This article has some information about Carlos Monzon's training habits: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1086703/1/index.htm His trainer says that training too hard would be detrimental. Monzon says he doesn't like training at all.
I'm going to make a thread listing my top 20 most talented fighters of all time next week but two inclusions that will be in my list will be Norris and Prince Hamed.
I'll only say names that haven't been repeated over and over again. Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Alexis Arguello, and Julio Cesar Chavez were all extremely talented on the offensive.
Jones, Leonard, Robinson, Ali, Duran, Whitaker, Mayweather, Benitez, Sal Sanchez, Donald Curry, Tyson.
All that is true...there are some who would say that Monzon had no physical talent per se, like a Jones, Benitez, Ali, etc., but as has been pointed out so well in an earlier post..."talent" can assume many guises..and with Monzon, the simple basics of boxing were somewhat of a point of departure in his developing more subtle versions of these skills, and coupled with a first class boxing "brain", or generalship, he knew just when to do ANYTHING he needed to do...when to lay back, when to conserve, when to turn it on, and included in his repetiore was a pronounced cruel streak..a sense of when to "pull his punches", as well as when to really crack an opponent...he could shut down the other guys offensive capabilities, etc.,..and all of this looked, on t5he outside, to the uneducated observer to be at times, "stiff", "awkward", "slow", etc.,...but it ALWAYS worked..and he retired unbeaten as champion, with the three decision losses in 100 fights all avanged.
Monzon also was blessed with that cold-blooded temperment..almost like a reptile...so unlike a Latin fighter..he's unique among all great Latin fighters, IMO, and most of my favorite great fighters are Latin, in that he had that cool under fire that none of them seemed to have quite as much as..with the exceptions, I'll say, to an extent, of Wilfred Benitez, Sal Sanchez and when he was reigning as 122 champ, Wilfredo Gomez..but none of them to the extent as Monzon.
:happy:happy Very true, he was very cold, not very hot like a Roberto Duran (although theres nothing wrong with that either). He's a very different animal all-together, there is Monzon, and there is the rest...
Obviously it's hard to compare eras, even more so than boxing, because the game was much less developed back then. However, i would say that Capablanca's opponents had a deeper knowledge and were perhaps drawn from a bigger talent pool. In addition to that, Capablanca had better longetivity.
Fleaman you may be right in mentioning Jones. I wont dissagree with you. But There's nothing wrong with Tony Ayala either. Whereas Jones has speed, Tony has tnt in his gloves. I would rather be able to take a guy out quick than have to outslick the opponent with cute moves the way Pernell or Benitez would.
robinson, duran and liston. i will explain liston a little. since not many people choose him.. the question was the most talented..... i think liston belongs here. i am not talking about stamina, or condition, or heart..most of those things you can train/learn. but talent that is what you are born with.. i think liston had the perfect body for it. also he didn't fear no man ( also very important just look at the eyes of spinks when he faced tyson or patterson when he faced liston) plus a lot of power. even more then foreman (at least according to foreman himself)