Ingemar Johansson's power:

Below guys like Sanders, Briggs, Wlad, Lewis of recent note to make the comparison. Good for his day, though.

 

Ingo’s ‘tundar’ was a stroke from the Norse gods.

The man had serious, serious right-hand power. As good as any. I like the Coetzee comparison. Schmeling might be another good one.

If he hit a man clean, he was going to do damage. His ability to do so against top competition due to physical limitations and technique, however, is open to question.

 

He had good power, enough to level off Eddie Machen and Floyd Patterson, Patterson had a weak chin, but Ingo's power and Patterson's chin was the right mix for ingo that night and the wrong one for Floyd. On their rematches I think Floyd avoided that right hand but even so he was still floored in the third match as well. For what that was worth anyways.

 

But you do not think Coetzee & Schmelling had power "as good as any" right?
Arguably as good as anyone a a prime weight of 195 though, & a bit over 10 lbs. more a his heaviest.

But I cannot see him in the stratosphere of a Baer/Galento/Liston/Foreman/Bruno/Butterbean/Tua/Ruddock/Wlad/Wilder & some others-in absolute terms.

The quality of these fighters vary a lot. As does there ability to land effectively, especially in combinations.
Others who did not hit quite as hard did tremendous damage from those accurate blazing combos, such as Louis & Tyson.

He likely hit a bit harder than Schmelling.
But especially since the best he took out did not tend to be huge guys with excellent chins, I cannot see him striking as hard as the true Juggernauts of the division.

 

I don’t think he’s on the Shavers/Foreman/Wilder tier, but one or two notches below that.

So up there maybe with Tyson/Lewis/etc. I think those guys were huge hitters but not quite on par for single-punch power as the above. And I don’t think Ingo was a two-handed power puncher.

I don’t include Butterbean, Galento or Ruddock for sure anywhere near that class. The Bean for sure since he never knocked out anyone above the four-round level … I suspect a lot of good fighters could go 100-0 with 100 KOs against his opposition.

Of course it’s all debatable.

 

Only quibble I have with your assessment is that it seems you are conflating effectiveness with Raw Power.
Galento hit really hard, possibly slightly less than say Baer-but both while not nearly as good, harder than Lewis.
Ruddock hit like a truck.
But his ability to deliver the Smash-& Butterbean's overall skill-was far below just what would be the measureable impact if measured then.

Good call of Tyson/Lewis!

 

Noway in the world does Galento hit harder than Lewis. The Lewis right hand is nuclear, or certainly near enough. It's left behind a solid trail of 230 pound plus victims and any amount of them around the 220 mark. Quality victims.

 

I’ve seen Ruddock’s best taken way better than the best of some others so I respectfully disagree. Galento too.

Butterbean never tested his power against a quality opponent so there’s no way to say he’s an elite puncher who just wasn’t a good fighter. Even some random four-round guys took his best and saw the final bell so I don’t think so.

 

Ingo had a hard enough punch to drop and scramble the heads of good quality opponents - not completely out but close enough to, rendering them, for all intents and purposes. literally unviable thereafter.

His follow ups were not so perfect but more than sufficient to club down an already well wounded opponent.

It seems Ingo’s most well considered, accurate and effective punches were the ones that got his opponents going in the first instance, the ones Ingo waited patiently to launch in counter - after which Ingo would then literally hammer his tunder struck opponent into defeat.

Not to say the follow up shots didn’t have nice heat on them - just that they weren’t as crisp as the initial bomb, imo.

In terms of power, the Liston/Ingo vs Machen comparison doesn’t hold for me at all.

Ingo was an unknown quantity and surprise package for Machen who fought surprisingly aggressive, even for himself, from first bell.

Liston was a well advertised (justifiably) monster and Eddie expressly stayed on the move and held at every opportunity to avoid the full brunt of Sonny’s punch.

Patto might’ve afforded Ingo a harder punch than Liston, but the relevant visual evidence otherwise, imo, contradicts that notion.

Finally, Ingo has, and will always be, the thinking man’s GOAT. SFTW.

 

Excellent post. I've never understood this "Ingo did so much better against Machen than Liston and Williams did so he has an excellent chance or flat out beats both" when in reality if Machen approached Liston and Williams the way he did Ingo he gets his head taken off. While if he boxes Ingo the way he did Liston and Williams, I'd favor him to win more often than not.

 

Louis will always leave behind more victims because he was dramatically better in virtually every way.
He generally got guys at the end of blazing & accurate combinations.
No single punch-what Galento was more prone to land-can be expected to have the impact of a bunch.
Especially if they are
A) more accurate.
B) So fast that you cannot effectively brace for or roll with punches.

Marciano was told that Louis had ost power in his right hand, but was surprised that he said it was "nothing".
This was because no later than his mid 30's,Louis had lost his incredible hand speed-& reflexes.
He said in a biography he saw the openings against Ezzard Charles, but could not pull the trigger in time.

I think anyone whose power relies so heavily on speed tends to more efficiently cause damage with whatever level of power they have, but not hit as hard as the biggest bangers who tend to be what we call "heavy handed".

You must admit that so many are reluctant to find a much inferior fighter as more powerful than an ATG.
In part due to hero worship, identification...And just the misguided notion that Greatness confers advantages in all raw skills.

And they mistake effect with causes as a simple 1:1 ratio.
But when you can land a few punches very quickly & very accurately, especially when they are not all seen coming...
It does not matter that a very few might hit 10-15% or so harder.

 

I don't see Liston going the distance with Brian London and failing to drop him even once. We also saw Liston splatter Patterson faster than Ingo did. In other words, ABC logic doesn't work when you look at styles and context.

As for the thread, Ingo's power was elite for smaller heavies (8-9/10) but maybe above average for modern 220+ heavies (6-7/10). As others pointed out, his follow up punches and finishing ability were a bit mediocre. Part of what made him so dangerous was that he was a very patient counter puncher who would give whole rounds away to study the opponent and lull them into a false sense of security before unleashing his hardest punch. Even an average hitter can score a flash knockdown with such a strategy.

 

You said - "Galento hit really hard, possibly slightly less than say Baer-but both while not nearly as good, harder than Lewis."

I clearly? stated LEWIS x 2 not Louis.

 

I meant Joe Louis, as I hope my overall comment made clear that I goofed, but I definitely typed it out wrong there, mea culpa!
You mean you said twice that Lennox Lewis hit harder than Galento?
If so, I dunno who hit harder.
Lennox was so much better, but Galento hit like a truck too.

 

Galento was a very poor man's Tua in terms of power.