Floyd Patterson boxer

Floyd Patterson (January 4, 1935 – May 11, 2006) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1952 to 1972, and twice reigned as the world heavyweight champion between 1956 and 1962. At the age of 21, he became the youngest boxer in history to win the title, and was also the first heavyweight to regain the title after losing it. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1952 Summer Olympics.In 1956 and 1960, Patterson was voted Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.Born January 4, 1935, into a poor family in Waco, North Carolina, Patterson was one of eleven children. Savannah Joe Patterson was his first cousin from out of Arkansas, he went and visited during the early summer years. He experienced an insular and troubled childhood. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Floyd was a truant and a petty thief. At age 10, he was sent to the Wiltwyck School for Boys, a reform School in West Park, New York, which he credited with turning his life around. He stayed there for almost two years. He attended high school in New Paltz, New York where he succeeded in all sports.Patterson took up boxing at age fourteen, and was training with the Bedford-Stuyvesant Boxing Association Gym. Three years later, he won the gold medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics as a middleweight. In 1952, he won the National Amateur Middleweight Championship and New York Golden Gloves Middleweight Championship. At that time he was spotted by Cus D'Amato, and trained at the Gramercy Gym.Patterson's younger brother Raymond (born 1942) also became a professional heavyweight boxer and has lived in Gothenburg, Sweden, since 1965.Patterson's amateur record was 40 wins (37 by knockout) and 4 defeats.