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Pete Rademacher (born 1929) is a former
boxing|boxer who made boxing history in an most
unconventional way.

After winning the gold medal at the 1956 Olympic
Games|Olympics in the Light Heavyweight division,
Rademacher started saying that he would be able to
become world Heavyweight champion in his first
professional fight. He made his belief public and
was able to lure world Heavyweight champion Floyd
Patterson into defending his crown against the
debutant Rademacher. Rademacher quickly became a
mainstream celebrity, being the subject of
television talk show talk, and of much gossip
around boxing magazines, fans  and critics. It was
the first time that a fighter making his
professional debut challenges for a world crown,
and it remains the first time a debutant fights
for the world Heavyweight title.

Rademacher dropped Patterson in round two, but
Patterson recovered and defeated him by a knockout
in six.

Rademacher later on went on to fight people like
future Muhammad Ali challenger Zora Folley, Brian
London, George Chuvalo, Lamar Parks and the former
world Light Heavyweight champion, Archie Moore. He
lost to Moore, Folley and London but beat Chuvalo
and Parks. He had mixed success during the rest of
his career, winning about 66 percent of his bouts,
but he was never able to achieve the boxing goals
he had set for himself, and eventually he retired
with a record of 15 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw,
with 8 wins by knockout.

After retirement, he went into business, and once,
after a fight by Patterson in Rademacher's
hometown, Patterson and Rademacher had lunch and
Patterson asked about a job at Rademacher's place
of employment. After Rademacher gave Patterson a
spot on the company's training roster, Patterson
quit, because he did not want to relocate his
family to Boston, a requisite during the company
training period.

Rademacher was named, in 1989, President of a
division in the company he worked for. In 1996, he
and his two daughters helped carry the Olympic
torch around the streets of Cleveland, Ohio.