Q: What are your views on Floyd Patterson as a fighter?Ī: Floyd Patterson was a very good fighter with all of that speed and whatnot, but cannot be considered an all time great because of his inability to take a punch and the fact that the caliber of guys that he fought for the most part, which was not a fault of his, but his management at the time. The fights with Tunney, I think, is what really set it off even though he lost that fight on the long count the one time but all of that still added to his likeness or whatever, and the emotions of the fans when they fell in love with him with more sympathy in the fights he lost more so than when he won.
So it was just being in the right place at the same time when a boxing heavyweight champion was something very special. Sometimes I was reading in history that the heavyweight champion of the world had the same honor and dignity if he was brought into a room as the President and that’s how times have changed now, but there wasn’t really that many other superstars in any other sports except Babe Ruth probably. They said, ‘Whoa, look at this little animal’ and he came out and beat him, and then the fight with (Luis Angel) Firpo where he goes out of the ring, so he had those fights and the fights with Tunney but at the time, a boxing champion was just like almost, the popularity was like almost the President of the United States. Then he knocked out Jess Willard it was probably about, at that time, one of the most vicious fights in boxing history when he I guess knocked him down six or seven times and he caught the attention of the whole world because he was such a small guy. He’s another guy whose legend grew more after he quit boxing, but I think the fights with Tunney is what really made him. I think the fights that he had with Gene Tunney, which were fights that he lost, made him become more loveable and attractive to America, which is weird, and then the fact that he lived in New York, moved and became right there he was right in the media capital of the world and he had this restaurant and everything. I mean, you have the time where he was criticized so much because of not going into the service and serving his time. It was not so much, really you dissect him and look at the great accomplishments or the super fights-it’s not there. Is Dempsey’s legacy tarnished because of his refusal to fight certain fighters?Ī: Well, I know when you mention all time greats you don’t see Dempsey’s name mentioned up there but he is to some degree like an American folklore hero. I don’t know, Sonny might have won if they would have fought at that time.ĭuring the 1920s, much in the same way Babe Ruth helped redefine the sport of baseball, Jack Dempsey helped redefine boxing to some extent. Sonny at that stage was just such a really powerful wrecking machine and I remember the fights he had with Cleveland Williams-oh my God. He was living the life of a comfortable man and then here comes exactly what the computer prints out-the thing in the world for him.Ī fast, young fighter, good movement, a solid amateur background, and who had been fighting on a regular basis, so therefore when the match-up came it was just perfect timing for one, terrible timing for another guy who had slipped past his prime-but if they had fought, in like say ’58 or ’59, a prime Sonny Liston and a prime I would still say Cassius Clay or whatever-I don’t know. ’57, ’58, and ’59 he was one of the most vicious machines probably ever in boxing, but after he won the title, from my reports and from what I gather, he started drinking a lot and he was golfing and he just lost that total edge. He lost the real focus that he had earlier. He was mean, punched with both hands, and I think that the time that he finally got to the title, I think his best years had gone and right after he won the title he began to live the life of a middle aged wealthy man. I mean he had unbelievable brutal punching power. A: Sonny Liston, I watched Sonny Liston when I was a teenager do something that I’ve never seen any heavyweight do-walk through the whole division almost from being the number ten guy all the way up to the champion because he was that devastating like around ’57, and ’58, and ’59.
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