Olympic Gold Medal
Winner a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics fighting as a middleweight
Historical biography archive · Updated 2026-11-03
Floyd Patterson Biography and Timeline
Follow Floyd Patterson through 7 dated historical records for United States of America.
Floyd Patterson, historical timeline
A chronological timeline drawn from matching World History Database records.
7Distinct records
1 of 1Page
1952–1972Years on this page
1952
1956
World Champion
Floyd Patterson knocks out 42-year-old light heavyweight champion Archie Moore in the fifth round to win the vacant crown, 21 years and 10 months old, the youngest man to ever capture the heavyweight title
1959
World Champion
Patterson made four successful title defenses but his reign comes to an end when Swedens Johansson knocked him out in the third round
1962
World Champion
Sonny Liston becomes world heavyweight champion by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round
1963
Victory-Liston
Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round for a 2nd time in 1 year
1965
Victory-Ali
Patterson challenges for the crown again but is stopped in 12 rounds by Muhammad Ali
1972
Retirement
Patterson finally retires after a 1972 loss to Ali, 64 bouts, 55 wins, 8 defeats & 40 knockouts
Records, sources and methodology
These dates and descriptions come from the historical_events database. Exact duplicate records have been collapsed. Names are grouped by the country, Name 2 and Name 1 fields; records with missing Name 2 cannot be reliably assigned to an individual biography. Check the underlying sources before formal citation.