Carlos Monzon vs. Billy Conn

Being real...Billy split fights with guys that IMO were clearly inferior to Monzon at the weight.
Every report I can find on his fights at middle talks of their competitiveness, and sometimes their dubious nature. If he cant distinguish himself from guys like a faded welterweight in Corbett and a very good but no Monzon level fighter in Yarosz then really do you think he beats arguabley the greatest H2H monster the division has ever seen?

Me thinks Billy just wasnt hitting his prime down there yet.

 

Monzon vs 'whoever' seems to be somewhat flavour of the month (on another thread he was recently referred to as 'only a '70's version of Pavlik' - oh please!)

I don't know Conn's work first-hand but looking at his record at middleweight and comparing it to Monzon's (admittedly in different eras) sees Monzon in front IMO.

Conn's better work appears to have been in higher weight divisions, somewhere Monzon never needed to, nor chose to go.

Monzon held middleweight world titles for about 7 years, retired still holding them and fought the best along the way. He went undefeated for something like 13 years, only ever lost 3 in 100 fights, and those were amongst his first 20 odd fights!

People forget quickly that Monzon OWNED the middleweight crown like none before or since. Some of the recent comparisons (not specifically this one) have been wishful thinking at best.

 

Conn was only 20 years of age when he fought as a middleweight.

The fact that he could beat the men that he did at that weight shows how talented he was even at an early age but he was better as a light heavyweight. He hit his prime in 1939 in my opinion and went on a trendemous run, defeating men like Fred Apostoli, Melio Bettina, Gus Lesnevich and Bob Pastor.

People don't talk about it too much but Conn could have really proven himself one of the greatest light heavyweights (not that he isn't up there already) if not for the Second World War. He was only 25 when he was drafted into the army, coming off a decision win over the middleweight champ Tony Zale, and came back from the war a diminished fighter as seen in the Louis rematch.

I can imagine fights like Conn vs Bivins, Marshall, Charles, Moore, Mills...

 

Monzon points

 

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Also, why are people saying Conn had a "bad style" for Monzon? Look at the way Monzon twice shut down and outclassed a world class boxer like Benvenuti. Monzon whupped guys with all sorts of styles; what style exactly was "bad" for him?

Besides, who here has actually seen Conn at 160 and knows exactly what he had to offer at that weight?