Floyd Patterson and the Madness of Cus D'amato
Floyd Patterson is one of the most under-rated, or at least overlooked, champions in the history of the heavyweight division. The youngest man to win the heavyweight crown to that point, Patterson started his professional career as a middleweight and moved up to knock out the biggest men in the boxing game. But Patterson's real accomplishments begin with the moment photographed above. After being humiliated in losing his title to Ingemar Johansson, knocked down seven times and dismissed as a blown up middleweight over-achiever. Patterson did the unimaginable and became the first man to reclaim the heavyweight title when he starched Johansson in the rematch and once more in the rubber match. The bit that is often left out is that Patterson should probably have won the title a third time but was robbed of his glory...
A unique fighter who broke away from the traditional and familiar styles of the 1940s and 1950s, Patterson was taught the rudiments of boxing by the enigmatic Cus D'amato. A paranoid, middle aged man whose ramblings veered between prophetic and delusional. Using what D'amato called a 'tight defence', Patterson's style would come to be dubbed the 'peek-a-boo' style of boxing. In the course of reclaiming his title, Patterson and D'amato would go from a perfect pairing to begrudging partners in a business venture. Both Patterson and D'amato would find redemption but decades apart.
Floyd Patterson and the Madness of Cus D'amato is available now.
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Apologies for getting this out with one day left of the month, my computer died and I lost the first cut of this episode. Thank you for your patience and your continued support of the Fights Gone By podcast!
Jack
Comments (8)
Any way to get around the dl block?
Hey! Mediafire has blocked the dl for this episode, google says it violates the terms of service
mediafile link has been blocked :(
Enjoyed this one. Thanks
My first time listening to a Jack Slack Patreon cast. Sooooooo good. I just loved this. As an undersized fighter I might suggest there was a reason why Patterson didn't just "let his hands go". If indeed Cus regularly trained him against bigger, more powerful opponents he may very well have learned not to fully trust longer combinations or that hand speed. It may have made him face his fears, but fear also might have been woven into his style, making him more conservative against stronger, bigger fighters, until he could land the decisive hook, or felt he had enough of an upper hand. If you never get to bully sparring partners, as big heavyweights do, you can tend to fight with less liberty. Just a thought. Really enjoyed the storytelling, at every level.
Interesting I got jacks patreon not long ago dude is an I'm going to try an be a little more old fashioned a top bloke lol. Saenchai is a great guy to study in kickboxing he is generally smaller then his opponents. And yet does so well somehow if you want to see a guy in Jiu jitsu do well vs stringer opponents buy Marcelo garcias instructional combative sports are interesting. Because once your into it you never are not. Speaking of story telling I can't remember the last decent guy mvp fought lol
Liking it jack classic mate just curious you know your larkin study and stuff does shoulder rolling mean the punch hits your shoulder or is that just a general term thanks for all the work.
The shoulder roll is part evasion and part guard. You can shoulder roll and the guy can miss altogther but a lot of good shoulder rollers use the impact of the right hand on their shoulder as a way to know that their in distance to land their own right.