I agree conteh could never make middleweight, the only lightheavyweight i have ever seen who looked bigger and pushed john about was all time great mathew sadd muhammed, and conteh's best days were behind him when they mate. I will never forget that fight conteh hit said with 3 jabs one after the other
Of course. Just like Monzon would never go down to welter to fight Napoles and no one would expect him to as he was the epitome of a true middleweight. It isn't ducking for him not to go up 175 anyway, back then the middleweight crown meant something-the second biggest prize in boxing- it was something that when a fighter got hold of, he wouldn't want to let it go. Now it's just any old title.
Look mate, I am not talking ****. The reasoning given was that Conteh badly wanted to fight Monzon at LHW. Now Monzon never wanted to fight Conteh or anyone else at LHW. So if anyone is supposed to move division in such a circumstance, it must be the guy who wants the fight! In this instance, John Conteh!!:yep. I agree that it would be stupid to expect John to come all the way down to 160. Just as stupid to expect Monzon to go up to 175 when he was truly able, well and satisfied to rule at 160. After reading your other post, I think the great Napoles committed the afore-mentioned 'stupidity' for a big payday. And got his *** spanked and reputation deflated for his pains. Regards.
The middleweight crown was once considered to be, along with the heavyweight crown to be the glamor division, and as MdwC said, it's just another division, diluted by all the "titles" floating around in the sport.
I agree with everything you've said, excepting that Napoles didn't do a damned bit of harm to his reputation as a great welterweight champ.
It seems the feeling here is that Conteh had become champ and was calling out Monzon all the time. He wasn't. The fight was mentioned, both appeared keen at first, Conteh maybe moreso for obvious reasons, then it fizzled out. All in all, a middleweight stepping up to L/heavy is far more realistic (and expected) than the other way around. There's a good chance Monzon's "interest" was probably more 'beer talk' than anything (the photo next to the original story in Boxing News shows Monzon with a glass of champagne in his hand ).
In the mid-70s, there was talk to the effect that Monzon was avoiding Tony Mundine, who was on a lengthy winning streak at the time. Monzon eventually fought Mundine, but only after Mundine was kayoed by Bennie Briscoe. The Briscoe defeat shattered Mundine's aura of invincibility. I can't believe that Monzon really ducked Mundine. Nonetheless, that's what the rumor was.
Of course the ghost of Harry Greb will always hang over the heads of great middleweights since his time. If you wanty to be the greatest 160 pounder of all time then you have to go after the light heavyweights and heavyweights becauswe that is where the benchmark is set.
I know this is the Internet and its our job to criticise fighters but I never thought I'd see the day that Monzon was brought to trial for not fighting Conteh at 175.
True. The Ring even ran the rumour on its front cover but I don't think there was much substance in this.
Boxing Illustrated was great in the 70's..and so was a mag called Boxing World, which I think still exists, tho not as good. One issue of Boxing World featured Monzon on his cattle ranch, twirling a lasso, or riata (whatever it's called in Spanish) and roping a steer of his, then presiding over a cookout, I swear, he was just like a cowboy, or should I say a Gaucho...there was another issue that had a preview of the Monzon-Napoles fight, in which very concise, to the point small paragraphs describing aspects of both men's personality and stylistic aspects were laid out..things I wish I could recall today...but it noted that Napoles was very confident of winning, as Monzon had been shot by his wife a tear beforfe, and still had a bullet in him, which Napoles noted. They also had periodic ratings, based on skills, and accomplishments of all the top fighters of the time, and Monzon alwayss was rated as #1.
To add, Monzon was quite good at wrestling cattle, roping, tying them up and doing all that stuff they do in rodeo competitions. You got the impression of Monzon, whenever you read something of him that he could wear the finest of clothes, be seen with the best looking women in Paris, and be a cowboy/Gaucho with the best of them back in the Pampas. Macho to the max. Wish I could find those magazines again, and also, I wish these articles on Monzon AND Napoles would show up again somewhere in the vast internet.