That's why Hopkins said he would probably lose to Monzon. I think Nard is a great judge of the art of boxing...and Carlos in his prime was a great practitioner of it.
I tend not to trust an artist's interpretation of his own work. Just because Hopkins said he would have lost to Monzon does not necessarily make it so.
How many boxers ever say that?...Its their job to be a little delusional. I cant for the life of me think why Nard would say something like that unless he truly meant it. If anything I agree with what your saying, but the other way around..most guys big themselves up and generally overrate their ability. Monzon was not a good person...He doesnt really deserve to be looked at half glass full. Anyway...Im just making up my own mind on it. I give a slight edges to Carlos.
Carlos Monzon is the greatest middleweight ever IMO. There's really not much between the three of them to be honest. I think Hagler was the most impressive boxer of the three at his peak, but Monzon had the better career. Stylistically, I'd back Hopkins to beat Hagler though. Three ATGs!
Monzon impresses me most on film and perhaps has the deepest resume, at middleweight anyway, if we are not to include Hopkins achivements above 160. Monzon Hagler Hopkins It's real close though.
hagler was a small middleweight, but one of the toughest of all time, so he could be outboxed from the distance, but like calzaghe, he would throw punches nonstop and real punches, not slaps, especially on the inside. monzon had one the best jabs in middleweight history and a great right hand also. he wasn't flashy, but like hopkins, he was deadly accurate and most of his punches would find their mark. in another words, he hardly missed. hopkins, he's a cerebral assassin and patient like monzon and has hagler's tough grit and has never been ko'd. he's showed heart, but has been shown to be outworked and lost close decision fights to taylor and calzaghe. it's a tough pick but as great as hagler and hopkins are, there was never an answer to monzon and the guy retired at the top
Hagler wasn't easy at all to outbox from the outside. He outboxed the majority of his opponents from the outside behind his jab and long arms. Monzon, however, Hagler would have absolute hell trying to outbox from the outside due to Monzon's height, range, and terrific judgement of distance.
head to head, hopkins would be the biggest and IMO the most dominant of the three, monzon thrives at kepping the distance against his opponents because in his time he was fighting small middleweights. but hopkins would tower over him
By a whole inch...which would be essentially negated by the fact Carlos has an inch of reach over Bernard. The bulk of both their opponants were about 5'9-5'10. Carlos was almost never the smaller man...but was never ridiculously bigger then most of his opponents either..bar Napoles.