He put his flyweight titles up for grabs at Hampden Park in the summer of 1946 against veteran Joe Curran. A crowd of 45,000 came to the famous stadium, but Paterson, weakened by fighting at the lesser weight, only managed a points win to retain his belts.
For his next fight, Paterson moved back up to bantamweight. This time, at Hampden, he lost his European Bantamweight title to Theo Medina in bizarre circumstances. In the fourth round, staggering from a series of blows from the challenger, Paterson swung wildly with his right, lost his balance and collapsed on to the canvas. He was unable to get back on to his feet.
For the whole of 1947, Paterson fought as a bantamweight, adding the British title in Manchester against Johnny King.
Controversy surrounded him in the summer of that year. He was due to defend his World title against Dado Marino on 16 July, but collapsed at the weigh-in because he had tried and failed to shed the weight to get down to the 8 stone limit.
The National Boxing Association of America and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) stripped him of his title, and the promoter called in John “Rinty” Monaghan to fight Medina instead. Monaghan was disqualified for persistent holding.
Paterson succeeded in gaining a court injunction against the BBBC, meaning they could not stage a fight without his involvement. The fight game's governing body in Britain restored his belts to him.
Things started to go badly wrong for Paterson in March 1948. Promoter Bob Gardiner put up a purse of £5,000 to attract the Scottish boxer to Belfast to defend his World and British Flyweight titles against Monaghan, whom he had fought twice before, the results being one win apiece.
“Rinty” Monaghan (named after a silent screen dog Rin Tin Tin) certainly must have taught Barry McGuigan a thing or two: he always sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling to the crowd before his fights.
Paterson had turned up at the weigh-in looking gaunt, having “boiled off” 4 pounds 12 ounces in a week. He did this by wrapping up in several layers of clothing, but the obvious side effects were dehydration and a lack of strength.
Monaghan had Paterson on the deck in the second round with a left hook. Paterson knew he couldn't last 15 rounds so tried too knock the Irishman out quickly. He ran out of steam and was beaten to submission in the seventh round. Some of the old boxing books show a photo of Paterson in the corner of the ring, with his legs buckled underneath him, unable to make the count.
Paterson's career after losing the World Flyweight title makes depressing reading: he lost 9 out of his last 12 fights, including a defeat by Stan Rowan in Liverpool in March 1949 for his Commonwealth and British Bantamweight titles. His final bout was in Dundee in February 1951 against Willie Myles, an eighth round loss.
When he retired from fighting after a fantastic career, Paterson had earned an estimated £100,000, but he had lost most of that on greyhound betting.
Like Scotland's other flyweight hero Benny Lynch, Paterson died in tragic circumstances. On 19 November 1966, Jackie Paterson was killed in a street fight outside a pub in Amanzimtoti, Natal, in South Africa, where he had gone to live. He had been stabbed in the neck with a bottle.
