Two-time champion Patterson dies at 71

Floyd Patterson was small for a heavyweight, but that never stopped him from taking on the giants of his time. Good enough to become the first two-time heavyweight champion of the world, he wasn't big enough to avoid taking beatings from Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston.

Mr. Patterson died Thursday at his home in New Paltz, N.Y., at the age of 71. He had Alzheimer's disease for about eight years and prostate cancer, nephew Sherman Patterson said.

A shy, quiet man, Mr. Patterson was a popular champion long after he retired, getting ovations at fights. He was cast as the good guy in bouts against Liston and Ali, but was knocked out twice in the first round by Liston and stopped twice by Ali.

Mr. Patterson won fans because he had a big man's punch, but a small man's jaw. He could punch with the best heavyweights, knocking one opponent down 11 times in a fight. But he also was down a total of 21 times during his career, including seven times in an embarrassing loss to Ingemar Johansson in 1959 at Yankee Stadium that cost him the heavyweight title.

"They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most," Mr. Patterson once said.

Mr. Patterson came back to beat Johansson and become the first man to regain the heavyweight title, then beat him again in a third fight despite being knocked down twice in the first round.

Mr. Patterson, who won a gold medal as a middleweight in the 1952 Olympics, weighed only 182 ¼ pounds when he beat Archie Moore for the heavyweight title in 1956. He was still only 188 ½ pounds when he was stopped in the seventh round by Ali in Mr. Patterson's last fight in 1972.

That was big enough against the fighters of the late 1950s, but Liston demolished Mr. Patterson when they met in 1962, stopping him in the first round in Chicago to win the heavyweight title.

Mr. Patterson said years later President Kennedy urged him not to fight Liston, who reputedly was handled by mobsters.

"I'm sorry, Mr. President," Mr. Patterson said he told Kennedy. "The title is not worth anything if the best fighters can't have a shot at it."

Mr. Patterson was so embarrassed at being knocked out in the first round of his first fight with Liston that he donned fake glasses and a beard to avoid being recognized. They met a second time 10 months later in Las Vegas and Mr. Patterson was stopped in the first round again.

Mr. Patterson fought for 10 years after losing his title to Liston, getting three more shots at the title but never winning.

He fought Ali in 1965, lasting until the 12th round despite taking a beating from the champion, who was angry because Mr. Patterson called him by his given name, Cassius Clay.

During the fight, Ali toyed with Mr. Patterson, peppering him with jabs while asking, "What's my name?"

Former Ali business manager Gene Kilroy said the two reconciled in the early 1970s and remained friendly after that.

Mr. Patterson's last fight was also against Ali, who stopped him on cuts and swelling on his face in Round 7 in 1972.

Mr. Patterson emerged from a troubled childhood in Brooklyn to win the Olympic gold medal and became the youngest man at the time — 21 — to win the heavyweight title with a fifth-round knockout of Moore. The title was vacant because of the retirement of Rocky Marciano.

On Aug. 22, 1957, Mr. Patterson came to Seattle to defend his title against the world's top amateur heavyweight, Pete Rademacher from Yakima County. Rademacher won gold in the 1956 Olympics.

The fight, held at Sicks' Stadium before 16,961 fans, is considered the most famous bout in Seattle's history. Mr. Patterson, though knocked down in the second round, won the lopsided fight by knocking out Rademacher in the sixth round.

Mr. Patterson was 55-8-1 with 40 KO's. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.