Here is what I got The men who Sonny Liston beat prior to winning the title in 1962, and their ratings going into the fight with sonny Eddie Machen- Rated # 3 Zora Folley- Rated # 1 Cleveland Williams- Rated # 10 in 2nd fight 1960 Mike DeJohn- Rated # 7 Wayne Bethea- Rated # 8 Roy Harris- Rated # 7 Marty Marshall- Rated # 7 Light-Heavyweight in the first two Liston fights, unrated by the 3rd fight. Liston's record against these men 7-1 Men whom Ingemar Johansson beat, their ratings heading into his world title shot in 1959... Eddie Machen- Rated # 1 That's IT Henry Cooper- Unrated Joe Erskine- Unrated Franco Cavvichi- Unrated Johanssons record against top 10 rated men 1-0 All my sources come from the Boxing Register 5th edition, Ring Magazine, and National Boxing Association
In which case Ingo's resume is a bit thin, but his destruction of Machen is one of the most complete dominations of any #1 contender in the history of the division. You can certainly imagine the impact it must have had at the time. On a side note, Johansen Folley came close to happening after the Machen fight.
