Highly tactical fight between two good technicians. Very close and probably goes to the cards. I’m narrowly leaning towards Michael Spinks by decision by I don’t say that with any conviction
Machen did lose to Spinks predecessor in Harold Johnson. I think Spinks was a bit better than Johnson and Johnson was no slouch.
Harold Johnson is the standard technician. Very textbook fighter worth studying for the fundamentals. I need to brush up on Machen but he got young Frazier good here. This content is protected
Look at the date of when Joe Frazier stopped Eddie Machen in round 10. The date was Nov 21 1966, 7 days after champion Muhammad Ali stopped a gunshot riddled Cleveland Big Cat Williams by TKO 3. Machen's best days were behind him when he met Frazier, Eddies last hurrah was on July 14 1966 when he snapped a 17 fight winning streak of up and coming contender Jerry Quarry by unanimous 10 round decision. Michael Spinks though a very talented World Light Heavyweight Champion and undisputed champion to boot defeated IBF Champion Larry Holmes whose legendary skills were badly deteriorating, having come very close to being dethroned in his last title defense against Carl The Truth Williams on May 19 1985 but was lucky enough to escape with a 15 round verdict. Let's suppose that the Machen that was facing 1985 Spinks was the Eddie Machen that went 12 rounds with a bigger hitter in Sonny Liston on Sept 7 1960. Machen even though was flattened in round 1 against Ingemar Johansson on Sept 14 1958, boxed Liston to go the distance in his loss. I see Machen becoming a problem for Spinks, Eddie would not be an old man that Holmes became in Sept 1985 against Spinks. I see a close fight here, Machen outboxes Michael, moving and countering him well down the stretch, Machen has taken bigger bombs from the likes of true heavyweights like Floyd Patterson, Ingo, Liston and Quarry, later to be stopped by Frazier. Machen would often avoid the Spinks Jinx to win a very close controversial decision.
I like Machen in this one. I agree with everyone that it's a competitive battle. They're both cagey and both are pretty stiff punchers. Machen was more aggressive early in his career until he ran into Ingo's bingo, then he turned cautious and fought more than his share of dull fights. But he could still turn tiger when he had an opponent in trouble. I'm impressed with how he fought Liston 12 rounds without once throwing his right hand. He'd injured it in training but, according to him he felt confident he could beat Liston with one hand! How many of his contemporaries believed in themselves that much?
