September 1963 Ingemar 'INGO' Johannson, the 31 year-old former Heavyweight Champion was just offered lucrative fight purse's to face either Heavyweight Champion - Sonny Liston or #1 Heavyweight - Cassius Clay. Both the Sonny Liston Camp and Cassius Clay Camp were trying to 'lock up' the Swede for a 'big pay day'. INGO was the only real 'big money fight' out there, besides Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay. Ingemar, had at one time, agreed to fight Sonny Liston back in December 1961, when Sonny was the #1 Heavyweight, and INGO had just come off back-to-back 'knockout losses' to Floyd Patterson. INGO was supposed to get $250,000 for the fight with Sonny, but INGO backed off, and sent in Albert Westphal (INGO's sparring partner) as his replacement for that bout in Philadelphia on December 4, 1961. Boxing Illustrated (April 1963) Discussed Sonny vs INGO, if 'Sonny Boy' disposed of Floyd Patterson in the rematch. [url] This content is protected [/url]
Both camps were trying to 'coddle' Ingemar into fighting them. Jack Nilon offered INGO $2,000,000 to fight Sonny Liston in Baltimore. But 'tax issues' would prevent this bout from taking place. The boys at I-C-P tried to devise a payment structure of paying INGO a 'tax-free' fight purse, where I-C-P would make some modifications to the fight contracts. But soon 1963 looked to be impossible, but a bout for February 1964 looked to like it might have a chance in several U.S. cities. I-C-P calculated that a Sonny Liston vs. INGO bout would actually gross more than a Liston vs. Clay bout.
