Floyd Patterson vrs Pete Rademacher /60th Anniversary

[Caractacus]

August.22.1957
Sick's Stadium,Seattle Washington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_q3pmDhdT0

[Kalan]

That's pretty poor footage... There's sharper footage available on Youtube that's a lot clearer... Rademacher was a 3-round fighter who never even fought in a 4-round fight... He was extremely active and controlled the first 2 rounds easily.. Rademacher looked confident and probably thought he was going to spring an unbelievable upset at that point in the fight.. But Patterson wasn't concerned about those rounds.. He WAS concerned about getting tagged hard and getting knocked down -- but he wanted Radebmacher to throw a lot early and shoot his wad -- which is what happened.

Before the 3rd round was even over Rademacher started to tire.. First of all he didn't have finished professional skills.. Secondly his early pace was fought at an amateur's tempo.. Score, score, score, score, score -- get those points because the fight is only 9 minutes long.. Maybe he thought he could score an early KO -- but you have to save something in case the fight goes 15 rounds.. Against somebody like Patterson what are the odds of an amateur knocking him out when no one else could hurt him? ... I don't think Rademacher had really good professionals on his team or he would have prepared better.

In many ways the Patterson-Rademacher action is very similar to Mayweather-McGregor.. Conor was making his professional boxing debut as well, and had his camp full of MMA people for a Boxing match.. Someday I'd like to see an amateur come along and do it right in a pro Title Fight debut.

[Caractacus]

There was no live television or radio coverage of the event because the promoter Jack Hurley wanted to"boost the Gate"
for "The Greatest Promotion in the history of the Northwest"
it was just filmed at ringside(almost looks like it was filmed in the 1910's).
Rademacher almost looks like Joe Louis going back to his corner after he first knocked down Patterson and the knock out punch
looks like it may have been a rabbit punch possibly.
btw the referee was former light heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMs-SjarNUE

[Kalan]

The knock out punch looks like it may have been a rabbit punch possibly

Loughran was a forbearing referee because he was a fighter himself. They were both fouling a bit, but not badly. You’re not supposed to control your opponent with your hands -- or maneuver his head into place for a punch with your other hand – like Rademacher did prior to his solid knockdown of Patterson.

That pretty much electrified the crowd because Patterson wasn’t doing much doing much of anything to the point of Rademacher's knockdown, but letting Rademacher tire himself out.. Amazingly, Rademacher’s jab was a flaccid dandelion by the end of the fight. You’d expect an Olympic Champion to keep his jab going for at least 6 – but Patterson was bobbing and weaving and making him work and miss quite a bit, biding his time with his shots.

I can’t remember even Machen jabbing Patterson that well when they fought, but Liston sure did. Sonny jabbed straight into Patterson’s chest like a right hand power shot and Floyd ducked into a couple. Patterson’s back was badly injured for his 1st Ali fight and he was tattooed – a real shame because that might have been a good fight. Patterson did much better at 37 in their rematch – but he was cooked by then because speed was his greatest asset.

[Caractacus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7_-bqlv4JU

[Kalan]

The fight shouldn't have been allowed. It was an obvious mismatch. Winning the Olympic Gold Medal was a great source of hubris for Rademacher -- but just because you think you can beat any man in the world, doesn't give you the right or privilege to try for the top professional title in sports right out of the box.

D’Amato was right when he said he was receiving criticism.. Everyone was getting on Cus’s case and Patterson’s too – because there were deserving challengers like Zora Folley (who Rademacher would fight next getting flattened even faster) who hadn’t gotten shots at the title -- confirming Boxing is a business.

[Caractacus]

Did you as I did,think at first that was film was of Pete Rademacher's father talking about his son ?

No doubt it was due to "White Priveldge" that he got a title fight in his very first professional bout.
BTW Do you think he would have done better if he had fought Floyd Patterson only a month after winning the gold in December 1956 ?
if my math is correct he fought 8 months after it,he may have lost his edge since.
also he says in the interview that he looking to come in at 210 pounds for the title fight,
but I remember reading somewhere Rademacher was 202 lbs to Patterson's 187 lbs for the fight.
No doubt he was looking for an early knock-out and didnt think Patterson could take a good solid hard punch
he was planning on landing early on.

[Kalan]

Rademacher definitely would have done better if he were sharper and better trained and got an earlier date... And you're right! Pete looked like a 50-year-old man, so I wouldn't blame you for thinking it was his great grandfather.. Amateurs tend to think what they do to Olympians they can do to anybody.. He planned to come in at 210 and he came in at 202.. Maybe his strength training didn't go well.. He got knocked out 6 times in his first 20 fights. If he built a solid base of skills before he got his brains knocked out, that wouldn't have happened. He thought he was a world beater because he was an Olympian.

That's what hubris is all about. It's emotional and not rational. He figured he'd knock Patterson into the middle of next month. I've heard amateurs with 10 fights say they know they can beat the Heavyweight Champ. Just because you beat 10 nobodies doesn't mean you can beat the best fighter on the planet. If you're the Olympic Champion you're going to get a big head. Thousands of amateurs are gunning for that title every 4 years. Especially when you win it easily.

It takes a really level headed kid to keep all that instant fame in perspective and remain humble and thoughtful. Patterson was a very humble guy. He was an Olympic Champion but you couldn't get him out of the gym. He worked damned hard for 3 years and 32 professional fights to become Heavyweight Champion. He put in the work. He wasn't about to give it up to a raw amateur who tells everybody he can knock Patterson out. If you watch the fight, Patterson tries hard to look bored to death every time him knocks Rademacher down...like "You gonna get up again or what?"

This was a common theme of a lot of Westerns when I was a kid.. "The Fastest Gun in the West" had young kids riding into town who thought they were better and faster -- calling him out. The experienced gun fighter with the huge rep would try to talk sense to the kids.. Try to talk them out of it.. But if he didn't take the whippersnappers out everybody would brand him a coward -- so they would meet on the main street with the whole town watching, and he'd put 3 bullets in the kid before the punk could get his gun out of the holster.. Another Pete Rademacher bites the dust.