On June 26, 1959, Sweden's Ingemar Johansson, who died on Jan. 30 at age 76, stunned the boxing world by knocking out heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. Patterson's four title defenses before he met Johansson had been against fighters who, at best, weren't even household names in their own households. And Johansson, a European heavyweight champion, was believed to be but another in that line, even though he had a 21-0 record with 13 knockouts.
But Johansson, thought to have so little chance that he was a 4-1 underdog, unsheathed his vaunted right hand--which he called his "toonder and lightning"--in the third...