Ingemar Johansson vs Gerry ****ey

Vitali beat men who were genuine deservedly ranked contenders, young 'live' fighters. Maybe not of the best quality, or even among the best contenders available, but some of them were surely in the top 10 by any standards or even top 5 or 6 .
Sanders, Peter, Adamek ... Solis and Arreola even.
He also proved his chin.

C00ney had a suspect chin and never beat any live body.

 

Come on now.

Every ranked contender that ****ey fought knocked him out, puncher or otherwise.

Johansen annihilated a guy that Sonny Liston couldn't stop.

What do you think is going to happen if he hits ****ey?

 

C00ney did the chicken dance when Holmes hit him flush with his right hand in round 2.

Apart from Marvis Frazier and a couple bums I can't remember names of, few of Holmes' challengers were wobbled so bad by Holmes's straight right, which was a crisp solid punch but not a thunderous club as was Johansson's, imo.

Of course, C00ney has his own puncher's chance too. His left was clearly a cracking punch and Johansson wasn't exactly undentable.

 

Please understand that you can't criticise Johansen by saying that he was limited, then in the same breath say that his power was overrated.

If both those statements are true, he would never have got near the title.

If you can't find much to rate in him, and you acknowledge the fact that he won the title, then you have to rate something off the scale.

 

Johansen certainly accomplished more at HW than ****ey did but that doesn't guarantee he'd beat Gerry. If Patterson could KO Ingo with his left hook it isn't a stretch to imagine that Gerry could do the same with his left hook either. Factor in Gerry's height and reach advantage and a victory for him isn't inconceivable. Against the 6' 190lb Patterson, Ingo was boxing a man roughly his own size if not a little smaller. That wouldn't be the case against the 6'6" 225 lb ****ey who had an 80" reach to boot. Gerry would be punching down while Ingo would be punching up and a fast starting ****ey, ala Norton and Lyle would probably get his bombs in first. This might be a fight where size does matter, not relative ability or who was the more accomplished fighter in his own era.

 

Vitali may not have been the best comparison or example to make. But my point is that you can't always use legacy to draw conclusions on head to head matchups. And saying that ****ey never beat a live body is an exaggeration. It wasn't like he was knocking out 5-13 tomato cans. Johanson was accustomed to fighting much smaller foes mostly Euro Level and was a relatively small heavyweight himself with a chin equally as shaky as ****ey's. Both had huge punches with ****ey probably hitting harder and having much more size and fast starting ability. my reason for favoring Gerry is that I think he'd likely get to Johansson first and not let him off the hook. Its all well and good to say that ****ey battered an aging Young while Ingo dispatched a prime Patterson, but for physical and stylistic reasons I have reservations on basing my pick on that alone.

 

Convenient observation to use in an argument... Not so convenient when you consider that all of them were ATG's and all of them fought C00ney when he was coming off of long periods of inactivity.

C00ney dispatched a man that a lot of big punchers couldn't stop either.

The same thing that will happen if Gerry lands on him first, which given is height, reach and track record in the early rounds is probably the more likely scenario.

 

Very interesting speculation.

Certainly on legacy, I go with Ingo as he destroyed a couple of top men when they were top men.

And I respect the arguments made for Gerry C--his feasting on end-of-the road names doesn't automatically mean he might not be too much for the flawed Ingo. And Gerry does have the good show against Holmes.

Still, on balance, and all things considered, I go with Ingo in a toss-up fight with two comments

1--Gerry's size might help him get to Ingo first, but I don't buy into any argument that it means he could stand up to Ingo's right better than Machen or Patterson did. I don't think the historical evidence points to big men being able to take punches that well.

2--The early Ingo, prior to his going Hollywood, showed he could rise to the occasion against tough opponents at their best. Gerry C never really proved he could win that type of fight.

So my coin-flip turns up Ingo.