Did Carlos Monzon Avoid any one?

Just listen to how the crowd shout Argentina at the start.

 

He was smart enough to stay at middleweight, where he waas best suited, and no, I don't think he avoided anyone, Monzon had, if anything, a "superiority" complex, in other words, a supreme refusal to be beaten.

 

Being stripped at the time in 74 was a joke. People forget that Monzon didn't fight Napoles instead of Valdez, he'd already signed to fight him before Rodrigo was installed as WBC #1 contender. When the Napoles fight was signed Rodrigo was #2, the Napoles scrap was originally scheduled for December 73 and put back to February 74. Also, Jose was considered the best pfp fighter in boxing at the time (the last time two undisputed champions fought in a world title fight in fact). It was only in this time that Valdez became in mandatory, Monzon was then stripped in a matter of weeks after he beat the Cuban and Rodrigo vs. Briscoe signed. Laughable really.

 

although there were no exciting middleweight matchups like there was in the 80s, there was no one worth ducking

 

Yeah... I feel like his height is always exaggerated as well. He's always been listed at 5'11 1/2... and I feel like thats about right. Actually... I'll give him a bit more. He seemed 6'0 even to me... but he DAMN SURE wasnt 6'2". Middles that were 6'2" are like Kelly Pavlik, and Micheal Nunn. You cant tell me with a straight face that Monzon was as tall as Pavlik, and Nunn.

 

Monzon gave the illusion of being 6'-2" or whatever, but look at his fight with Benvanuti, he's not that much taller than Nino, and Nino was always listed as 5'-11"..Carlois fought tall, and utilized his height and reach better than, or at least AS GOOD AS anybody in boxing's history. That's why there's so much cinfusion about his height. As for avoideing anybody, hell, he wasn't afraid of anybody, he had contempt for every guy he fought. Emile Griffith said Monzon was "the nastiest, meanest guy I ever fought..he'd spit in your eye, and he didn;t respect anybody, me included". I do think he respected Bennie Briscoe and Rodrigo Valdez, however.

 

He said Griffith was the best fighter in boxing (along with Clay) in 1973, that's a fair amount of respect. Maybe he didn't like him because Griffith tried to touch his arse during the weigh-in. :hey

 

I do always find it a pity that the likes of Monroe and Watts always ****ed up their title shots when in a position to fight for the crown, same with Kevin Finnegan. It's seems unfair that fighters of their calibre didn't even receive a title shot, while Alfredo Evangelista had two. :!:

 

I know you're joking there about the "arse" touching, but that did actually happen at the weighin for Nino Benvanuti, when Nino touched Monzon's ass, and Monzon told him that he was "going to kill" him that night in the fight. I don't think poor old Griffith would do such a thing, even if he liked the ass he was going to fight.

 

It was a joke actually. But I had forgotten about the Nino thing.

 

Boxing Illustrated were always champions of Monzon a fair bit before he became champion and predicted he would one day wear the crown; while The Ring, somewhat predictably, didn't even rate him Top 10 for most of 1970. The first international article I have with him featured was from BI as early as 1968.

 

The answer is "no one at middleweight". And that is enough. Why would he want to fight any light heavyweight since he never aspired to the LHW crown?

If John Conteh really wanted to fight Monzon so badly, he could have come down to middleweight to face the Argentine.

 

Like I've said before...despite Monzon's profound lack of wisdom in his personal, outside the ring life, he had the smarts to stay in the division that was right for him...and no fighter should be criticised for doing that...he and Marvin Hagler both knew where they were best at.