Floyd Patterson: The Fighting Life of Boxing's Invisible Champion - Softcover

W.K. Stratton

4.04

116 ratings by Goodreads

9781780576206: Floyd Patterson: The Fighting Life of Boxing's Invisible Champion

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178057620X ISBN 13: 9781780576206

Publisher: Mainstream Publishing, 2014

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"A well-researched and overdue tribute. Like one of Patterson's reliable left hooks, Stratton sharply recounts the life of an important, but often forgotten, two-time world heavyweight champion." — Gary Andrew Poole, author of PacMan: Behind the Scenes with Manny Pacquiao

In 1956, Floyd Patterson became, at age twenty-one, the youngest boxer to claim the title of world heavyweight champion. Later, he was the first ever to lose and regain that honor.

Here, the acclaimed author W. K. Stratton chronicles the life of "the Gentle Gladiator" — an athlete overshadowed by Ali's theatrics and Liston's fearsome reputation, and a civil rights activist overlooked in the Who's Who of race politics. From the Gramercy Gym and wildcard manager Cus D’Amato to the final rematch against Ali in 1972, Patterson's career spanned boxing's golden age. He won an Olympic gold medal, had bouts with Moore and Johansson, and was interviewed by James Baldwin, Gay Talese, and Budd Schulberg. A complex, misunderstood figure — he once kissed an opponent at the end of a match — he was known for his peekaboo stance and soft-spoken nature.

Floyd Patterson was boxing’s invisible champion, but in this deeply researched and beautifully written biography he comes vividly to life and is finally given his due — as one of the most artful boxers of his time and as one of our great sportsmen, a man who shaped the world in and out of the ring.

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From the Back Cover:

"Floyd Patterson revives the life of a boxer who was larger outside the ring than within it, a boxer who had a heart and humanity (and courage) beyond what his fight record revealed. He overcame obstacles and persevered in a manner that his more ferocious opponents did not." — Gay Talese, author of The Silent Season of a Hero

"A knockout biography of the best boxer in 1950s and early-1960s America. From winning an Olympic gold medal to developing the peekaboo stance that influenced Muhammad Ali, Patterson was a monumental influence on the boxing profession during its Cold War–era heyday. Highly recommended!" — Douglas Brinkley, author of Cronkite

"A refreshingly honest and evenhanded deconstruction of the owner of the uneasiest head to wear a crown this side of Henry IV." — George Kimball, author of Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing

"Patterson was one of the more beguiling and hypnotic figures to stride across the stage of twentieth-century boxing. Stratton tells the story of this proud and mannered man with insight and artful compassion." — Wil Haygood, author of Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson

"Stratton provides some fascinating insights into surely our most inscrutable heavyweight champion. Floyd Patterson is comprehensive and sensitive as it seeks to help us understand a man who seemed so temperamentally in contradiction with his profession." — Frank Deford, author of Everybody’s All-American

About the Author:

W.K. (Kip) Stratton is the author of four books, including Backyard Brawl, Chasing the Rodeo, and Boxing Shadows. He has written for GQ, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Texas Observer, the Dallas Morning News, and others. He lives near Austin, Texas.

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