Floyd Patterson

Floyd Patterson (January 4, 1935 – May 11, 2006) was an American heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist. Patterson won the gold medal for boxing in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland. He was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1956 to 1959 and from 1960 to 1962. Patterson is remembered as the first heavyweight champion to lose the title and get it back within a year.

Career

Patterson's amateur record was 44-4 with 37 knockouts. He began fighting as a middleweight and moved to the light heavyweight division. Patterson's first professional loss was to Joey Maxim in 1954. In January 1956, Patterson married Sandra Hicks. She was his wife until 1969. Their marriage ended because Patterson did not want to quit boxing.

After Rocky Marciano retired, Floyd began aiming at a shot for the vacant heavyweight title. On November 30 1956, Patterson had two very good things happen in his life. His wife gave birth to his first child, and he beat Archie Moore to become the youngest heavyweight champion of the world. That record holds true to this day. He lost the title in 1959 to Ingemar Johanson but he regained it in 1960. In 1962, he lost it again to Sonny Liston. Patterson tried to regain the title two more times from Muhammad Ali in 1965 and 1972. In 1965, he fought for 12 rounds, but on both tries, he failed to win title.

Patterson is also remembered as the first man to win back boxing heavyweight championship. All other champions before him failed.

Other websites

Boxing Record Archived 2006-04-25 at the Wayback Machine

Preceded by Rocky Marciano	Heavyweight boxing champion 1956–1959	Succeeded by Ingemar Johansson
Preceded by Ingemar Johansson	Heavyweight boxing champion 1960–1962	Succeeded by Sonny Liston