He did - by staying on his feet four seconds longer.

But he was, then at 37, clearly over the hill. And yet he wouldn't give up. He had a 4-fight winning streak and had the spunk to take on a flabby Mohammad Ali who had metamorphosised from the trim Cassius Clay of the dancing feet.

He went the distance of 12 rounds to lose on a decision in 1965. He then lost a dreadful decision to moderate Jim Ellis during Ali's political exile and went on journeying till 1972 when Ali dispensed a 7th round knock-out.

Floyd Patterson stood 6 ft tall and weighed 190 pounds at his peak. His seven year reign as champ from 1956 to '62 registered the low water mark of Boxing. One redeeming feature was that he had quick hands but there was no TNT in the gloves.

He lacked the adroit technique of a Jack Johnson, the pulverizing power of Jim Jeffries or Rocky Marciano, the marauding speed of Jack Dempsey and the quick-silver footwork of Cassius Clay before he slowed down as Mohammad Ali.

Floyd Patterson got knocked down more times than any other heavy-weight champ. He couldn't make it to the list of 100 great fighters but as a nice-guy-athlete he would have topped the list.