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Former heavyweight champ dies

Stockholm - Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the world heavyweight title in 1959, has died, a long-time friend said Saturday. He was 76.

Johansson died at 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 world champion died just before midnight on 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 kilometres from his old house where he grew up.

Johansson knocked out Patterson in the third round at Yankee Stadium in New York on June 26, 1959, to win the world 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. when Johansson became only the fifth-ever heavyweight champion born outside the United States. Swedish newspapers printed extra editions with the man known affectionately as "Ingo" on the cover.

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

In the rematch, Patterson avenged the upset loss a year later with a fifth-round knockout in New York. In March 1961, the Swede floored Patterson twice in Miami before being knocked out by the American in the sixth round. Patterson died in 2006.

Johansson had four more fights, all wins and one including a knockout victory over England's Dick Richardson for the European title in 1962, before retiring in 1963. 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 punch in his right hand dubbed "Ingo's Bingo" and the "Hammer of Thor."

Although not regarded as one of the all-time greats, he was a force in Europe where he captured the heavyweight title in 1956 and retained it twice, including a win over Henry Cooper of England. Johansson was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2002.

As an amateur, Johansson went 61-10 (31 KOs). 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 used his runaway tactics trying to lure his American opponent Ed Sanders on to his right-hand counter. The Swede finally received his silver medal 30 years later from the International Olympic Committee.

After leaving boxing as a wealthy man, Johansson became a businessman. 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 also survived by five children. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
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