Amazed by Monzon

Great fighters, but Ali in the 70's was on the downside when i started watching boxing in 69. When I say in my lifetime I mean that I saw live, in their prime. Never saw Ali live in 1960-67, too young to watch. Whitaker no. Leonard is trumped by Duran for me. No true Duran fan will ever admit leonard's true greatness. But Yes the three were less than Monzon and Duran in my opinion. Arguello was great and for me, Gomez at 122 was unbelieveable, just a truly great fighter to watch who was technically perfect when he wanted to be. He fight against Zarate, he is like a puppet pulling the strings to make Zarate do what he wanted. (as a footnote, whoever was the camera guy and ran the camera in that fight needs to be shot for the foulups in the 4th and 5th rounds.):fire

 

Ali, I`ll let you have since you are going from 1969 onwards & that cuts out Ali`s prime but no way was Monzon better than Leonard or Whitaker, c`mon.

 

You seem to have an underlining bias in most of your posts. One that would be revealed to be little more than bias if anyone decided to call you on it. As it is, I just woke up and am not in the mood right now. But rest assured I'll be back later to take you to task on some of these comments.

 

Yes.

 

Monzon was beautiful fighter, and a great champion. Head to head with Hagler would have been tremendous match, and I would have to go with Marvin in this one. However, for what it's worth, after knocking out Tony Sibson Hagler told Larry Merchant in the post-fight interview that he - Hagler - was the greatest middleweight "since Monzon."

 

Monzon Griffith II was one of the worst fights I've ever seen. I'd have a difficult time making myself watch that one again...

Monzon's gradual decline probably began right around the time he first beat Benvenuti. He was already 28 at the time-and he seems to have gotten more twisted each year that followed.

Great champ, but what a piece of dung as a person.

 

Have you watched his title winning effort vs. Benvenuti? That's his best performance IMO, and one of the best performances by any fighter against a fellow great HOFer.

 

Maybe would be much like the Monzon/Briscoe performance.

 

It would have been, except that Hagler was more refined than Briscoe, but it would have been the same...a decision, a clear one for Monzon, and it would have been, IMO, a fascinating chess match, of course that is, for those who appreciate those kind of fights. I never entertain any speculation of how Monzon would have done outside the middleweight limit, because I feel he was uniquely suited for that division, and I know of no middleweight today or of history, therefore that would have beaten him. He was far greater than he first appeared to be, and the ensuing defense after defense year after year, against the best of his time in the middleweight division prove this to be true, in my humble opinion. The great equalizer..the significant difference that put Monzon ahead of the pack, was not any spectacular physical gifts, that after all fade away gradually, or sometimes disappear all too suddenly with so many fighters, but rather a superb, uncanny boxing brain, a ring intelligence or generalship, whatever you want to call it...the ability to know when to pour it on, when to be steady, and when to lay back...that made Monzon special. He knew how to utilze his reach, defense, his offense...the one-twos he was so effective with, the big right hand bomb that he used rather sparingly in the later years of his reign. Having to pull his punches due to the shooting incident in '73, as well as the effects of arthritis, he relied on his ring smarts and cunning that much more. That temperment he had..the cold, icy reserve and control that made him a more difficult target than he was supposed to be, after all, all the boxing wiseguys and upstarts thought that he was way too "stiff" and "upright" and most of all "slow". That cold, calculating aspect was most unusual and rare in a Latin fighter especially.

 

Monzon was not everybody's cup of tea, as his personality, or rather lack of one, the cold aloof REAL badass thing he had going, and lack of that exciting flair like Duran had may have put some fans off, that and the fact that he didn't even speak as much English as Duran did, and made no defenses but one in the U.S., but I swear the guy was cooler than hell, in a way like in some spaghetti western sort of way, like some lethal, sinister drifter who comes into town and leaves dead bodies behind and then goes off to some brothel afterwards and finds the best looking woman there.