It certainly belongs among the best ever. Ingo could box a bit better than most gave him credit for also, and had good mobility for a big fellow.
How many heavyweight champs have lived into their 80s. I know Dempsey, Willard, Sharkey and Schmeling did. And Walcott (I think). Either way, all were born before WWI. Ok, some aren't old enough to reach 80 yet but the ones who were have died a bit younger.
Ingo had a nice, consistent left jab, and that perfectly timed powerful right that made legs go out. His left hook and uppercut weren't always smooth, but he had plenty of power in them as well. Ingo had a KO over Cooper before takeing out Machen, then a very respected boxer who was in line for a shot at Patterson. The trilogy with Patterson were all fun fights, well worth watching. Ingo's biggest weakness was his chin, but no shame in getting stopped by Patterson, who at that time had lightning fast hands and combos. I've seen Ingo's Olympic final against Sanders, and really cannot understand why he was dq'd. Sure he moved too much and could have punched more, but his performance was simply cautious, not to the point that he should have been disqualified. It made a certain amount of sense against a big strong guy. Ingo effectively used that moving around, jabbing, cautious style in the pros, being patient and awaiting that moment to fire in a killer right, and he may well have been doing the same in the Olympics. I've seen Olympic gold medalists in the past several Olympics fight ten times more cautiously than that. But I guess that shows you the difference in mindset from then to now.
.............I remember a picture of him in running gear in KO magazine back in 1981, which reported he'd run a marathon around that time. Not bad for an old fart. He looked trim and athletic even at that advanced age. Nice to hear he was such a nice guy, I'd read nothing but the same about him.
Floyd Patterson was the first fighter i got into,so i always had an affinity for Johansson also.A succesion of British heavies went over there to be KO'D including Cooper,Richardson and Erskine although in Ingo's last fight Brian London took him the distance and had Ingo down and badly hurt at the final bell.He might not have been one of the greatest champions but with that mighty right hand he certainly made his mark. R.I.P. champ.
Just new information guys, they're planning to build a statue of Ingemar Johansson in his home town of Gothenburg! Great news, this is how big he is in Sweden, a true hero.
Ingo was a good man. I heard he was ill for a while. No doubt, he's in a better place right now. After he's done shaking hands, he and Patterson could share a drink. At least that's what I hope.
I agree and i'm not saying that to be nice to him because he just passed away. I read SuzieQ's description asif he was literally turning his back to Sanders or something. I saw footage of it a few months ago and he was simply very cautious and tentative to engage; some referees didn't like that, especially back then. But if you look at the majority of Stevenson's fights at the olympics in 72, 76 and 80 summer olympics, you'll find that almost all of his opponent ran the same way. On a sidenote, Larry Holmes was disqualified in a similar fight if i remember correct.