BoxRec

Amateur Boxing Career

61 wins, 10 losses
Silver Medalist of the '52 Games



Johansson would be disqualified in the 2nd round by the referee for "not trying". Ingemar would later say that referee didn't understand his strategy--- to play the defensive until the third round and knockout Sanders.

Johansson wouldn't officially be awarded the medal until the 1980s, a real travesty of boxing history. Branded a "coward" unfairly he'd set out to prove how much he wasn't in the pros.


Professional Boxing Career

From 1952-1963 Ingemar Johansson compiled a record of 26 wins and 2 losses, 17 of his wins coming by way of knockout.




1962, against Dick Richardson, regaining the European Championship.



1961, against Floyd Patterson. The rubber match. Viscous contest where Patterson hit the deck twice & Johansson once in the very first round. Both men cut and bleeding at the finish. Arguably the best fight of the trilogy.



1960, against Floyd Patterson. The rematch would be the Fight of the Year, with Patterson being the first man to regain the Heavyweight Championship. The greatest punch of Patterson's career and one of the most viscous, as Johansson's leg twitched uncontrollably as he laid lifeless on the canvas. Johansson was an 8-5 favorite over Patterson.



1959, against Floyd Patterson for the Heavyweight Championship. Johansson came into the fight as a 5-1 underdog. Patterson hits the deck seven times.



1958, against #1 contender Eddie Machen, one of the most impressive kayos you'll ever see. Machen was 24-0-1 at the time.



1958, against Joe Erskine; Johansson defends his European Championship that he won in '56 against Franco Cavicchi.



1956, against Franco Cavicchi, for the European Championship. Johansson is 14-0-0 (7) at the time.



1955, against Heinz Ten Hoff



1955, against Uber Bacillieri

Prior to Johansson's rubber match with Floyd Patterson he "fought" a three round exhibition with 4-0-0 Cassius Clay. According to the Ali camp they offered $100,000 to Johansson to fight--- which sounds ludicrous in retrospect considering the rubber match GATE was $500,000 in total.

Johansson would later say of the experience that Ali just ran and Angelo Dundee kept hollering at Johansson not to throw his right hand, and Ali kept talking. He wasn't impressed with the young man at the time--- yet this has become such a large part of the Ali myth that many people believe he could have legitimately beat Johansson.

I personally find that difficult to believe because at 18-0-0 Ali practically got kayoed by Henry Cooper--- a man Johansson flattened in five rounds. So how could a 4-0-0 Ali remotely have done it?



In 1960, there was much talk and serious negotiations of Rocky Marciano making a comeback against Ingemar Johansson. On the Groucho Marx show he says, "If I said I could beat him you'd say I was bragging, if I said that I couldn't then I'd be lying," when Marx brings up Ingemar.

According to Lou Duva, the contract was ready. If Johansson defeated Patterson in the rubber match, it'd of came off. Of course, it never happened. Marciano would minimize the whole thing, saying that he couldn't get into condition--- but the truth is that as late as 1964 Marciano was considering comebacks.



Johansson, after beating Patterson, became something of a media darling as he had many women fans. A handsome man he had that extra "something" that had crossover appeal to the mainstream media.



Documentary on the life of Ingemar Johansson. Swedish language.

Ingo was an excellent boxer. He is probably underrated, but he didn't realise all his potential as well. He had some impressive ups in his career. Destroying Machen was really brutal. Ingo calculated and caught Patterson in a brilliant way. And their rubber-match was a war.