I read that he partied and smoked cigarettes and only did roadwork 1 month prior to the fight. How did he fight at such a consistent pace and not get tired? Was he just a freak athlete with great stamina or did he not live like this outside of the ring and the stories about him are greatly exaggerated?
He typically laid back and used his height, reach, awkward defense to create openings while making the other guy come to him and do the hard work.
It is somewhat exaggerated. Monzón was disciplined when in preparation. He used to watch his diet for example, he was not a George Best type of guy.
Let's say Monzon was a cerebral, focused fighter who knew how to last the distance. He was like the antithesis of Kinhasa Foreman, punching himself out of the fight. Monzon's fighting style was well suited to him: a dosified approach, fighting at cruising speed, methodical in his pressure, controlling the tempo and gradually dismantling his adversaries. Maybe Mozon was somehow indisciplined, but he was also an obsessed, strong willed guy. He had a porr and hard upbringing, a really poor and hard upbringing. He translated that into a relentless drive and aggressive attitude.. Properly chanelled inside the ring, that aggresiveness made Monzon World Champion, but outside the ring that very same aggresiveness unfortunately made Monzon into a brutal, abusive thug and eventually into a murderer.
Maybe this info from a Spanish website puts some light on Monzon's lifestyle: Carlos Monzón led a life full of troubles, but he left all of them in a kind of imaginary suitcase when the date of a fight approached. He wanted to win them all, and be the best. “Three months before each fight, I gave up all vices. In fact, I was beginning to leave them little by little. You can't quit smoking all at once. I began to prepare myself, and to walk through the squares, and to run. All this to improve myself, until I can increase the pace and reach the mark of seven kilometers per day. “It was my limit,” he explained. When the body spends a certain amount of time in the ring, it reaches a point of abuse that can be irreversible. Right there, everything is felt. The nerve endings are activated at 200%. "I realized it, because the blows from training already hurt me and it was difficult for me to make the sacrifice of getting up early to go jogging," he said. "I started to smoke a lot, and it was difficult for me to give up cigarettes, but my own body asked me to quit. boxing. "I could have done a couple more fights, but I didn't want to know anything more."
Moore, Sanchez and Monzon are fine examples of being completely relaxed in the ring and it certainly shows via their endurance. Taking into account pacing and aerobic recovery Sanchez might actually be the pick of the trio.
It's Bullshite what you read .. Brusa was his trainer enough said.. Monzon trained his ****ing ass off. Monzon was a HUGE mw, walking around weight well above 160. And made weight naturally every time often sparring and running up until weigh ins. He did smoke a couple packs of cigs a day and sometimes would smoke during his road work, lol .. You only get away with things like that if you spar and train your ass off , as Monzon did
I knew a guy a few years back that would eat a double - double, animal style from In-N-Out every night after hours of training. His motto was "If a cheeseburger is the deal breaker if whether you are in shape or not then your not in shape"
Was reading one of my old mags recently and there was an interview with Monzon where he said he did not wear himself out in training like a lot of other guys did. Said he ran 45 minutes in the morning, said he didn't know how far it was but it was enough. Said he did not understand why other boxers went crazy in sparring, said he took it easy and just worked on the things that he needed to. Pretty much said not to wear yourself out in training so you had plenty left on fight night
About the smoking stuff, it´s not like Monzón was the only one. Most people did smoke back in the day, like 90% of the males did smoke. We can look at it today and find odd but Monzón was just the rule.
Locche is actually a guy that did not work all that hard if you want someone like that. Locche was not a wild night life type of guy, but he was fairly lazy when it came down to working out.