Nino Benvenuti 82-4-1 Emille Griffith 70-11-0 33 but had won his last ten fights including wins over Tiger,Guttierez,Lopez & Bogs. Rodrigo Valdez 58-4-2. Hadn't lost a fight for 12 years
Exactly .. Nino was a playboy partier and on no one's lost of top thirty five or forty middleweights .. Emile was not only a blown up welter but old and may have been robbed in the rematch .. Essentially Valdez, a good fighter and big puncher but not even a top twenty five guy ..
I think a few would have Benvenuti in their top 40. Griffith was on a ten fight winning streak with Tiger among his victims,and he was always a massive welterweight, before moving up.His scalps at 160lbs include: Hayward Heilman Tiger Archer Benvenuti Harris Mims Valdez again would make some top 25 lists,and Monzon was past prime for his fights with him. Valdez is the only man to stop Bennie Briscoe.
Monzon's rivals are severely underestimated by today's fans. Briscoe would have crumpled Martinez for instance, and indeed, many thought that Bennie couldnt be denied the title when he and Monzon met for their title go. Benvenuti was a lot tougher and more capable than the playboy image would suggest, and a better puncher than given credit for. Griffith is always disparaged and overlooked, when the fact is he would have bossed many recent middleweight champs and contenders either by outboxing the sluggers, as he finessed **** Tiger, along with outmuscling him at times too, and using his natural strength to out hustle the boxers as he did twice, though narrowly vs brilliant Joey Archer. Valdez, as he showed vs Briscoe ll, was a catlike, clever boxer vs a slugger, and could detonate a bomb like like he did to stunningly ko the previously unstoppable Baddass Bennie, who went on to perform very well vs a pre-title Marvin Hagler. Many forget that Monzon was on the slide when he twice fought Valdez, with increasingly arthritic hands and a bullet lodged in him...but he basically used up Valdez in their two bouts...their rematch was a great showing for Monzon. It may also be said that Jose Napoles was a favorite of many boxing "brains" at the time, including Gil Clancy and Angelo Dundee, aside from the many writers I remember so vividly at that time, who thought that Mantequilla, despite the size disparity, would make Monzon look as stationary as a cigar store Indian. Now, in classic 20/20 hindsight, teir fight is considered a mismatch, but that sure as hell wasn't the prevailing sentiment prior to their Feb. 1974 match up. Monzon can't be faulted for winning so conclusively a fight tha so many expected to beat defeat, more like outclassed in. The previously mentioned Dundee even hailed the Argentinian as a "super champion" afterwards.