Ingemar Johansson vs. Francois Botha

I happen to think that Botha's era was better, but I understand that this involves a few assumptions on may part, and I couldn't begin to gauge by how much.

You could think that the top men of Botha's era were better than Johannsen, and still have a lot of blue water between Johansen and Botha.

 

He beat every fighter that he ever met. He was inches away from winning the trilogy against Patterson. Had him down twice and was later stopped with an illegal punch, and in addition the count was too fast.
In addition he KO'd a prime Machen. That same Machen that Patterson was ducking and many considered possibly the best boxer at the time. Some posters tries to discredit this win by saying that Machen underestimated him. How can anyone here possibly know what went through Machens mind? If you want, you can use the same argument against any boxer. Finding some possible excuses for their opponents. The punch that Johansson first landed against Machen is almost identical to the one he first landed on Patterson. Twice against this top opposition is no fluke. Johansson could take out anyone.

Johansson started living a different life after he became champion. He was a womanizer and didn't train as hard as he had before. He loved the attention and lifestyle. He was even on a late TV show the night before his rematch against Patterson. He paid the price.

After his trilogy he was financially secure and the desire to achieve more didn't really seem to be there. Hence, he hung up the gloves before losing again even though he came close in his last fight.

His resume is on the short side but at his peak he was marvelous and his right hand is arguably the best that the heavyweight division has ever witnessed.