Rodrigo Valdez How Good Was He?

I will agree with all this.

And I am going to get drunk.

 

Very good. His championship tenure would have commenced earlier had the great Carlos Monzon not been on the scene

 

Not true. When Valdez became the #1 contender by beating Briscoe in Numeau Caledonia Monzon blatantly ducked him and chose to fight lesser opponents for three years, only agreeing to face Valdez when Valdez' had mangled his right hand (his best punch) in an auto accident and wasnt the same afterwards.

No, my films of them sparring are from Europe when Valdez was a top contender/champion and Griffith was a contender. Valdez is preparing for Tonna, Briscoe, Cohen, and Monzon.

 

It's interesting that this is out there. Often have wondered about it. I bet it's a great fight.
Addendum: Not sure if Monzon ducked Valdez at any time...maybe he did...maybe not. I'll just say the two fights they did have showed Monzon the superior fighter. Valdez would have always had difficulty with the size and style of Monzon.

 

I'd forgotten about his brother being murdered in a bar-room brawl in Columbia a week before Monzon 1. He supposedly wanted to go home to be with family but was contractually obligated to the fight.
Can't really blame his slow-starting rather listless performance in that first scrap (taking nothing away from Monzon)

 

The struggles he had after he was injured showed that he was no longer the same fighter. Had Monzon fought him in 1973 like he was supposed to have those fights would have gone a lot differently. Maybe Monzon would have won them but he would have had a hell of a lot tougher time and he knew it.

 

OK, I thought Valdes was a bigger version of Jose Naples and a nice guy, I checked his record and I have seen him fight live many times in the felt forum and MSG. You may be right I always thought much of Monzon but I was unaware of the hand being mangled in an auto accident, shame

 

Fair enough. Will just say that Valdez was a bad bad dude...If you don't mind me asking...how many rounds are available in that first Valdez/Briscoe fight?

 

I have two versions, one is 11 rounds silent color the other is four or five rounds black and white with live crowd sound.

 

Thank you for the info. This fight has intrigued me for awhile.

 

Howd they go? Did either look superior over the other in the sessions

 

They were just working on things. Typical sparring sessions. Not really wars or anything. Interesting nonetheless.

 

He'd wipe out SRL, Hearns, & Benitez and probably Duran

w/o Hep & mangled hand, he'd give Hagler a good fight at the least

 

I didn't realize I'd posted a year ago on this thread.
You (who know my sometimes weird posts ) know my heroes.
Patterson, Robinson, Griffith, Gregory, Benitez...
Great insight from all posters on this...:good
Can we all agree that Rodrigo was, quite simply, one bad MF'er in his prime and that the ruling bodies curtailed what should have been a great legacy as has been the case with many fighters?