If Patterson had faced Cleveland Williams instead of Liston?

Exactly.

 

It doesn't matter. Ingo was fighting Stadium fights in front of 53 000 and Williams wasn't so Ingo therefore MUST be better. The reason why he was pulling such crowds matters not and nor does the quality of the opposition.

 

Quality of opposition???

The best thing Williams has going for him was that he drew (DREW) with Machen, the same man, that Ingo knocked out inside one round when he was unbeaten and #1 ranked.

 

Who is this “average European”???

you cannot seriously call any fighter who flattened both the #1 contender and the world champion in back to back fights “average”?

 

53,000 swedes kind of out number you here...

 

Wlad has been doing the same thing in Germany for the last decade!

 

Well them being such a big boxing nation-----

History of Swedish Boxing Legislation, Rules & Regulations

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(Enter material chronologically)

• 1970-01-01: Sweden outlaws professional boxing, which becomes punishable by up to six months in jail. This includes exhibition bouts, sparring in a gymnasium, and an amateur doing business with a professional boxer. Source: The Ring magazine, May 1975, p. 26.
• 2006-06-15: By a majority vote, the Swedish Parliament enacts a new law--effective September 1-- providing that all combat sports must obtain licenses to stage competitions, and such licenses will be granted only one if the safety of the athletes is fully guaranteed. Essentially, this new law reinforces the old 1970 law banning professional boxing.
• 2006-11-29: A modified version of professional boxing was approved by the Swedish sports commission allowing for professional boxing, after the rules were changed to match those of amateur boxing; wither fewer rounds and allowing doctors to stop the bouts. [1]
• 2007-1-27: Sweden stages its first professional show in 37 years in Gothenburg with a 10 bout card consisting of all four-rounders.

Sweden has long been ambivalent about boxing: when the 1912 Olympics were held in Stockholm, there was no boxing as it was banned there at the time.

That restriction was eventually lifted, and Ingemar Johansson from Gothenburg became the world heavyweight champion in 1959. Several of his fights were in Sweden, although his three meetings with Floyd Patterson - Johansson won the first one but lost the next two - were all in America. Johansson later won the European heavyweight title (beating the Welshman Dick Richardson) in Gothenburg in 1962.

After worries were voiced about the sport's safety, boxing was banned again in Sweden in 1970. That ban wasn't lifted until 2006 - and even then there were restrictions on the nature of contests.

Robert Helenius, the still-undefeated heavyweight who held the European title for a while, was born in Sweden, and had two of his early fights there, although he later took Finnish nationality. Six of his later fights have been staged in Finland - including the 2011 bout against Britain's Dereck Chisora that gave the 'Nordic Nightmare' the European title - and 11 in Germany.

Here's a comparison when prohibition ended how many people do you think went out and got wasted!?
Sweden can boast a total of 58 pro boxers.

 

An average European would be Pierre Coopman. Somebody like that. Not a number one ranked sensation who cleared out Europe, who knocked the top American silly before crushing the current Worlds champion?

I mean, Ingo knocks out the same champion Liston did, before Sonny did it, and he’s just an average European?

Just my take, but It just seems wrong.

 

This is a bunch of mumbo Jumbo.

John Thomas feels there is something humorous about 53,000 fans packing out a football stadium to watch a world heavyweight title eliminator. I still say 53,000 people outnumber John Thomas in that they correctly feel that was something worth watching.

What part of Swedish legislation explains that point away?

 

WTF does how many Swedes turning up to watch a national idol have to do with the quality of the men he was facing?
No point in debating with you , you're full of it!

 

It has everything to do with it when the Swedish idol fights an unbeaten #1 world title contender. That’s when it becomes worthwhile and worthy of a full stadium.

 

I find Patterson's record to be rather lacking to support this narrative that he's very likely to beat Williams. His pedigree is better I suppose, but functionally, he's very much vulnerable against a peak Williams. We are taking fighters at their best here, and at his best - in wrecking ball form, he's very dangerous for Floyd.

 

And you'd need an abacus to count the number of times Floyd got up! With all due respect I think it was the SAME number of times sans his, still on a knee, rising, in one of the Liston bouts. No one put Floyd in a 'face down puddle'; Liston said he'd NEVER hit anyone so hard, feeling the impact of his blows deep down in his back muscles. Up 7 times against Ingo. China chin? BS!