Did Zora Folley and Eddie Machen deserve title shots against Floyd Patterson?

"In 58, Folley beat world title challenger Rademacher and Joe Bygraves."

Is this satire? Rademacher had never won a pro fight. Bygraves is probably not in the top five guys Harris defeated.

"Who had the better heavyweight career Valdes or Pastrano?"

The ratings you credit so much put Pastrano ahead of Valdes in 1955, 1956, and 1957. If you value their opinions so much about Folley, why don't you value their opinions about Pastrano?

Valdes from 1953-1954 is not relevant. One can certainly make a case for Rex Layne, whom Pastrano beat, as having a better career than Valdes, with victories not only over Charles, but also over Walcott and Satterfield, but all that was earlier also.

Who again was the best man Folley defeated in 1957 and 1958. Pete Rademacher? Joe Bygraves? Says it all.

 

"But Pastrano above Valdes? I think not."

But Pastrano lost to Harris. And Pastrano was rated above Valdes when Harris defeated him. The bottom line here is that no one beat Harris in the 1950's except Patterson, and he defeated a number of fighters who were or had been highly rated.

 

I think this question about the #1 and #2 men fighting to a draw is not clear cut.

The closest analogy I can think of is college football. If the #1 team plays the #2 team to a boring draw and both look bad, do they hold their positions over the undefeated #3 team in the polls?

I think opinion would be split.

 

Going into 1958, Machen deserved the shot and should not have had to fight Folley or Harris.

After drawing with Folley, Machen was damaged goods, so he or Harris were six of one and a half dozen of the other.

I don't think Folley had a convincing claim over Harris.

By the way, digging up a past quote from me means nothing. My thinking is always evolving. I am learning new things every day.

 

I agree that there is no reason for Machen, the #1, to have had to fight Folley, the #2.

As for Harris, he was in military training, so he couldn't take part in an elimination.

Life isn't fair, and I don't think it was fair to Machen to force him to fight an elimination when he had proven himself the outstanding contender.

Does anyone know who exactly was behind mandating the Machen-Folley fight?

 

That helped Pastrano, but Johnson was one of those guys who fought well when older.

I am certainly not saying that overall Pastrano matches Johnson. I do think he edged their fight.

 

The British guys only beat each other and had those titles that were overrated but really didn’t deserve being top world contenders. The wins they had over American contenders were only fights in England getting hometown decisions. No offense but it’s true. Henry Cooper was a solid guy (nothing great) but even he got away with ducking Chuvalo.

 

Machen was #1 for over a year, I believe.