Early Career
Johansson's introduction to the sport's limelight was inauspicious. He was disqualified for running from the eventual Olympic gold medalist, Ed Sanders, during the final of the Helsinki 1952 Summer Olympics heavyweight competition. Johansson maintained he was not fleeing Sanders, but rather was trying to tire his huge opponent for a planned third round onslaught. Johansson said he had been limited to a 10-day training camp, he had been trained by novices and he had been told by his team leader to let Sanders be the aggressor. Nevertheless, his silver medal was withheld for this poor performance, but he was presented with the medal in 1982.
After the Olympics Johansson went into seclusion for six months, and considered quitting boxing. But he returned to the ring and turned professional under the guidance of the Swedish publisher and boxing promoter Edwin Ahlquist, and won his first 21 professional fights. He captured the Scandinavian pro title by knocking down and outscoring the Dane Erik Jensen (breaking his vaunted right hand in the process) A broken hand and a one year military service kept him out of the ring until late 1954. In August 1955, in his twelfth professional fight, Johansson knocked out former European Heavyweight Champion Hein Ten Hoff in the first round. He took the Scandinavian heavyweight title in 1953 and September 30, 1956 he won the European Heavyweight championship by scoring a 13 round KO over Italy’s Franco Cavicchi in 13 rounds in Milan for the European title.
Johansson successfully defended his European Crown against ranked heavyweights Henry Cooper (5th round KO on May 19, 1957) and Joe Erskine, whom he TKOed in 13 on February 21, 1958.
Read more about this topic: Ingemar Johansson
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