Here comes the story of the Hurricane

I know we've been a little Floyd heavy recently here on No Mas (no not that Floyd, fuck him already), but what are you gonna do? He's had a lot of good anniversaries, and look, here at No Mas we love Floyd Patterson.

On this date 49 years ago, July 27, 1957, Floyd Patterson won a tenth-round TKO over Tommy "Hurricane" Jackson at the Polo Grounds. It was a rematch. The first bout was one that elevated Patterson to mythical status - Floyd broke his hand in the earlygoing and still fought on to prevail in a bloody 12-round split decision. It earned him a shot to fight Archie Moore for the vacant heavweight crown.

After defeating Moore with a fifth-round knockout, Patterson, always a gentleman, granted Jackson a rematch as his first title defense. With his hand intact, Floyd dismantled the Hurricane, knocking him down nine times in the fight and leading on all scorecards 9-0 when the ref stopped it in the tenth. The beating he gave Jackson was so severe that Jackson's license was briefly suspended after the fight to protect him.

Hurricane Jackson was a rangy fighter, 6'4", with a long reach that he used to great advantage against Floyd in the first fight (this fight is worth catching, by the way - it used to be on Classic every now and then - keep an eye out for it - it's a brutal affair). He was one of those very good but not quite great fighters destined to be known by later generations only for having fought someone great. Count him with your Earnie Shavers and Nino Benvenutis and Rex Laynes. Besides losing to Patterson twice, Jackson has two other claims to fame - he twice beat Ezzard Charles, and he was trained by Whitey Bimstein, the corner legend who trained Gene Tunney, Harry Greb and Rocky Graziano to name a few.