Sounds like a pretty exciting boxer vs swarmer matchup, although neither were in their prime. Was it a pure KO or a Marciano-LaStarza wear you down type of TKO? Was it one-sided or competitive untill the 10th?
I too, was thinking about this fight just today. Always feel that this is a risky type of match for an upandcoming fighter to take.
It is on film. Frazier pounded him with Machen fighting defensively for the most part. Machen did not show the movement he did against Liston, so there was a great deal of infighting. The referee stopped the fight in the 10th round, but Machen did not appear to be hurt. It seemed an arbitrary stoppage.
That's pretty much the way I saw it. The full color footage of Frazier/Machen occasionally pops up on-line. Eddie's toughness is much in evidence, while Joe does display a certain degree of respect and caution for Machen at times.
It is on film, and I have seen rounds of it in color. It follows basically the same pattern throughout, with young Frazier swarming and battering him to the body and old Machen, who lacks the kind of speed he once possessed, basically unable to keep out of trouble. Machen fights pretty conservatively, covers up a fair deal and shoots in a few good shots of his own over the course of the match. Machen doesn't really look to be in serious trouble at the time of the stoppage, but he's an old fighter who's hopelessly behind, clearly not going to turn it around and has taken a pretty bad beating, so the ref decides to call it off.
The bout was one sided for the entire ten rounds, but it was remarkable because of Machen's staying power. Eddie showed a lot of slippery defensive manuevers, and this is what kept Frazier from knocking him out sooner. Another interesting thing about the match is that Machen often stood toe-to-toe with Frazier. Machen wasn't really trading with Joe, but at close quarters he smothered or slipped many of Frazier's shots. It was always just a matter of time before Frazier ended the fight. He was always in control. Films of this fight are widely available, and sometimes they are shown on channels like ESPN2 (where I saw it).
