Sport: The Next Champ

In the year-end rankings of The Ring, unofficial bible of boxing, Floyd Patterson is not even a heavyweight. Last week SPORTS ILLUSTRATED set the record straight: "It is now as clear as anything can be in the future books of boxing that [the] lithe young Brooklyn Negro-who celebrated his 21st birthday last month by challenging Rocky Marciano-will be the next heavyweight champion of the world."

Patterson's story, says Sportswriter Paul O'Neil, "illustrates the fact that professional boxing, for all its seamy background . . . and its pitiful human flotsam, can be a power for good in shaping the character of young...

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