Big TV Money

On the rainy evening of June 26, 1959, 18,215 fans at Yankee Stadium in New York watched 196-pound, 4 to - 1 underdog Ingemar Johansson of Gothenburg, Sweden, win a knockout victory over 182-pound Floyd Patterson. Referee Ruby Goldstein halted the bout in 2:03 of the third round.

After two rounds of minor action, Johansson let loose a stunning right, his much vaunted "hammer of Thor," which sent Patterson reeling and flat on his back.

Six more times Patterson went down. When he staggered up after the seventh knockdown, Goldstein stopped the fight. By scoring seven knockdowns in one round, Johansson had equaled a heavyweight-title-fight record set by Jack Dempsey against Luis Firpo in 1923.

In terms of the live gate, the fight was a financial failure for promoter William Rosensohn, but it grossed more than $1 million in closed-circuit telecasts. This was the dawning of an age when money was to be made, not from the live audience, but from TV.

Johansson, born September 22, 1932, was lively, handsome, and gregarious, with a lust for life that he shared with his lovely fiancee, Birgit Lundgren. A many-sided man, Johansson showed ability not only as a sportsman, but also as a singer, actor, and businessman who made a sizable fortune outside the ring.

Having won the International Golden Gloves in 1951, and eighty of his eighty-nine amateur matches, he went on to participate in the 1952 Olympic finals in Helsinki, but was disqualified for "not trying" in his fight with Ed Sanders of the United States.

From the time he turned professional until his ascension to the heavyweight throne, Johansson scored twenty-two straight victories, fourteen by kayos. Included in the string was the defeat of Franco Cavicchi, of Italy, in 1956, for the European heavyweight title.

When he fought Patterson the second time, at New York's Polo Grounds, on June 22, 1960, Johansson faced a man who was looking, not for revenge, but rather for personal redemption from the humiliation he had suffered in losing his title. A bigger, stronger, and restyled Patterson knocked out Johansson in 1:51 of the fifth round.

From the beginning, Patterson, weighing 190 pounds, was the aggressor, keeping the 194-pound defending champion off balance with left jabs and two-handed flurries. By the fourth round Johansson was standing off balance, with his feet wide apart, but he kept boxing himself out of serious trouble.

Forty-nine seconds into the fifth round Patterson landed a blazing left hook to the jaw that sent Johansson down for a count of nine. On his feet again, Johansson tried to keep going, but a barrage of lefts and rights and a final left hook caught Johansson's chin and knocked him cold.

A crowd of 31,892 who paid $824,814 and a closed-circuit-TV audience of 500,000 who paid $2 million were witnesses while Patterson, by reclaiming the heavyweight crown, accomplished what other heavyweight champions had attempted and failed to do. The Ring Boxing Encyclopedia lists unsuccessful attempts by James J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, James J. Jeffries, Jack Dempsey, Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ingemar Johansson, Sonny Liston.

A third Patterson-Johansson bout took place in Miami Beach on March 13, 1961. Patterson and Johansson were the heaviest in their careers at 1941 and 2061 respectively.

Patterson retained his title by knocking out Johansson in 2:25 of the sixth round with a sharp left, then an overhand chopping right that struck Johansson high on the side of his head. Johansson started to get to his feet, then pitched forward. He got up a split second after referee Bill Regan reached the count of ten. Films confirmed the referee's decision.

The fight was clumsily sporadic. What the crowd of 13,984 spectators saw was the bloody pounding of two fighters out to annihilate each other.

The scorecards of referee Bill Regan and judges Carl Gardner and Gus Jacobson all showed Patterson ahead in four of the five rounds before the knockout. Johansson's boxing career wasn't quite over. He won back the European heavyweight title on June 17, 1962, by knocking out Dick Richardson. Then he retired in mid-1963 to devote his full time to business.

Patterson's last successful defense of his crown was against the strong, game, but woefully inexperienced Tom McNeeley, December 4, 1961, at Toronto. A crowd of 7,813 watched McNeeley hit the canvas ten times. A left to the jaw ended the fiasco in round four.

After two years of waiting in the number-one contender's spot, Charles (Sonny) Liston got his chance against Patterson September 25, 1962, in Chicago. At 212, he outweighed Patterson by 25 pounds and outreached him thirteen inches.

Sonny was in control from the beginning, pounding both hands to Patterson's body and jabbing accurately. The end came when the second of two powerful lefts decked Patterson in 2:06 of the first round. The 18,894 fans were stunned at the speed with which the bout ended. Liston had the honor of landing the third-fastest knockout in heavyweight history.

The fastest was 1:28 credited to Tommy Burns in his match with Bill Squires, while Joe Louis scored the secondfastest when he dispatched Max Schmeling in 2:04 in their return bout.

Liston was born May 8, 1932, on a marginal farm in Arkansas, to a field hand. He was probably the most disliked heavyweight the United States had spawned since Jack Johnson won the title in 1919 and had the newspapers calling for a "white hope."

Reputedly one of twenty-five children, Liston ran away to St. Louis, where at the age of thirteen he joined a bad crowd that, in his words was "just always lookin' for trouble." After serving time in prison, he became associated with unsavory underworld characters. His 6-foot-1 half-inch height, 220-pound weight, 17 inch neck, 14-inch fists, an often sullen expression, and his checkered past all contributed to his being cast in the role of bad guy.

When Liston was eighteen, the Missouri penitentiary athletic director, Father Alous Stevens, encouraged Liston to take up boxing. Five years later, in 1953, he won the Golden Gloves. He turned pro shortly afterward.

On the way up, Liston fought thirty-four fights, knocking out twenty three opponents and losing only to Marty Marshall in an eight-round decision in 1954.

Patterson was given a rematch on July 22, 1963, at Convention Hall in Las Vegas, with the odds 5 to 1 against him. Again Liston outweighed his opponent 2151 to 194k, and again Patterson could do little to retaliate for the torrent of powerful blows Liston delivered.

Counted out in 2:10 of the first round by referee Harry Krause, Patterson had landed only one substantial punch, a hard right to the jaw following his own first knockdown.

Patterson was decked once, more before the knockout, preceded by a flurry of rights and lefts to his head. Liston's left hook and crushing right to the ribs set Patterson up for a right and left that crumpled the ex-champ.