Even though Ingo was only 30 he retired at the right time

Ingo had zero chance of regaining the heavyweight title. He wasn't getting past Ali or Liston and he likely wasn't beating Patterson again. And by the time the late 60s get here, the Frazier train runs over Ingo with extreme prejudice.

 

Agreed. There was no good reason to continue his boxing career. He invested his money wisely from what I understand, and did quite well in retirement. His is the kind of story I like hearing about in Boxing.

 

The surrounding competition would’ve been the primary obstacle but Ingo didn’t train so hard and he wasn’t always ideally focused or 100% into the game - so that would’ve shortened up his life span in boxing at any rate.

 

He got Alzheimer's Disease or whatever it's called when it's caused by blows to the head.

 

He had probably reached the turning point where he's used as a trial horse for up-and-comers.

 

Even if he was spartan like in his training, he still doesn't beat the top guys

 

He had a great career. Became heavyweight champion of the world. After he lost the title went back to Sweden and had a few fights as the hometown hero. Retired in good health and did a little promoting. Later got involved in some other business ventures. Lived into his 70’s.

 

Plus, y’know, training is hard.

 

After becoming somewhat rotund, I believe Ingo also whipped himself back into some fair shape later in the piece compete in marathons which is pretty cool.

He and Sonny appeared to be good mates - as they say, keep your friends close and keep the guys who can knock your block off closer.

 

He was fairly close to winning the 3rd Patterson fight in my opinion. He looks like he was starting to get the better of Patterson consistently in that last round before he got ko’d. It also looks like he may have been victim of a quick count. Would have been interesting had fight continued.

 

Did you know that on Saturday Morning July 15 1984, CBS broadcast a special about marathon runners, Ingo was in one of the segments, he ran marathons later in life.

 

After retiring, it sounds like he managed to get 30 or so good years in anyway before he was showing signs of dementia. He was successful in his business ventures, owned a hotel in Florida, and was comfortable in retirement. I'd think that makes him the exception, and not the rule when it comes to retired fighters.

 

Ingo had the real equalizer among prize fighters... smarts outside of the ring.

 

Ingo had his run, he stopped no.1 contender Eddie Machen in round 1 on Sept 14 1958. He travelled to New York and defeated champion Floyd Patterson on June 26 1959, flooring him several times in Yankee Stadium and stopping him at 2:03 of round 3. Then the skid began as defending champion, he was stopped by challenger Patterson on June 20 1960 in round 5, who reclaimed the title, first time in history at the time. Then the finale of the trilogy, champion Patterson retained the title on March 13 1961, with a KO 6. Ingo returned to Europe where he recaptured the European title with a KO 7 of Welshman D. Richardson on June 17 1962. Ingo's final fight was on April 21 1963 with a hard fought non title bout against Brian London where Ingo was decked in round 12, and rose from the knockdown to earn the 12 round decision.

 

He had a very short career especially for that time period. But he got the belt and lost it young like Patterson did. Unlike Patterson he didn't have a record to chase.

That being said Johansson apparently retired because people made fun of him for getting knocked down at the end of a fight he otherwise dominated. I would agree with this more if it happened organically. He was unlikely to actually win the belt but if he'd continued reigning in Europe for a few more years and beat Mildenberger he would have probably gotten a shot at it.