Eddie Machen did really well against Sonny Liston

Heres what I think happen....

The scorecards were read correctly. Instead of Deducting Liston three points, the judges ADDED on 3 points to Machens card.


So referee: Whitey Domstad 119-112 was originally 119-109 liston or 11 rounds to 1...plus add 3 points to machen makes it 119-112

judge: Sam Heller 118-116 originally 118-113 changed and added 3 points to machens card

judge: Ely Caston 118-114 orginally 118-111




But Mcgrain dont jump to conclusions and assume it was a split decision, because you will give people the wrong idea if its a false assumption(which it prob is) and only add fuel to liston critics fire. Liston won the machen fight clearly and undisputably....Machen won no more than 3 rounds out of 12 even with the deductions.

 

A score of 118-113 (without point deductions) doesn't really make sense either, or he should've scored 3 rounds a draw or so?

 

Good fight.

I am sure Cassius Clay studied it many times before going after Liston.

 

Your right...perhaps 3 even rounds?

 

Well, it was certainly one of those fights where in several rounds you can't really justify giving it to one or the other. A few clean but not so hard punches vs a lot of not so well-landing ones. The classic James Toney problem.

 

The amazing thing about this fight is that Machen had an injured hand going in and if you watch you can see he basically fights Liston one handed and still gave a good account of himself.

 

It was my understanding that his right hand was the injured one, but that's primarily used for defense when boxing an orthodox opponent out of the orthodox stance. An injured jabbing and hooking hand would be far more problematic.

Many years after reading about Machen's injured hand, I saw their match for the first time (in it's entirety). Of course one of the things I looked for was evidence of this impairment. While I'm sure the impact of his right must have been diminished considerably, I was impressed that he didn't appear to be protectively troubled by it. He was not the one-armed bandit Frazier or Conteh sometimes resembled.

 

I disagree, Machen had a beautiful sneak right hand and he fought almost exclusively with his left.

I also disagree that Frazier appeared a one armed bandit. He was famous for his left hook but he used his right affectively, particularly inside. A one armed bandit was Tua. That guy could have chopped his right arm off and it would have changed his style one iota.