61 Facts About Floyd Patterson

1. In 1984, Floyd Patterson was seen as a gym janitor in Terrible Joe Moran, a television movie notable only for the last screen performance of James Cagney.

2. Floyd Patterson was heavyweight champion of the world.

3. Floyd Patterson went down but struggled up, only to be knocked down again and again.

4. Floyd Patterson made heavy work in disposing of Roy Harris in August 1958 and the former British champion Brian London in May 1959.

5. Floyd Patterson turned professional that year, winning 13 fights in succession before losing a decision to the former light-heavyweight champion Joey Maxim in 1954.

6. Floyd Patterson was born in 1935 in North Carolina, but grew up in the grim tenements of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, where his family had relocated in the year after Floyd's birth.

7. Floyd Patterson is a close second, but Ali definitely edges him in terms of hand speed.

8. In 1968 Floyd Patterson lost to Jimmy Ellis, World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, in a match for that version of the disputed world title.

9. At the time, Floyd Patterson was the youngest person to hold the championship.

10. Floyd Patterson won New York Golden Gloves titles in 1951 and 1952 and earned the gold medal as a middleweight at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Fin.

11. Floyd Patterson was an American professional boxer who held the undisputed world heavyweight championship.

12. Floyd Patterson faced Liston for a rematch in Las Vegas in July 1963 to become the first boxer to win the Heavyweight title three times.

13. Floyd Patterson knocked out Johansson in the fifth round of their rematch in June 1960, to become the first man ever to regain the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship.

14. Floyd Patterson is remembered as the first man to win back boxing heavyweight championship.

15. Floyd Patterson tried to regain the title two more times from Muhammad Ali in 1965 and 1972.

16. On November 30, 1956, Floyd Patterson had two very good things happen in his life.

17. Floyd Patterson won the gold medal for boxing in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland.

18. Floyd Patterson was an American heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist.

19. Floyd Patterson retired as a professional boxer in 1972 with a total.

20. In 1952, Floyd Patterson won the middleweight gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Finland.

21. Floyd Patterson continued boxing until 1972; the finale came on 20 September with a second loss to Muhammad Ali in a bout for the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship.

22. Floyd Patterson battled Johansson a third time, a six-round melee on 13 March 1961 that Patterson won by knockout.

23. Floyd Patterson made his professional debut as a light heavyweight on 12 September 1952, scoring a fourth-round technical knockout over Eddie Godbold.

24. Floyd Patterson was a member of the New York State Boxing Commission from 1977 to 1985, and used the position to push successfully for the adoption of a thumbless boxing glove for amateurs.

25. In 1973 Floyd Patterson opened the Huguenot Boxing Club, a youth center intended to give youngsters an alternative to drugs; by 1988 the center had helped over 1,200 teenagers.

26. Floyd Patterson successfully defended his championship four times in the two and a half years he held the title, starting with Tommy Jackson on 29 July 1957.

27. Floyd Patterson became prominent during the heyday of New York boxing and was immensely popular with the crowd at Madison Square Garden.

28. Floyd Patterson made his professional debut on 12 September 1952 as a light heavyweight, defeating Eddie Godbold by knockout in the fourth round.

29. Floyd Patterson fought forty-four bouts as an amateur, winning forty, thirty-seven by knockout.

30. Floyd Patterson was the third of eleven children born to Thomas Patterson, a laborer, and Annabelle Johnson.

31. Floyd Patterson has served as head of the New York State Athletic Commission and in 1985 was appointed director of Off-Track Betting.

32. Floyd Patterson still wanted to move forward fast, but D'Amato was always there to slow him down.

33. Floyd Patterson made the Olympic team and left school to fight as a representative of the United States.

34. On September 12, 1952 Floyd Patterson had his first professional bout at the age of 17.

35. Floyd Patterson hoped to use casino gambling as a way to bring the marquee fights from Las Vegas back to New York.

36. Floyd Patterson guided his new son to two Golden Gloves titles as an amateur and to 97 victories.

37. In 1976 Floyd Patterson took particular interest in an 11-year-old kid named Tracy Harris, who reminded him of himself as a boy.

38. Floyd Patterson opened a gym in New Paltz, New York to bring along young fighters the way D'Amato brought him to boxing prominence.

39. Floyd Patterson called for a third fight with Ali, but it never happened.

40. Floyd Patterson stayed even with Ali for the first four rounds, but Ali cut Patterson badly over his right eye and the ring doctor stopped the fight in the eighth round.

41. Floyd Patterson thought he matched up well with the brash young Ali, but he had no luck in the fight.

42. Floyd Patterson won the fight in the sixth round knocking Johansson out with a right.

43. Floyd Patterson was having his troubles with D'Amato after an investigation of the way the first Johansson fight was promoted.

44. Floyd Patterson was named "Ring Rookie of the Year" in 1953 by the New York Boxing Writers.

45. On September 12, 1952, Floyd Patterson had his first professional bout at the age of 17.

46. Floyd Patterson wanted to turn pro that year as a sixteen-year-old, but D'Amato would not let him.

47. At the age of twelve Floyd Patterson returned home a new person.

48. Floyd Patterson turned professional after the Olympics, winning his first paid bout by knockout in September 1952.

49. Floyd Patterson died at home in New Paltz, on May 11, 2006 at age 71.

50. Floyd Patterson lived in New Paltz, New York for many years.

51. At age 37, Floyd Patterson was stopped in the seventh round in a rematch with Muhammad Ali for the NABF heavyweight title on September 20, 1972.

52. Floyd Patterson continued on, defeating Oscar Bonavena in a close fight over ten rounds in early 1972.

53. Floyd Patterson lasted four seconds longer than in the first bout.

54. Floyd Patterson lost his title to Liston on September 25, 1962 in Chicago, by a first-round knockout in front of 18,894 fans.

55. Floyd Patterson won the fight in the 6th round by knockout.

56. Floyd Patterson knocked out Johansson in the fifth round of their rematch on June 20, 1960, to become the first man in history to regain the Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship.

57. Floyd Patterson was the first Olympic gold medalist to win a professional heavyweight title.

58. Floyd Patterson carried his hands higher than most boxers, in front of his face.

59. Floyd Patterson took up boxing at age fourteen, and was trained by Cus D'Amato at his Gramercy Gym.

60. Floyd Patterson was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

61. In 1956 and 1960, Floyd Patterson was voted Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America.