Machen came forward totally careless, in that situation any heavyweight with decent punch would have floored him, and it would tell nothing about punching power. Johansson's jab was plain awful. In his early fights it was half-chopping move half-push, and he didn't improve it much further. The man was a complete disgrace to even fight for a title, even more so to actually win it. He's somewhere near Marvin Hart in class.
The only fighter he ever lost to was Patterson, whom.. according to the greatest of all times was the most technically adapt fighter he's faced. Ingemar's boxing skills are vastly underrated on here, how did he do so good in the olympics with such POOR? boxing skills, c'mon.
They are overrated by people who have seen nothing but Patterson and Machen fights. I've seen two his European fights, and his skills are just as I say - extremely poor. Defense, offense, movement, cleverness - all are either average or worse. John Ruiz compared to Johansson is like Mayweather compared to Gatti.
This is a little vague of a question, isn't it? If he'd been facing Joe Grim, Ed Strickland, or Marion Wilson, of course he would. Marvin Hart, Primo Carnera, Leon Spinks, Buster Douglas, Shannon Briggs or Hasim Rahman, then he probably would. If he'd been facing Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, then the odds are strongly against it. What were you trying to get at here?
Compare the way Machen boxed vs Liston and vs Johansson. That should tell you all you need to know. He had one of the worst jabs I've seen not only of heavyweight champions, but of most average heavyweights. You are talking about Sonny Liston? I completely agree with you. Hart faced several times better opposition than Johansson. Had Ingemar somehow got to early 20th century, he'd be nothing more than a tomato can with the poor skills he had.
Um, no. It's debatable with some of them, but he was pretty clearly a smarter and more adept boxer than, say, Carnera, and a considerably harder hitter than a Leon Spinks or Buster Douglas.
What power? The one he used to knock out Lloyd Barnett, Erik Jensen, Ansell Baba Adams, Aldo Pellegrini, Uber Bacilieri, Joe Bygraves, Hans Friedrich, Archie McBride? I'd bet my house that Lamar Clark would go through this opposition with a perfect record, all by KO. What he could do in Machen fight? Use the fact that he was completely unknown and make Machen change his style to something unusual for him, throw any thoughts about defense out the window trying to achieve a quick KO? Even young Foreman looked like a much better boxer than Johansson. Johansson is a tomato can compared to Ruiz. If they fought ten times, Ruiz would win all ten, most by KO.
What smartness or adaptability have you seen in Patterson or Machen fights? He was as one-dimensional and primitive as they come. He looks even worse against mediocre European opposition. Carnera is showing more skills on film than Johansson in the 6 fights + 1 sparring I've seen of him.
