When he considered his right-hand punch, Ingemar Johansson spoke in terms of muted and mystical awe that such a thing could be. "The arm works by itself," said he. "It is faster than the eye. When I hit any man, he cannot stand up."
But the fight experts only grinned and shrugged off Challenger Johansson, 26, as a good, clean-cut Swedish kid, an import of blue-eyed, dimpled innocence who would be diced into smorgasbord by the flashing attack of Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson. Nobody was impressed by the fact that Johansson was undefeated in...