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 beatings from Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston.
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, Patterson was a popular champion long after he retired, getting big 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.
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 was also 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.
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"They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most," Patterson once said.
Patterson would come back to beat Johansson and become the first man to regain the heavyweight title, then would beat him again in a third fight despite being knocked down twice in the first round.
Patterson, who won gold as a middleweight in the 1952 Olympics, weighed only 182 1/4 pounds when he beat Archie Moore for the heavyweight title in 1956. He was still only 188 1/2 pounds when he was stopped in the seventh round by Ali in his last fight in 1972.
A memorial service is scheduled for May 27 in Albany, N.Y.
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