Former heavyweight Floyd Patterson died Thursday after a fight with prostate cancer. Patterson, 71, who died at his home in New York, had also suffered from Alzheimer’s for the past 8 years.
Former heavyweight Floyd Patterson died Thursday after a fight with prostate cancer. Patterson, 71, who died at his home in New York, had also suffered from Alzheimer’s for the past 8 years.
Patterson is known for, at the time, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion at age 21. His fifth round knockout of Archie Moore in 1956 cemented his place in boxing history. Along with his heavyweight championship, years before, Patterson had won an Olympic Gold Medal in the Middleweight Division at the ’52 Olympics game in Helsinki, Finland.
However, after winning the title in 1956, his career started to go downhill. In 1959 he was knocked down 7 times by Ingemar Johansson to lose his heavyweight title. He had regained the title in 1960 with a knockout of Johansson. But the decade didn’t go the way Patterson had planned. He lost lop-sided fights to Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali, and a disputed lost to Jimmy Ellis.
After retiring from boxing 1972, he became head of the New York State Athletic Commission. For the next two decades he would help re-build the boxing scene in New York. In 1991, he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Everything was going strong for Patterson, until he resigned in 1998 because of reports that he was unable to recall important boxing events in his career.
Patterson would continue to be a strong figure in New York. He counseled troubled teens as a member of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
He would make one final return to boxing as a supporter of his adopted son Tracy Harris Patterson. Tracy would become WBC Super Bantamweight Champion in 1991.
Touchgloves.com would like to send our love and support to the entire Patterson family through this difficult time.
