Round Three

In some ways, the prefight pattern was familiar. As he had twice before, U.S. Heavyweight Floyd Patterson stuck grimly to his job of clouting sparring partners in preparation for a championship bout with Sweden's Ingemar Johansson. And although Ingo was working harder than ever before in the training ring, he was still surrounded with all the lush appurtenances of life, including perennial fiancee Birgit Lundgren.

Champion Patterson had rented a villa on Florida's east coast, just a stroll away from the Atlantic surf. But Patterson could hardly have cared less. "This is a vacation spot," he said. "But I'm not here for fun." Sixty-five miles northward, at Palm Beach's Sea Breeze motel, Challenger Johansson took his turn in an open-air, rooftop training ring, and dunked himself in a nearby, palm-girdled swimming pool. "Ah," said Ingo, "this is the perfect place."

Study in Contrasts. Next week at Miami Beach, Patterson and Johansson will meet in their third fight for the heavyweight championship of the world. In the first bout. Challenger Johansson knocked out Champion Patterson with a bombardment of right hands. In the second, Patterson knocked out Ingo with a left hook, became the first deposed heavyweight champion to regain the title. The fights proved that both Patterson and Johansson can hit-and be hit. And making matters even more interesting is the fact that the two are a study in contrasting styles and personalities.

Sweden's Johansson is breezy and confident. Despite his drubbing in the second fight-he was still groggy an hour after the finish-Ingo still talks at times as if Patterson were just a preliminary boy. "I have no more respect for him as a boxer than I had in the first fight," he says. Ingo even stayed unruffled last week when the U.S. Internal Revenue Service socked him with a suit for $598,000 in back taxes. He would, he said, willingly fight even if his third-fight purse were tied up. "If I didn't fight," he said deadpan, "the American Government wouldn't get all that money."

New Message. For the first time, Playboy Johansson was all business in the training ring. He was trying to develop a left hand to complement his crashing right-but there were doubts that his left would ever be very dangerous. Moreover, Johansson still has not corrected the basic mistake of dropping his right hand, which last time left him open to Patterson's left hook. But the way Ingo explains his defeat, he tried to lean back from Patterson's left instead of ducking under it. This time, he says, he will duck.

He may have to, for in training Patterson's left appeared sharper than ever before. At 195 lbs., he was heavier than in the past, but had lost none of his speed. For the most part, he has learned to fight out of a stable stance instead of bouncing about like a kangaroo, as he did for years. When word of Ingo's "new left" reached him, Patterson took the news seriously. "Ingemar's real sneaky," he said. "He'll have something new for me. I'll have to do likewise."

After one rugged session with Patterson, a battered sparring partner last week emerged from the ring to say: "He sends a very sincere message." In the betting on next week's fight, the odds are that Johansson will be on the receiving end of that message.

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