1960s Timeline

Dec. 5, 1961 - In a savage brawl that produced nine knockdowns, Floyd Patterson retained his world heavyweight championship by knocking out Tom McNeeley last night in the fourth round. The number of knockdowns were heavily in Patterson’s favor. He had his 23-year-old rival on the canvas 8 times. He himself was down only once — for a fleeting instant in the fourth. Although Patterson, a resident of Scarsdale, N.Y., completely dominated his Arlington (Mass.) rival, McNeeley sur

Dec. 5, 1961 - In Philadelphia last night, heavyweight Sonny Liston knocked out Albert Westphal in the first round. A right-handed blow caught the 5-foot-7-inch German on the left temple. Down like a sandbag he fell, flat on his face. He lay there — and lay there and lay there. They could have counted 50 over him. When Westphal finally was revived, he was in no shape even to be helped to his corner. They brought the stool to the middle of the ring and he sat there, looking th

Nov. 30, 1961 - Dinner and a showing of the closed-circuit telecast of the Floyd Patterson-Tom McNeeley fight in Toronto and the Sonny Liston-Albert Westphal fight in Philadelphia will be given at New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant Monday night. The charge is $65. The dinner/fight program will be a benefit for the Wiltwyck School for Boys. Patterson (pictured left with Tom McNeeley) is a former Wiltwyck boy. The school is an interracial treatment center for troubled boys, 8 t

Nov. 29, 1961 - Cassius Clay stopped Willi Besmanoff in the seventh round tonight for his 10th consecutive victory since turning professional. After using Besmanoff as a punching bag through the first six rounds, Clay dropped the German-born heavyweight for an eight-count midway in the seventh. Besmanoff arose and took a right to the jaw that dropped him on his back. Referee Don Asbury stopped the fight. The 19-year-old Clay had Besmanoff, 29, bleeding from the mouth in the f

Nov. 21, 1961 - Floyd Patterson (left) and Sonny Liston (right) will meet in a title match next year if each wins his next bout, boxing promoter Tom Bolan said today. Patterson will defend his heavyweight crown against Tom McNeeley Dec. 4 at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Garden 45 minutes after Liston fights Germany’s Albert Westphal in Convention Hall, Philadelphia. Regarding the Westphal bout, Liston said today, “The fight won’t take over three rounds.” He seemed more concerned with

Oct. 23, 1961 - Archie Moore floored Pete Rademacher eight times and scored a sixth-round technical knockout tonight in their scheduled ten-round non-title fight at the Baltimore Coliseum. Referee Benny Goldstein stopped the bout at 2:10 of the sixth after the staggering Rademacher had been sent down for the last time with a right uppercut. Moore, in his 25th year of boxing, weighed 198 pounds for his first bout since he defended his limited version of the world light-heavywe

Oct. 17, 1961 - In London tonight, Eddie Machen of Portland, Ore., scored a technical knockout over Brian London when the former British heavyweight champion retired at the end of five rounds. The 29-year-old American won every round. Machen landed seven punches without reply in the third. He continued to counterpunch and use vicious left hooks in the fourth. Two left hooks from Machen raised bruises around London’s eyes, and the Briton returned to his corner with blood strea

Oct. 16, 1961 - Floyd Patterson (left) and Tom McNeeley (right) of Arlington, Mass., signed contracts today for a heavyweight title fight. They will meet in a 15-round bout Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens on Dec. 4. The fight will be televised to theatres in Canada and the U.S., but a 100-mile area around Toronto will be blacked out of the closed-circuit telecast. Patterson said he expected to fight at about 188 or 190 pounds. When he knocked out Ingemar Johannson in Miami Beach

Oct. 8, 1961 - Cassius Clay, an unbeaten heavyweight, stopped Alex Miteff of Argentina in the sixth round of a schedule ten-rounder last night. The victory was the ninth for Clay since he left the amateur ranks. The fast-moving Clay, after using Miteff as a punching bag through most of five rounds, sent him to the floor with a short, stiff right cross to the jaw in the sixth round. Miteff was up at the count of six, but was dazed and unable to continue. At one point in the fi

Oct. 1, 1961 - Benny (Kid) Paret of Cuba regained the world welterweight championship in Madison Square Garden last night by outpointing Emile Griffith. At the end of 15 hard-fought rounds, Paret gained a split decision from the 22-year-old Virgin Islander who had taken the title from him last April. Paret bled from the mouth from the fifth round on. After the thirteenth, both his eyes were swollen with a cut under his left eye bleeding. Griffith stayed unmarked but could not