Word: pattersons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...training, grim with ascetic zeal, began last September. One month ago, Patterson got out a movie projector, threaded the film himself, and took his first and last look at the pictures of his humiliation in the first Johansson fight. From then on, often working out late at night to protect his secret, Patterson remade much of his boxing style under the canny eye of Dan Florio, an oldtime bantamweight and one of the best trainers in boxing...
Stable Stance. Florio began with Patterson's stance. In his much-and justly-criticized peekaboo defense, with his feet squared and his gloves held high about his head as though clutching a toothache, Patterson had no foundation for absorbing a punch, much less for launching one. Florio got Patterson to revert to the classic, stable stance, with the left foot in front, the right foot in back. To increase Patterson's ability to take a punch Florio strengthened his neck with special exercises that expanded his collar size from 16½ to 17. A diet of steak, lamb...
...Patterson's strategy was built around two facts spotted in the first fight: offensively, Johansson needed to get set to throw his paralyzing right hand; defensively, he moved back quickly from an attack. To keep Johansson from getting set, Patterson planned to press him constantly, throwing a stinging left jab from his new stance. Warned Florio: "Leave Johansson alone in the center of the ring, and he'll knock your head off." In close, Patterson hoped to lower Johansson's guard with flurries of body punches, then use left hooks to catch up with the retreating champion...
...Changing Look. At the Polo Grounds, the months of training and planning paid off spectacularly. As seen through Patterson's eyes, the look on Johansson's face told the story. At the bell, Johansson's expression was contemptuously confident. Then, as an entirely new Patterson hammered home his left jab, moved aggressively inside with rapid-fire bursts of punches, Johansson took on the quiet half-smile of a man presented with the task of solving an unexpected puzzle...
...while, Johansson was carrying his right as though, in Patterson's phrase, it was "a diamond." In the second round, catching Patterson's head with the feared right, Johansson peered anxiously to see the effect. Feigning injury, Patterson went into retreat with the hope of luring Johansson into reckless attack. Cautious, Johansson did not follow...