Did Ingemar Johansson Ever Consider A Comeback?

After his last fight, he knew that the writing was on the wall, but did he ever consider coming back in subsequent years, as so many former champs do?

Yes, I realize how ill advised a comeback would have been considering who was coming on the scene at the time, but I was always curious if he ever entertained the idea.

 

I've said here several times that mystery was always key to Ingo's success. As long as he remained underexposed, opponents never learned the secret to beating him. But when Patterson exposed Ingo's vulnerability, everyone saw how to beat him. No longer would the right hand mesmerize his opponents in the same way and Johansson must have known that. Getting floored by Brian London hurt his standing. London was seen by Americans as something of a joke.

Johansson vs Liston would have been a natural matchup in 1963 and Clay could've fought the winner. However, Ingemar DID NOT want to fight Liston, was determined never to fight him. By now it was four years since he'd won the heavyweight title. He had fame, money, good looks and more poochy than he knew what to do with. I've little doubt that Ingemar was happy to quit the ring.

 

I don't know for sure but I know he was one of those guys who really didn't love the sport and didn't train much after winning the title. So I can't imagine that he did.

 

No. Ingo’s investments that he set up after winning the championship were doing well enough that he never needed to consider a comeback.

 

Yes, I was reading about Ingemar’s business ventures outside of the ring. Part ownership in a fishing trawler, owning a bar called Ingo’s, construction, and later owning a motel in Florida. Quite an assortment of business interests. Glad that these panned out for Mr. Johansson.

 

He is quoted as saying he wanted a fourth fight with Roy Flatterston.

 

He had zero chance of once again becoming champion. He wasn't beating Ali and Liston and was highly unlikely to beat Floyd Patterson in any rematches.

 

Given the nature of his retirement I find it hard to believe he didn't. Johansson couldn't have been world champ again but he really left a bit on the table in terms of a European HW resume. For the time his career was super short. Just because he wouldn't have beaten Ali doesn't mean Johansson couldn't have earned a title shot and that couldn't have been a fun fight.

Its on threads like this where I feel people are really pigeon holed on the world title and really don't care about anything else.

 

There’s a YouTube feature, I saw a few months ago about Ingo’s friendship with Liston.
He never considered a comeback, as he had invested wisely.

 

Would love to see this! Do you happen to recall the name of the feature?

 

He still could have made some noise on the world stage, but I would think that he, being a former champion, would fight with ambitions to regain the title. And unless Ingo came back drastically better than he was, that was highly unlikely to happen.

 

Still he was coming off a 11-1 victory over a guy who subsequently fought for the title. He only retired cause the guy landed a hail mary and people were joking about it. Whether he had a good chance against Ali or not it wasn't his time to leave yet he had a good 5ish years left.

 

Besides investments, while def. not wanting to fight him, Ingo was more than happy to promote Liston for several of his fights in Sweden.

Ingo seemed the type of guy to be happy to retire. He participated in marathon running later in the piece.

 

Still remember when some clowns here actually favored Mildenberger of all people over Ingo.

 

It’s never mentioned but from what I’ve seen, it appeared London perhaps fouled Ingo - in so far as him shoving Ingo into the ropes, causing Ingo’s back to be turned to London - with Brian clocking an unseeing Ingo at that very moment. Otherwise, Ingo was apparently sailing to a clear victory.