Could Folley have outboxed Patterson in early 1960 before Liston beat Zora? Folley had beaten the usual suspects of the late fifties, beat Valdez and drew/beat Machen. I think Folley would have been too cautious and lost a decision to Patterson even if he had got the title shot.
I think you are right. I like Zora Folley and he was quite a good boxer. But Floyd's edge in power and speed would have kept Zora on the defensive and he would have lost the decision.
Folley is not strong chinned and I think Patterson would be able to finish him off late. Folley is better than anyone Patterson fought in his title reign with the exception of Ingo and deserved a title shot, it would have been a good fight and Folley would have a very good chance to outbox him and win on points. But Patterson is an under rated puncher and I think 15 rounds would be too long for Folley to survive more often than not.
I think Floyd was slightly better in all departments but Zora would have been competitive,and Patterson would have to be on top of his game.
The interesting thing about Patterson is that he fought better men post title reign ... he was over protected by D'Amato ... I like him over Folley ..
Yes he did ,after losing his title he took on many good fighters ,even when past his prime he was very competitive with the likes of Quarry and Ellis,and beating Bonavena and Chuvalo.Floyd has a solid resume imo.
I think that if Floyd was able to defeat Eddie Machen, then he would take Zora Folley as well, as I believe Machen was tougher than Folley.
tougher? maybe but better? NO WAY. folley was clearly the more talented of the two and it showed in there fight where folley won a WIDE easy decision over machen, by outboxing him. folley had the better jab, was the better boxer. what film of a prime zora folley have u seen? ps Machen was way past it by 64. I have the fight, machen looked awful he had declined physically and took a horrible beating by floyd.
Sometimes "tougher" trumps being "better" such as in Machen's and Folley's common fights against Liston. Folley was supposed to be so damned good, yet he caved against Liston, whereas Machen went the limit against theBear, and although he lost, it was a ballsy, honorable performance that no one could be ashamed of. The same attribute called "toughness" may have spelled the difference in a Patterson-Folley bout. I don't believe that Folley would have been able to deal with the handspeed and determination of a post-Liston Patterson, and may very well not have fared as well as even Machen did against Floyd. I've never been too impressed with Folley's chin, and Floyd, again the post-Liston version of him is still underrated, IMO.
