Ingmar Johansson's right hand-dubbed The Hammer of Thor-was the most fearsome in boxing, and Johansson's three fights with Floyd Patterson rank among the sport's classic rivalries. Yet most fans know little about the Swedish playboy who won the world heavyweight championship with a shocking third round knockout of Patterson and held it for six days short of a year (1959-1960). During his brief reign, the raffish Ingo hit fashionable nightspots on two continents, romanced Elizabeth Taylor and refused to kowtow to the mobsters who controlled boxing.

This first-ever biography of Johansson chronicles his fistic triumphs as a Goteborg teen prodigy, his humiliating disqualification for cowardice at the 1952 Olympics, his story-book romance with Birgit Lundgren and his post-career life and tragic early dementia.