Freddie Steele VS Carlos Monzon

Steele at 5'10", and 72 inch reach would have a better chance than some of the blown-up welters that Monzon fought.

Steele defeated "Mr. Jones" for the MW title. Mr. Jones had a 75 inch reach,,,similar to Monzon's reach.
Steele beat, & drew with Mr. Jones in non-title fights.
http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/steele-f.htm
http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Freddie_Steele_vs._Gorilla_Jones_(3rd_meeting)

 

What I've seen of Steele has impressed me. You'd have to favour Monzon on record, but Steele was fast, had good defence and hit freaking hard. If he upset Monzon it would be no huge surprise.

 

Steele definitely could've beat Monzon, but I can't make him favourite due to Monzon's pedigree as a champion.

 

Will make sure I do

 

Great fight. Steele had the length, jab and boxing ability to rival Monzon IMO, although he was less measured and prone to being gung ho.

Both men could take it as well as dish it out, both had incredible long undefeated runs.

Monzon of course was the legit world champ in the end. Steele never managed it although in the end the legit world champ was someone he’d already beaten.

None of that matters in a fantasy fight of course. I don’t favour either man to be honest. It’s going 15, it’s gonna’ be tactical with both men suffering at stages of the fight. If anyone wants to put some clothes on it and argue a decisive winner, I’m not fussed. Both legit top 10 MWs for me.

 

Yes, definitely worth seeing in action. I'm often skeptical about old time fighters with long unbeaten records stuffed to the brim with bums, but Steele not only beat top fighters but what little footage survives passes the eye test as well.

 

Steele was the only man to kayo Ken Overlin and Vince Dundee, each a middleweight champion. His record against middleweight title claimants was 12-2-1 with six knockouts. His overall record was 123-5-11 with 58 knockouts, the latter statistic made all the more impressive when you consider he probably would have registered more kayos except for the fact that until July 1, 1933, Seattle and Tacoma only allowed six-round fights.

 

I look at it the other way around, i. e., that Apostoli has a win against the top-ten Steele! Steele and Apostoli split in their two fights, each scoring a kayo. Each has an excuse for his loss to the other. Apostoli only had seven fights before he fought the much more experienced Steele (though Fred already had defeated a couple of pretty good fighters in Andy Divodi and Newsboy Millich). Steele, on the other hand, fought Apostoli soon after the death of his manager/mentor Dave Miller and never had his head or his heart in the game afterward.

 

I think the idea that Monzon feasted on "blown up welters," is something of a fallacy.
Valdez
Briscoe
Licata
Benvenuti
Tonna
Boggs
Bouttier
Mundine
Were all good sized middles.

 

The two "blown-up welters" were Napoles & Griffith which everyone knows about.
(Note: Interesting that one of Monzon's defenses was against former JrMW Champ Denny Moyer, whose career spanned fights against SRR, Ralph Dupas, Luis Rodriquez, Emile Griffith, Joey Archer, Manuel Gonzales, Nino Benvenuti & Cyclone Hart, ....all Champs or top challengers).

Monzon:
height 5′ 11½″
reach 76″

Napoles:
height 5′ 7½″
reach 72″

Griffith:
height 5′ 7½″
reach 72″

 

Griffith was the number one ranked middleweight contender,and as everyone knows a very strong welterweight,strong enough to have beaten Dick Tiger just a year earlier.
Feasting on welters?
Graziano made a career out of it.
Hagler, one of my top 4 160 pounders fought ,Duran ex lightweight,Hearns ex welter,Leonard ex welter,Mugabi Light middle ,Antuofermo ex light middle.
How many times did Lamotta fight Robinson? How many times was Robinson inside the welter ,light middle limit? 3 times inside the welter limit, inside the light middle limit for all of them.