The Zora Folley vs Sonny Liston encounter of July 18 1960.

Still, incredible it wasn’t filmed. However, I bet it was filmed by a keen 8mm enthusiast.
Back then, and up until VHS, that was a boxing enthusiast’s tool for recording on - site or setting the camera up in front of a TV.
A 3” reel or two, may well be languishing in an old cardboard box in some Denver residence, let’s hope so, and found!

 

In fairness to Machen, one of his arms - the right? - was so badly injured that he couldn't use it. To have that and go the distance with peak Liston is no mean feat.

 

This story pretty much is in line with the news coverage … and it was big news, leading most of the sports sections … that I just looked up on Newspapers.com. Although that coverage while acknowledging Folley’s good start and his courage after the knockdown in coming after Liston seemed to be along the lines of “Sonny was just biding his time in both instances” and there was zero way this was going to end positively for Folley.

Also the real time newspaper coverage said Sonny wanted Johansson, apparently Ingemar pissed him off by not letting him be introduced prior to Patterson-Johansson II.

IMO that would have been really ugly for Ingemar …

 

Just curious Boke, was this injury revealed before or after the fight?

 

I don't know, probably after, but it's very visible from the footage from memory.

 

Yeah, I’d have to watch it again. No love lost between that pair. Lol. I think I did find a contemporary prefight article some time back online - I’ll see if I can drum it up when I get the chance.

 

Couldn’t find the prefight article mentioned above but did find this nice post fight summation. No mention of Machen carrying an injury.

Not to say Eddie didn’t have an injury but some years after the fact of his fight vs Liston, it seems he tried to jump on the bad wagon (following Liston vs Ali Feb 64) when claiming that he “too” was blinded by a substance on Liston’s gloves.

Arm/hand injured or not, I believe Machen’s evasion and reluctance to engage ultimately saved him from an early night.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/38...9.yOV4V1UJUgyoV7gXHk_YFbGefrb6C7wZuZdI-wo21mw

 

The reason that I tend to believe the injury is that he looked very one armed on film as I remember it. But might be worth watching again.

And, yes, Machen going toe to toe with Liston is only going to end one way, injury or no.

 

To be fair to Machen, I'm fairly certain he made the claim regarding his arm, fairly soon post-fight. You're correct, he tried to jump on the band wagon regarding being blinded by Liston's gloves. At no point, does he seem to be having irritation in his eyes.

I think Machen just met his match, and knew it. He was a level above guys like Valdez, about on par with the likes of Williams, Terrell, and Folley (I actually think Machen was the better H2H fighter between the two despite the results), a level below the elites like Patterson, Ali, and Liston.

 

Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

I found this clipping and it deals with both the blinding claim and the arm injury.

The former claim is dismissed but the latter claim of an arm injury (how or when isn’t provided) made straight after the fight is confirmed - and the writer states he’d accept the arm injury claim based on how Machen fought.

It doesn’t necessarily prove Machen’s claim re his arm to be true.

It would primarily come down to whether you feel that an injury is reasonably reflected during the fight. Some might say yes, others might perhaps say no.

Liston had a battery of Drs confirm his left shoulder injury in Miami yet there are observers who believe there is no indication of inhibited movement on Sonny’s part.

I wonder how often Machen repeated the immediate post fight claim - years later, in light of Ali-Liston 1, it appeared the orig. arm injury claim fell back, giving full way to a seriously belated claim of being blinded.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/45...9.s_w3JJTKc-bW4C_-wWKiG3F1qbDIhQA8ncDFnB-hKIE