Sonny Liston was robbed

The fight between Mcneely and Patterson was shown on closed circuit TV at 150 locations in the United States and Canada. The closed circuit show included Sonny Liston v Albert Whestphal from Philadelphia. So they were on the same show. This was in order to promote the up coming fight with Liston.

 

In 1958 #1 Machen and #2 Foley fought an official title eliminator with the winner set to meet Patterson in an outdoor match four months later.

The fight stank. It ended in a draw. With an outdoor venue set to meet the winner, and there was no winner, the champ couldn’t sit and wait for a rematch of a fight between two guys who already put up such a bad fight. It would be a hard fight for a promoter to make money on..both guys would need to regroup with a better win to draw an audience. So Instead The next highest rated challenger, Harris, was installed for the title shot four months later because there was no time for that.


“Top ranking heavyweights Eddie Machen and Zora Folley failed by far to determine a clear-cut title challenger last night in their 12 round draw. Most of the crowd of 11,759, which paid a gross of $95,755 to watch the goings-on at the Cow Palace, booed lustily at dull action on occasion. Machen, rated the No. 1 contender, seemed baffled by the potent left jab of the No. 2 challenger for Floyd Patterson's crown. Eddie flurried in the closing rounds and that brought him from defeat." -Associated Press

Unofficial Scorecards:

• AP - 117-116 Folley
• UP - 117-115 Machen
• San Mateo Times - 117-115 Folley
• Oakland Tribune - 117-115 Machen

Post fight comment: "It was a terrible fight. Machen wasn't sharp and Folley weakened." - Joe Louis”

 

No. At the time, it was looking possible that Henry Cooper was going to be up next. If he could win his rematch with Zora Folley, which didn't go to plan.

 

I am going to have to look at my 1960s collection of magazines again. I am certain the whole point of the closed circuit mcneeley and Westphal double header was to advertise an upcoming showdown between Liston and Patterson. Both fighting on the same card.

Sonny was not available to fight from July to October 1961 because of a suspension from boxing over brushes with the police.

 

I think that's true up to a point, in that by this time Liston was the obvious top contender and it was widely hoped that he would get a title shot the following year, but it wasn't a done deal. D'Amato made no secret of his preference for Cooper.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AAIBAJ&sjid=B4sEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5848,407911&hl=en

 

Nice to read posts by posters that know what they are on about, not wafflers.

 

No doubt Cus wanted it that way, though We cannot be sure D’Amato was referring to Sonny needing to stay out of trouble after his recent suspension.

Ultimately having both fought on the same card, the next fight for both Sonny and Floyd was with each other.

Those who say Floyd was ducking Liston need to know that the title was contracted to automatic rematches.

Then once the series between Floyd and Ingo out of the way, the first appearance of Liston, after his suspension from boxing, was against Westphal on the same card Floyd fought mcneeley.

No doubt Sonny needed a warm up after his suspension and Floyd needed a warm up after winning the series against Ingo.

Then they fought each other.

 

Man, what are you watching to suggest that Liston could beat prime Frazier and Ellis in 1968? After Ali he fought a mix of cans and gatekeepers until he was blasted out by Martin. Have you seen that fight? Put Frazier in there and he clears Liston out in a few rounds. Ellis would take a wide decision.

 

Yeah, Liston "easily beating" Frazier in '68 is a bold prediction without a doubt.

 

To be fair, Sonny looked excellent against Henry Clark, a good fighter, and if you compare how others did against Clark, who was always a live handful, you have to say Sonny did as good a job as any of them here.

What we don’t know about that performance Is was Sonny that good because his experience prevented Clark testing the resistance Sonny had left at that point of his career.

Sometimes a shot fighter can get away with looking closer to his prime so long as he isn’t getting hit back.

Guys like Errol Christie and Johnny Bumpuss had terrible trouble with their legs while everything else still worked fine. We don’t know if that was Sonny’s problem because he was kind of matched to win in the fights he could get during the period he was black balled after the Ali fights.

Clark was a step up. Scrap iron Johnson was another good test. And Sonny was passing them.

I saw the film of scrap iron against Joe Bugner..and scrap iron gave Bugner a harder fight than he was able to against an old Liston.

 

I think he was good enough to be in that tournament, but he was never popular to begin with and the way he handled himself in the two Ali fights made him a pariah for the rest of his career. I certainly don't think any of the other contenders wanted anything to do with him, since he was all risk and no reward.

 

Absolutely. Sonny by then was a guy who could still hit like he always could yet he had the experience going back to a whole other generation. Why would anyone want to fight that guy?

There was always that chance that things had caught up with Sonny, that the chin and legs were not what they were, but who was going to take that chance?

It took Leotis to find that out. But what a roll of the dice! Even winning that fight ended martins career. Some price to pay..

 

I agree. I think Frazier likely would've prevailed in that time period, but why would you even go out of your way to fight him knowing he's going to be a tough match-up stylistically despite his age, when there are much higher rated contenders who are easy fights for you?

 

Really good point.