Should Floyd Patterson be criticized for for defending his title against

No Rademacher was about making money. Pete got out of the olympics with a lot of press and dreamed up the idea of jumping right into a title match. It had never been attempted before and it captured the public imagination. Pete put that together almost single handedly and got financing together to offer Patterson a boatload of money to entice him. Its called PRIZEFIGHTING and Patterson would have been a fool to pass it up. No fighter in history would have turned his nose up at that payday.

 

Get a clue grant. I wouldnt ask teddy atlas for directions to the toilet much less his opinion on two people who fired him. The amount of times hes lied and made a fool of himself in a very public manner pretty much disqualifies him as a reiable source. Sucker punches, trying to kill one of his fighters, pointing a gun at another that was a teenager, lying about pac, railing against corruption while training a mob controlled fighter, yeah real classy reliable guy. "Harrassing under age girls" sounds real bad until you realize tyson was under age as well. But the king of not understanding context wouldnt care about that would you. I guess you never grabbed a girls ass as a teenager. Whatever. Who got ducked that would have easily crushed Patterson?? Liston? He got his shot. Folley and machen?? Neither of those guys would have been favored over Patterson who hit harder than both and was a faster/better boxer than both. Outside of a lucky punch machen and folley arent beating patterson. Whether you think cus (and everyone else who hated liston) was wrong for trying to keep a thug/felon/convict from the richest prize in the sport is irrelevent. The fact remains that it wasnt an unpopular notion at the time so your monday morning quarterbacking is pointless.

 

Under a different set if circumstances I agree. But I just can't think when it could have been using the dates that Floyd did defend the title and compare that with Machens schedule.


Machen did not win a fight during the entire year of 1958. Why should Eddie Machen get a title shot that year?

Machen had some good wins in 1957 but that was the year Jackson was rated above him. Machen had to beat Jackson in November to climb above him ...and he did this AFTER Patterson had already knocked Jackson out. He was then in line for an eliminator rather than an outright shot.

Then comes the disastrous 1958 where he flunked two elliminators.

1959, 1960 and 1961 the title was frozen during the Ingo serries. But no matter because Sonny Liston established himself by then. Eddie lost to Folley, Harold Johnson and Liston during this time.

1962 machen drew ANOTHER cautiously fought eliminator ruining his chance to meet the winner of Liston v Patterson.

Machen was a top contender for a long time. Good fighter. But his record in world title elliminators and vacant WBA title fights is 0-2-2. He had four chances but blew all of them.

I can't think where the window for Machen was during this time. Machen might be the best contender never to fight a real champion. He was certainly better than many challengers. Proberbly 90%..

 

Because this was written after the fight.

"His two top contenders Eddie Machen and Zora Folley disqualified themselves' with a static "strictly pay day'" fight before'14,000 (12,000 paid) fans booing their lungs out at tlfe Cow Palace last night."

[url]http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/51897812/[/url]

[url]http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=DIL19580410.2.82[/url]

[url]http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1958/04/10/page/91/article/machen-folley-draw-in-12[/url]

Machen also claimed he injured his shoulder and wouldn't be ready for Patteron's June defense, which was already two months away. Machen/Folley had been postponed already because of Machen claiming an injured shoulder. And Folley was protesting the decision.


Harris was the least messy option.

 

Machen and Folley were the #1 and #2 when they fought. Harris had just beat #3 Pastrano.

 

Ideally yes, but was machen going to stay idle for nine months? Around this time champions fought outdoors during the summer months. The Jackson win was in November. nine months was quite a wait for contenders in those days with ratings changing monthly.

As good as Machens run was in 1956-57 his wins were against guys who lost their previous fight. Mederos, Summerlin, maxim, Baker, Holman, Valdes and Jackson. Great list but was it that unfair to request a win against Folley who went 12-0 in 1957 to see if he can also beat a winner to keep the public intrest going until the champion would defend in the summer?

To use IBA speak, I still think Machen was unlucky as the logical contender to be asked to face an outstanding contender in an elliminator.