* Patterson won his next five fights, earning a title shot against Ali in 1965 that was overshadowed by a back injury that he’d suffered in training. He managed to eke out twelve rounds, but thanks to Ali’s taunting and his own diminishing skills, he was never the same after he got knocked out. He fought sixteen more times in seven years, going 12–3–1 and ending his career in 1973 with a losing rematch against Ali at Madison Square Garden. In his later years, battling Alzheimer’s, Patterson reflected on his fame by saying, “I wanted to be with people. To laugh and enjoy and talk with them. I didn’t enjoy being special.”