Why did Monzon never moved up and Fight Bob Foster?

Maybe he liked his head? I wouldn't want to lose mine.

 

Why do some people assume a fighter HAS to move up in weight? Let's be honest most of the time fighters move up is because there either still growing and move up because they become weight drained or there discipline starts to waver and they dont want to put there body through it. A large percentage of fighters that move up have the capacity to do it especially in the lighter divisions. What I dont get is if a fighter is disciplined enough to stay in his weight class and his body does it without strain then why is he just expected to move up? The fighter isnt there to cowtow to what the fans want or expect him to do hes there to make the best living he can. If some fighters want to move up good for them and the same goes for fighters who are a natural at there weight.
How many times are we going to get the threads why didnt Monzon or Hagler move up. Theres probably a dozen in the search engine or more.

 

This Bob,...is the post of the year so far IMHO! As I posted in another thread a little earlier today, both Monzon and Hagler had the sense...the wisdom... to opt to stay in their ideal divisions.

 

Middleweight division was the GOLD division back in the day - the light heavyweight division did not have the same pizazz - Monzon and Hagler were natural middleweights and had some decent contenders - to move up would only be extra weight and they fight perfectly at 160 , the extra weight would not help- Foster had to move up for a payday and did ok against Ali (He cut Ali) not as well against Frazier but made money - Monzon was born a middleweight, like Hagler dominated 160.

Some fighters should stay put - Duran was 5'7 and was a perfect lightweight but an excellent Welter - it was Duran's partying that hurt him at all weights but he was so great when he was in condition to get into condition.

One thing I respect about the Klitschko's they never allowed themselves to get lax and fall out of condition - discipline

 

Monzon was probably too busy to think about moving up in weight because as the champion in the then very high profile middleweight division, he had no shortage of challengers. In fact plenty wanted to move up themselves from lower divisions to fight him.

Actually you could say the same about Marvin Hagler's time as middleweight champ.

 

Hagler retired early?????????

 

The jump was too much for Monzon who made a career out of beating smaller fighters moving up in Class.

 

The same lie. From the same goober.

 

I think the proliferation of titles, and even whole weight classes (no Super-Middleweight in Monzon's day, for starters) has given some fans an unrealistic view on weight-hopping, even if it's subconscious. I guess if all you've ever known is the era of 17 weight classes and three, four, sometimes five champions in each of them, you might look at someone like Monzon and find his lack of movement through the weights a bit puzzling. And that's not a knock, by the way. I'm one of those people who have only ever known this situation with weight classes and titles.

But let's compare Monzon to Hopkins, who you mentioned in your original post. You compare Monzon staying put at 160 with Hopkins 'chasing Tarver and Calzaghe'. On the face of it, yes. But Hopkins only chased the 175 pounders after he'd been turfed out of the Middleweight title picture by Taylor. He had nowhere else to go at 160, which was never the case for Monzon.

Also, while Tarver was a good fighter and the best man at 175 at that specific time in 2006, he was nowhere near the class of Bob Foster, who Monzon would have had to challenge at Light-Heavyweight. And guess what? When there was a reigning Light-Heavyweight champion a few years earlier who was legitimately in the same class as Foster (Roy Jones), Hopkins was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't interested in challenging at Light-Heavyweight then. Instead he was talking about dragging Jones down to a catchweight, deliberately pricing himself out with all his 50:50 split or $10 million guarantee drivel. Paying lip service to a fight he didn't want.

That's not a knock on Hopkins, either. He did what just about anyone would have done at those different stages. Tried to save face when Jones was still the man at 175, took advantage of the situation a few years later when the timing was better and the main man at Light-Heavy was much more beatable. Hopkins would never have gone anywhere near Light-Heavyweight while Jones was still ruling there, and he wouldn't have done if Foster had been around, either. In a similar vein, while Monzon would never have indulged the idea of challenging Foster, I'm sure he'd have at least considered it if Light-Heavyweight was boasting the likes of Tarver, Calzaghe or Dawson as its kingpins.

I yield to nobody in my love and admiration for Arguello, but seeing as you compared him to Monzon, let's remember that he had to bridge a weight difference of 9 lb to become a three-weight champion. Monzon would have had to bridge a difference of 15 lb just to become a two-weight champion. Super-Middleweight and Cruiserweight were pretty late editions to the classes, so any time before c. 1980 you were on a bit of a sticky wicket if you were at 160 lb or higher and dreamed of winning titles in multiple weights. Especially before the IBF and WBO titles came into existence.

Monzon started and finished his reign with back-to-back wins against outstanding Middleweight champions, so it's not as if he was ever short of good fights at Middleweight, either. In some cases you could have legitimate grievances with fighters not moving up in weight, but I'd struggle to apply any of that to Monzon.

 

Because he didn't want to get knocked out.

 

Yes, the same stupid lie from the same goober who never learns...and probably can't learn any different.

 

Because he was happy staying at his own weight class like Hagler was.

 

Do you think that's the same reason Hagler didn't jump up to 175 to face Michael Spinks?

 

Yes .why take risk ?.can't think of any middle in history beating those two!.