School me on Carlos Monzon...

Overrated woman beater, murderer, and piece of ****! Who did he beat? Benvenuti and Griffith were past prime but still gave him problems. Bennie Briscoe drew with him and gave him problems in their rematch. He barely beat Rodrigo Valdez. Jose Napoles was a WW... and had no business fighting Monzon. Fvckem!

 

Griffith and Benvenuti were well past prime. It doesn't matter if Griffith won a 100 fights in a row leading up to Monzon or after Monzon... he was far from prime, really far from prime. He still gave Monzon problems.

Briscoe was a tough fan favorite who was able to draw with Monzon but he was not a great fighter.

Valdez went 4-2 (2) after the Monzon rematch... he was toward the end of his career as well. Valdez did knock Monzon down and you can make a case for a Valdez win in their rematch. In their first fight Valdez had to fight Monzon even though his brother was just murdered... not exactly 100%.

 

Fact of the matter is, he beat them all and retired that way. But yeah, outside of boxing he wasn't a very good person..

 

I don't know enough about the middleweight ATG champs to say is Monzon was the best ever, but he must have been among the elites. His most prominent bouts are on youtube: check them out.

Recently I watched Monzon vs Valdez II for the first time. Many boxing guys, over the years, have described that bout as close and competitive. I don't know why. I thought Monzon really gave Valdez a beating. In my opinion, Monzon was never really in trouble or in danger of falling behind, even during the first nine rounds. The final third of the bout, of course, was won by Monzon in major way. Valdez, in fact, looked ready to fall in the 12th and 13th.

I thought the scorecards for this fight were way off. It wasn't close, in my opinion. Monzon deserved to win by margins or 9-4-2, 9-3-3, or 8-4-3, as far as I'm concerned. The judges were over-impressed by Valdez's aggression and work-rate, without taking into consideration that Monzon neutralized many of these blows by partially deflecting or completely slipping them.

This is not to say that Valdez wasn't good that night: he was quite good. I think that on this night, Valdez proved that he was no less than the second best middleweight in the world. A lesser guy than Valdez would have taken the count against Monzon that night. But still, Valdez got whipped. Hands down.

Monzon had incredible defense. Watch how he slips punches; those tactics and body movements can't be taught to a fighter. A boxer has to be born with the instinctive ability to defend himself that skillfully. It was next to impossible to hit Monzon with anything more than a single solid punch at a time.

Another of Monzon's greatest assets was his ability to sense -- at all times, regardless of what was happening -- exactly how far away his opponent's chin was, and from exactly what angle that chin could be hit. For this reason, Monzon could always beat anyone to the punch, even if they had faster hands (and his foes often did have quicker hand speed). That's because Monzon could sense the shortest and most direct punching lines, and recognize how to blindside guys by punching from unusual angles. Again, this ability cannot be taught to a fighter...he's got to be born with the capacity to fight this way. It's instinctive, and very few boxers possess innate gifts like this.

 

I watched both Benvenuti fights very closely. Nino didn't trouble Monzon as best as I can see. As for Valdez, he was tough, but thoroughly trounced by Monzon. See my comments above.

 

My gut sense is that the Monzon rematch finished Valdez. Rodrigo took some serious punishment in that fight. It's possible that Monzon's presence in the 1970s is all that kept Valdez from holding the title for years.

 

He is a good boxer top 35 all time but people confuse name value with substance and tend to rate him higher.

 

Monzon had good size, an excellent chin, very good right handed power, was deceptively strong for such a lean man, had surprising depth of game for a fighter that did not look flashy .. his stamina was exceptional but another item that distinguishes him is that he was a ruthless, stone cold, supremely confident warrior .. the man looked like a movie star version of an Aztec warrior but he was a beast. Its possible some of the very best might have outpointed him but no one was dominating him or stoping him and he'd be extremely dangerous for any of them .. an all time great without question ..