Where could have Ingo gone with a trainer like Stewart and dedication.

Prime Liston could take Ingo's punch, while Ingo couldn't take Liston's big punches.

A Cleveland Williams vs Ingo might have been a interesting brawl.

 

1. ingo meets liston and trys to box him he'll come up short against sonny s jab, and at some point liston will get him. If he instead trys to trade with him he'll be knocked on his butt in a round. Williams could be a good fight, possibly a win for ingo, but I see more likely Williams over powering him at some point after been hurt himself.

 

And yet Ingo hit considerably harder than Ali, Marty Marshall and Leotis Martin who all decked or knocked out Liston. There is footage of Bert whitehurst wobbling Liston and Bert was only a sparring partner of Ingos.

There is a lot made of the punches Sonny took against Cleveland Williams, who was a big puncher, but Williams usually only knocked out ham and eggers on the loser circuit. He stopped Terrell when he was young and inexperienced but not in the rematch and not Billy Daniels, Eddie Machen or Frankie Daniels. Williams, for all his power, really never bothered good fighters.

I think both Ingo and Sonny were both susceptible to a really good punch. Most good punchers are. The necessary leverage and footing to deliver big blows can be as dangerous on the receiving end.

I think both had some amazing qualities but like many champions, and I include Max Baer in this, just didn't really have the unusual long term temperament of the really greatest champions. No shame in that.

 

I think Ingo could definitely hurt Liston. But beating him, I think his chances would be very slim.

 

Everybody hurt Liston who stood up to him, he just happened to be a great enough fighter to beat most of the guys that hurt him. Zora Foley hurt him too. Same with Jack Dempsey, everybody hurt him too. It's all part and parcel with committing so much to the punch.

I think it's a shame Ingos career was ultimately ruined by Patterson. He probably didn't have enough desire to continue the momentum it was going in during the late 1950s anyway where he knocked out everyone in Europe and then worlds best two heavyweights back to back in Machen and Patterson. Floyd does not get the credit for turning that around. This is because of Ingo and Liston. It cancels out that achievement.

I think something special happened the night Floyd regained the title. It was surreal. And it changed everything for both Patterson and ingo. Another year out of the ring, champions in those days were part time fighters. There was a whole year between each of the Patterson Johansson fights and each of the Patterson Liston fights. 1959-1964.

Liston could be the beneficiary of the result of that first trilogy but his own career suffered with too many short fights with too much time between them as well.

 

He could have had a good resume with some nice high points and a few, forgivable, low points.

He’d fall short of Ali, Liston, and later in the decade Frazier takes him out. But he’d have a chance against respectable guys like Zora Folley, Williams, Chuvalo, and maybe Jimmy Ellis later in the decade.

 

I think a bit of a more even match would be a prime Max Schmeling against Liston. Schmeling was a lot like Johansson, just a better boxer overall, and had a very powerful right hand as well.