School me on Carlos Monzon...

Great.

Not necessarily a spectacular performer just brutally effective.

#2 All Time.

Valdez, Briscoe, Benvenuti, Napoles and Griffith.

I don`t know of anyone that he ducked. He retired before Hagler reached his peak.

Yes

All of them. His entire body of work.

PS
He was no Cerdan

 

His Carriage.

That is all you need understand.

 

This.

He was just excellent. And I rank him first or second behind greb depending what day it is.

He is not a guy everyone enjoys watching, he will not give you fights that are action packed wars, but he will give you one of the greatest displays of skill ever. He knew how to time opponents and win fights with a steady work rate.

I love Monzon and I feel like he is often overlooked on ATG lists. He was never blessed with supreme speed or strength, he was all skill.

 

How many of these guys were blown up welters, or old/ near the end of their career when Monzon beat them?

 

Briscoe and Valdez are both younger. Griffith was on a 10 fight win streak going into the fight with one of them being a win against dick tiger, won 6 in a row immediately after the loss, and then beat Bennie briscoe a year after his 2nd loss to Monzon. Napoles was blown up from welter, but he moved up and challenged Monzon. Only one this argument works for is Benvenuti.

 

Simply the best middleweight ever with the possible exception of Sugar Ray Robinson(whom I have never seen) but have read plenty about.:good

 

Brisco was tough, but he won't be on too many atg lists. It's pretty well known that Valdez was not mentally ready for their first fight, due to the murder of his brother. Their second fight was very close. I will pick Hagler over Monzon on most days.

 

Briscoe was a very good, very tough fighter. Philly was a vicious town at that time especially the middleweights. Some fighters left it in the gym because of those legnendary Gym Wars in Philadelphia. Just being able to come out of Philly and separate himself from the rest of those guys shows his quality.

Briscoe on the resume looks strong. I don`t see anyone today that would prevent Briscoe from winning the title.

 

Excellent, like most will mention, very effective. In some fights his entire arsenal seemed to consist of the straight one/two down the pipe....but he was very consistent and accurate. A master at pacing and 'judging' a fight in his head, with a sound awareness of the scorecards. He seemed imperious, but despite his record he wasn't unbeatable.

He has to be top 5. Arguably top 3 and in the bunch of contenders for the top slot.

Valdes 1 and 2 for me, a fine fighter in his prime, followed by Benvenuti and Napoles (which ended up looking a bit of a mis-match but Jose was widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the game for the previous few years).

The Valdes fight should have happened earlier but one of the reasons was that Rodrigo didn't agree on the Monzon camp's offer (he can hardly be blamed, as it was a relatively poor purse and the fight held in Argentina) and he was accused of ducking Tony Mundine back in the day- who was his mandatory for a while before they fought. He only agreed on the fight after Mundine had been beaten up by Briscoe.

 

I'm not saying Valdez was superior to Monzon, no way. Although he was younger than Carlos he turned pro in 1962 at the age of 16.
They were I think equally seasoned and war torn when they fought.
Going into their two-bout quinella, both were clearly past prime.
I could compare their scraps along the lines of the "Thrilla in Manilla". A great fight but with two fighters past prime.
Frazier was in his 11th year of fighting. Ali was in his 15th, with a three year layoff.
With Monzon-Valdez you're looking at fighters in their 15th-16th year of fighting professionally.
Just something to consider.

 

Great fighter who was exclusively a 160lb fighter, fought tall could punch and boxed well. I rate him top 5 ATG at middleweight behind Greb, SRR, just above Hagler who is also top 5

 

Very good, very complete, would beat most MWs in history but not really excellent at any facet of the sport for me and I think a good few do beat him and are better MWs.

Other have answered your other Qs better than I can :good

 

Great fighter with strong skillset. Definitely a top 5 middle, and probably him and Marvin Hagler would end up a draw.Though he wouldn't have let Roberto Duran last past six rounds that's for sure.

 

Why? Monzon was no destroyer.