Ingemar Johansson

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, has died, a longtime friend said Saturday. He was 76.

Johansson died at a nursing home in Kungsbacka on the Swedish west coast, said Stig Caldeborn, a close friend who sparred with Johansson when they were in their teens.

Caldeborn said he didn't know the cause of death but told The Associated Press that Johansson had recently returned to the nursing home after being hospitalized with pneumonia.

Johansson's daughter, Maria Gregner, told Swedish news agency TT that the former champion died just before midnight Friday.

Johansson was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia more than 10 years ago when he lived in Stockholm. He spent the rest of his life in Kungsbacka, only a few miles from the house where he grew up.

Known as "Ingo" to Swedes, Johansson knocked out Patterson in the third round at Yankee Stadium on June 26, 1959, to win the heavyweight title. He floored the American seven times before referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight 2:03 into the round.

Back home, hundreds of thousands of Swedes listened to the live radio broadcast at 3 a.m. as Johansson became only the fifth heavyweight champion born outside the United States. Swedish newspapers printed extra editions with Ingo on the cover.

"What he did was the biggest feat ever in Swedish sporting history," Caldeborn said. It earned Johansson The Associated Press' Male Athlete of the Year honors in 1959, only the second Swede to win the award.

Patterson avenged the upset loss a year later in the rematch in New York, knocking Johansson out in the fifth round. In March 1961, the Swede floored Patterson twice in Miami before being knocked out in the sixth round of the rubber match. Patterson died in 2006.

Johansson had four more fights — all wins, one of them a knockout of England's Dick Richardson for the European title in 1962 — before retiring the following year. He finished his career with a 26-2 record, including 17 knockouts.

A well-schooled upright boxer, Johansson had a good jab that helped set up a tremendous knockout right hand dubbed "Ingo's Bingo" and the "Hammer of Thor."

Johansson went 61-10 with 31 KOs as a decorated amateur. His biggest disappointment came at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, where he was disqualified in the heavyweight final for not giving his best.

Johansson always claimed that he backed away in that fight in an attempt to lure his American opponent Ed Sanders into his right-hand counter. The Swede eventually received his silver medal 30 years later from the International Olympic Committee.

Johansson became a businessman after finishing his boxing career. He owned a fishing boat named "Ingo" and a bar called "Ingo's" in Goteborg, Sweden's second biggest city.

Johansson later moved to Florida, where he operated a hotel at Pompano Beach and started playing golf. He also jogged and successfully completed the Stockholm Marathon before hundreds of thousands of spectators in 1985.

Johansson was married and divorced twice, and is survived by five children. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

 

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Born: Sep 22, 1932 in Gothenburg

Died: Jan 30, 2009 in Kungsbacka