Floyd Patterson

Hall of Fame

⭐ International Boxing Hall of Fame

Floyd Patterson was born on January 4, 1935, in Waco, North Carolina, but moved as a very young child to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where he grew up in poverty. A profoundly shy and troubled youth who was often truant from school, he was sent at age ten to the Wiltwyck School for Boys in Esopus, New York, where the structure and compassion of the institution began to transform him. He was introduced to boxing at the Gramercy Gym in Manhattan and came under the guidance of trainer Constantine "Cus" D'Amato, who saw in the quiet boy from Brooklyn an extraordinary talent and an even more extraordinary character. Patterson won the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games at age 17. He turned professional that same year and on November 30, 1956, defeated Archie Moore to claim the vacant heavyweight title at age 21 — the youngest heavyweight champion in history at that time. He lost the title to Ingemar Johansson of Sweden in 1959 in a shocking upset, then became the first man in boxing history to regain the heavyweight championship by knocking out Johansson in 1960. He won and lost the title again to Sonny Liston and had a celebrated rivalry with Muhammad Ali. Known as much for his gentle nature off the canvas as his explosive combinations in the ring, Patterson was one of the sport's most beloved figures. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2000. Grew up in Brooklyn, New York.