Chavez was better at cutting off the ring, but Monzon beat Napoles, nothing Chavez did matches that, even beating the reckless Taylor.
How does that pertain to what I said? And Napoles is not in the top 5 of Monzon's best wins. He was a small Welter.
I'm with the group that thinks Monzon was better, even though Chavez's style was FAR more esthetically pleasing. Monzon was just more effective imo, and as someone else previously mentioned, he was a better thinker in the ring than Chavez. When people say that Monzon never beat a "great" fighter, it sounds weird in comparison to Chavez, when a faded Monzon twice beat Valdez, and Valdez is better than ANYBODY Chavez beat, Rosario and Taylor included. It's a goddamn shame that Valdez isnt in the HOF. The second greatest Colombian fighter behind Cervantes, and he isnt in for some reason...
Chavez actually has no wins over what could be considered a “great” fighter so I found that argument weird. Having said that, guys like Chavez probably prevented others from being “great”. Still, I think Monzon was the greater fighter.
Chavez has wins over Taylor ...Rosario...Camacho .,,Laporte ...Lockridge ...Haugen ...Mayweather...Lonnie Smith...if it’s not better competition than Monzon faced ,it’s at least comparable
Taylor`s defense was really bad in his bout with Chavez, Monzon had too catch Napoles who was very hard to hit, Camacho din`t fight well above lightweight and didn`t know how escape the way Whitaker did when Chavez cut off the ring, Haugen wasn`t that good, Mayweather wasn`t as good as Napoles and neither was Lonnie Smith who ran all night v Chavez.
Napoles was considered by the majority of boxing mags and wise-guys to be a very legitimate challenge to Monzon. Wish I had that old Boxing Illustrated from '73 that was practically devoted to the bout....sooo many writers and fighters from the US , Europe and elsewhere were picking Napoles to win...not because they were lowrating Monzon, but because Napoles was such a ball of fire at the time in his welter title defenses,....and he believed that he'd whip Monzon. That Carlos made it look so easy, it's been unfairly low rated as a performance. Modern day ignorance and revisionism reigns supreme regarding Monzon,...not just him but all the other greats of the 70's like Griffith, Briscoe, Valdez, etc.,...
Monzon is the better fighter! It's arguable who is the best middleweight of the last 50 years, Monzon or Hagler. I wouldn't put Chavez in that rarified air.
Well, Chavez does have an argument for being one of the best 130 and 140 pound fighters of all time. He is certainly in the top 3-5 in both those divisions, if not #1.