At heavyweight division: Johansson (prime) vs. Archie Moore at his best at HW. I am not sure about Moores best performance at HW. Might be against Marciano, or perhaps even earlier.
Archie Moore was a better defensive fighter, and Ingemar Johansson had that Toonderous right hand that sent many into dreamland. But Archie has taken bombs from Rocky Marciano and many others. I think it could be possible for Ageless Arch to take this one on points if he does not get caught with the Ingo Bingo.
Tough to decide, but I favour "The old Mongoose" too. He also defeated top heavyweights, like Nino Valdes, Bob Baker and Clarence Henry. I think Moore´s superb defense (bob and weave + "armadillo curtain"), next to his strong chin could protect him from "Ingo´s bingo". Nevertheless, Johansson would be a pretty dangerous opponent for him.
This fight was actually discussed as a possibility. There was even speculation about pitting the Mongoose against Sony Liston at one point. Prime for prime I would favor Moore, but in the realistic timeframe, I would go with Johansen.
Bump. Obviously Johansson would be dangerous throughout the whole fight, he can end the fight in a split second, but I’d bet on Moore to stop him late on, more versatile, better technically at everything, went up and down with the jab, varied the speed of it, it’d allow his jab to be less predictable and would allow him to out jab Johansson and also set up fights over the top since he could get low with the jab, which would put him in good position to set up that right, and on the inside, it’s a no contest even more so, Johansson wasn’t great on the inside and Moore was, he could nudge opponents to create room for himself to get punches off, basically knew how to grapple on the inside to use it to defend and also get punches off, he could shorten up his punches much better which would allow him to beat Johansson to the punch the inside also and it would happen too often for Johansson and eventually it becomes too much, Moore puts a combination together and finishes the fight late on.
Archie Moore was a phenomenon of longevity. The Archie Moore who fought from 1949 to 1955 beats Ingo clearly.
Archie was a much better fighter, but I don't know if he was a much better heavyweight than Ingemar. Ingo was at his best for such a short time in my opinion that it's hard to favor him, but it's not impossible he could do to Archie what he did to Eddie Machen.
Ingo's Bingo could spark Archie, but Archie hit hard enough to stop Johannson as well, plus Archie was the better overall fighter. I pick Archie by stoppage.
Same, Both Ingo and Liston are too basic for any good version of Archie Moore he was at his height in an exclusive skill bracket next to guys like Charles, Louis, Conn, Napoles, Griffith, Tunney, Burley, Loughran (iffy) and Gibbons. Such a fine force, he should’ve built a fighter instead of being a hired gun… if it was Archie’s intention to have trained Foreman and build a champion we might’ve seen possibly the best heavyweight ever.
I just wanted to make it clear though it’s obvious the difference between Ingo and Archie Moore is so much so I don’t think the brave Swede would lay a glove on him.
