Ghosts in the Machine

In 1969, former undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano climbed into the ring to defend his recently won All-Time Heavyweight Championship against a young Muhammad Ali. The result, a thirteen round thriller. The entire bout was scripted by a computer, but the competitors were real, Marciano, forty-five, retired for thirteen years, Ali, twenty-seven, recently stripped of his title for refusing induction into the Armed Services. Who would...
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In 1969, former undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano climbed into the ring to defend his recently won All-Time Heavyweight Championship against a young Muhammad Ali. The result, a thirteen round thriller.

The entire bout was scripted by a computer, but the competitors were real, Marciano, forty-five, retired for thirteen years, Ali, twenty-seven, recently stripped of his title for refusing induction into the Armed Services.

Who would emerge victorious, who would be forever immortalized as the king of kings, and would the arguments over the result ever end.

This book is the final work of one of the few witnesses to a remarkable oddity in sport, the late Ferdie Pacheco, in collaboration with Marciano biographer John Cameron, and is presented just as Ferdie left it before he passed into the Valhalla of boxing to be reunited with the fighters he witnessed, tended to, and befriended during his incredible journey through life.