The right hand at 5:39 was brutal - he telegraphed it from way back and it still landed perfectly flush. :shock: Believe it or not, there were a number of people who thought Napoles would "expose" Monzon, after Monzon had had such a close fight with Griffith a year earlier. Napoles did give Monzon a good fight for a couple of rounds, but he just couldn't keep it up. Poor Napoles also took a bad beating against Stracey in his final fight.
Napoles' trainer for this fight, Angelo Dundee waqs sure that Napoles woulod outclass Monzon. A surprising number of boxing heads thought so too...Monzon had other ideas.
Monzon had a way of just not missing punches once he got the ball rolling on you. Something about his wacky timing and rhythm but he was uncannily accurate as fights progressed.
Really? Sure, Monzon outclasses him and it was a beating, but one of the most brutal beatings ever? Check out Darchinyan-Burgos or Katsidis-Amonsat sometime...or don't if you're this squimish. By the way, I was ducking in my seat trying to avoid Monzon's punches. I don't know how the commentator knew that.
As was stated in an unsually good report of the fight in SI, Monzon, in that 6th round, was just beginning to throw the right accurately and with serious intentions...until then the writer says Monzon was fighting in a "majestic, deliberate manner",..no hurry... If it had gone one more round, you would have seen a nasty, brutal ko. Angelo Dundee pulled the plug on this one, and wisely got his man out of there.
Napoles was a natural lightweight, if people thought he'd beat beat Monzon it says they didn't rate Monzon too highly, if we're being objective.
First of all, Napoles wasn't a "natural LW" - as the commentators pointed out, he was having trouble making 147 by this time. He also was rated as one of the best P4P fighters in the world. Second, there were indeed a number of people who felt Monzon was either overrated and/or on the decline - as is typical when a fighter is being judged while his career is still unfolding. The Napoles and Valdez fights silenced most of the remaining of his critics.
He made the limit another 5 times after the Monzon fight. I'd say the "troubles" had less to do with his natural, prime size and more to do with the stage of his career he was at.
look at the size difference between Monzon and Napoles its shocking Monzon is huge looks like a Lt heavy vs a light weight.
Notice during the 6th that move Monzon made...he held Napoles' head at arms length with his left and belted him with the right...and oh so casually too.
