Venue: Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, 22nd November, 1965.
Since being defeated twice by
Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson had rebuilt both his career
and his confidence. He had beaten Sante Amonte, Eddie Machen,
Charlie Powell, George Chuvalo and Tod Herring.
Ali did not take Patterson lightly. The prevailing climate
in America was against him. Floyd was seen as the white-establishments
choice for champion. Patterson had said he was going to win
the title back “for America.” This infuriated
Ali, who took the remark to mean that as a Muslim he was somehow
not American.
Ali trained hard. He brought in Cody Jones to spar with him:
Jones was able to imitate Patterson’s style. Patterson
relied on the same strengths as Ali, he was quick, light on
his feet and noted for his hand speed. Yet Ali remained confident
that Patterson could not match him in these areas; they were
a young mans skills.
On the morning of the fight Frank Sinatra summoned Floyd
Patterson to his hotel room to tell him that many people in
America were behind him, hoping he would win the title back.
The fight marked one of the few occasions where Ali appeared
cruel in the ring. He was riled and ready to take it out on
his opponent. Patterson was not helped by back spasms that
began to afflict him early in the bout, but his main problem
was Ali, who was a boxer, was reaching a rare peak. He fired
punches of all styles from all angles. He danced around Patterson,
hitting him at will. As he did so, he called Patterson an
“uncle tom” and shouted “ no contest get
me a contender!”
Watch the video of Muhammad Ali vs Floyd Patterson :
Ali was annoying the referee with his chat and was frustrating
Angelo Dundee in his corner, who was shouting at him to knock
Patterson, out and finish the fight. Ali would not, even when
Patterson took a count of five in the fifth round.
The referee almost stepped in during the 11th round, but
Patterson refused to quit. Ali mounted a strong assault in
the 12th and then the referee did intervene. Patterson admitted
later that he wanted Ali to knock him out, to bring an end
to the pain. “I wanted to go out with a great punch,”
he said.
Afterwards, the crowd booed Ali. They felt he'd treated Patterson
with cruelty, disrespecting a respected fighter. Writing for
a newspaper the following day Joe Louis said: “he could
have knocked Patterson out whenever he really went to work.
Let’s face it, clay is selfish and cruel.”
