Young Machen K.O.'s Nino Valdes (1956) This content is protected 1956-07-11 : Eddie Machen 192 lbs beat Nino Valdes 216½ lbs by KO in round 8 of 10 Location: Auditorium, Miami Beach, Florida, USA Referee: Bill Regan 67-66 Judge: Gus Jacobson 67-64 Judge: Fred Aaronson 63-66 "Eddie Machen, from Redding, Calif., bent Valdez like a jackknife with a thudding right to the stomach in the 8th round. Ten seconds later Nino, lying on his side, was counted out for the first time in his career." -Associated Press Post fight comment: "The kid's still green. He's got alot to learn. When I think he's ready for bigger fights, I'll get them for him." -Sid Flaherty, Machen's manager
To think Machen won by knockout whilst being 24 pounds the smaller man. Just was not a big deal in those days. Eddie was a hard luck story. He definitely looked championship material but is a classic example of being matched too hard, too often. It is unbelievable a fighter that good did not get a shot at the real title. In a title eliminator he drew with Zora Foley. Then He was knocked out in Sweden by Ingo which derailed him a bit, then having fought a Listons while injured, he fought all the way to another elimination which ended in another draw! The guy had no luck. And he was beating everyone else. He got a WBA fight with Terrell having fought back from losses to Patterson and Harold Johnson But it was another points loss. Tough tough guy.
To tell you how much more impressive that stoppage was, Valdes was not done at all. It's not like he was caught going downhill. He went on a winning skein shortly after that which brought him to the ranking of #2 contender in the world. But I agree, they did match Machen up hard. A true talent.
192 pounder beats a guy who weighs 216??? Really? A smaller fighter can beat someone who's bigger? Who'da thunk it???
