Okay—but Don't Bring On Clay

The main thing the fight between Floyd Patterson and George Chuvalo proved was that either of them will be taking his life in his hands if he gets in the ring with Cassius Clay—or Sonny Liston.

Patterson, who has been fighting erratically for 13 years, demonstrated clearly that he still does not know how to protect his belly. Chuvalo, who has fought erratically for only eight years, has not learned how to protect his head—although against Patterson the knowledge was not desperately needed. The former champion hit Chuvalo with a number of spectacular combinations, all to little effect. Maybe this is because Chuvalo"s head is made of Portland cement—or maybe it is because Patterson's punches are made of marshmallow.

The sellout Madison Square Garden crowd (19,100) saw a high-class club fight, but on the premise that the principals are supposed to rank among the best heavyweights in the land it would be hard to rate their encounter better than mediocre.

Chuvalo, a burly, broad-faced Croatian by way of Canada with thick arms and a muscular body, had a simple strategy devised by his wispy trainer, Ted McWhorter.

"We want to hit to the belly," McWhorter said sadly after the fight. "We going to hit to the belly until Floyd, he bring he arms down, then we hit to the head. But Zach Clayton [the referee], he stop George when he is hitting Floyd in the stomach before he can start hitting him in the head. It was not fair, and we would like to fight him again."

Indeed, Chuvalo was much more effective in the close fighting than was Patterson. He slammed Floyd in the belly with the impact of a man tamping dirt with a four-by-four, but Patterson, although he winced now and then, did not seem to mind too much.

"I think I proved after 13 years tonight that I can take a much better punch than you gentlemen have given me credit for," he said to the assembled press in his crowded dressing room. "He hit me well at times—in the belly and on the chin. Several times these punches hurt me, but never seriously. I thought at one time in the fight I was behind, and my corner told me so—I guess somewhere around the eighth or ninth round. They told me—I guess it was just before the 10th round—that if I would start punching and become more aggressive I could win."

Unfortunately for Chuvalo, Patterson's decision to become more aggressive coincided with Chuvalo's decision to begin punching to the head. Since Chuvalo is not a very skillful headhunted, he left himself open for Patterson's combinations in the last two rounds. This error cost him both rounds and probably the fight.

"We lost some big points in the last round," said McWhorter. "But we got to get some big hits in to the head if we want to win and that is what we trying to do. We can't fight the way we want to fight—bim, bim, bim to the belly, then up to the head, because Clayton, he stop after we get in a few hooks to Floyd's stomach. So we can't hit down there and then come up. We got to come up as soon as we can."

Chuvalo, who had been effective with a body attack through the first six rounds, virtually abandoned that tactic late in the fight. Since Patterson is not a body puncher—or an infighter of any kind—this resulted in the two of them clinging morosely to one another for seconds, with no blows struck until Patterson would break away with a quick rat-a-tat-tat on Chuvalo's impervious face.