Another Time Warp Alert. Floyd Patterson is injured in sparring in June 1960.

Whoever lands the big one first

 

I agree. Williams was the faster of the two. I think he gets there first but it's either guy's fight.

 

Johannson knocked out Patterson in three (when Floyd was heavyweight champ), Machen in one (when Machen was the unquestioned top contender), and Henry Cooper (the best British heavyweight of his era) in five (not on cuts, by KO).

Cleveland Williams didn't KO anyone of note early to make you think he stops Johansson, let alone beats him.

In fact, Williams seemed to fold early against big punchers at every point in his career - early against Satterfield, early against Liston twice, and early against Mac Foster twice later on.

Johansson's rep is based on actual wins. Cleveland's rep is based on losing tough to Liston twice. But it's not even like Williams went 12 rounds with him, like Ruddock did with Tyson. Cleveland folded inside two and three rounds in their fights.

As far as Ed Sanders goes, Johansson was 19 when he was in the Olympics. He made it to the finals, and choked. It happens. He won the heavyweight title seven years later. He was much improved then.

It's no different than Lennox Lewis choking and looking bad against Tyrell Biggs in the 1984 Olympics. That doesn't mean Biggs or anyone who fought like him would've stood a chance with Lennox when Lewis was a seasoned pro years later. In fact, Biggs failed miserably against Lewis seven years after their Olympic bout.

If Cleveland is a late sub against Ingo in 1960, Ingo blows him out early. (I don't even know why he'd have gotten the call, given he hadn't beaten anyone yet.)

That stiff-legged Williams, who never moved his head, would be eating big right hands from the jump.

And it wouldn't take too many of them to put him away. It never did.

 

Pretty harsh on Williams

 

lol at you trying to remain objective while bringing up Williams losses to Foster while conveniently leaving out he was shot literally, oh yeah and 36 years old. What was Ingo doing at 36 years old? Oh yeah he was retired by Brian London for five years at that point.

"That stiff-legged Williams, who never moved his head, would be eating big right hands from the jump." Literally none of this is true. He didn't have the best defense, but he exhibited defense head movement as seen in his fights with Liston , Daniels, and Terrell.

If he was half as bad as you depict he wouldn't have made it anywhere near the top ten let alone a number 2 ranking.

 

This is just flat out deception. Henry Cooper was nowhere near the best British heavyweight when he fought Johannson. He was green, unranked, on a losing streak, and coming off back to back knock out losses.

I can easily say Williams knocked out Ernie Terrell, the best heavyweight of the mid 60s, not named Muhammad Ali, and actually have far more merit in my claim.

For the record Roger Rischer beat a much better Cooper who actually WAS the best British heavyweight of the era at the time and actually held a ranking. Rischer was actually just KTFO in three a couple months prior by Cleveland Williams. But let's just leave these inconvenient facts out that get in the way of our agenda.