Grim Carlos Monzon (SI Article from 1972)

Superb article. Interesting points.

1. Monzon would have won the 1967 draw against Briscoe, under the current scoring system.

2. Monzon ran 45 minutes every morning during training - This clearly shows the source of his amazing stamina, despite all the smoking and drinking.

 

Carlos would have stopped Nunn inside of ten rounds. Nunn was not in Carlos' league.

 

Monzon's demolition job on the slugger Joey Marshall during an exhibition bout was epic.

 

Bringing some negative aspect of their lives outside of their sport, whatever the sport, and whoever the athlete is irrelevant as well as meaningless. When Pete Rose was denied his place in the baseball HOF for his nefarious gambling activities, it had no bearing at all to me on his worth as a great baseball player..the same is so with Monzon, Sonny Liston, Mike Tyson, etc., Carlos Monzon was a beast..a monster outside of the ring..candid photos of him showed many times either an arrogant, emotionless visage or even a sinister looking dude who could have been a mafia hitman..I've seen those pictures, and along with tales of his mistreatment and bullying of women, photographers, lastly, being a murderer, etc., they mean NOTHING in rating him as a great champion...it was the IN THE RING exploits and achievements that mattered, and nothing else.

 

Very interesting read thank you :good

 

I'm not questioning you but I just can't see it. What part of Monzon's game could Mike not match? Mike had a cast iron chin, was just as tall as Carlos, had excellent stamina, was left handed, threw just as much leather, was a bit quicker, and was every bit as slick. So it seems just about even

 

Michael Nunn would be stopped before 13. Among other things, his chin would let him down.

 

Yes but this is a boxing website and not a moral one.

 

As I think about this one, I'm thinking Carlos may have been lucky that Nunn came by 15 years later. Michael's handspeed and southpaw stance would give the slow Monzon fits all night, constantly out-jabbing him.

Not that Carlos can't possibly win this, but I think Michael lives up to his nickname on this night as he edges it on points. Speedsters his own range (or more) are just what Monzon doesn't need.

 

Mike didnt have a problem with his chin. He could be dropped but it was rare. It took many direct hits to do the jobe and against Toney, he showed that it took a lot of pressure to achieve that.

 

I'm on the same wavelength LAXPDX. I know Monzon achieved much and was near untouchable even at the end of his career but head to head with Mike could be a real headache.

it's interesting that one of the men behind him-I think his name was Brusa, or something like that, said back in 1972, that Carlos had a good 5 years ahead of him. and it turned out to be correct. Monzon had at least 5 years left.

Head to head, Mike could take a points win. The reason was his slippery style-score quickly and get out of range AND the fact that he had no problems maintaining a good pace for 12 or even 15 rounds.

i was just watching his fight with Barkley on youtube today. I was pretty impressed with his ability to take punishment and rebound strong.

 

True but the Sport Illustrated article was giving us a behind the scenes look into the life of Monzon the person and that person was clearly a nasty,brutal one and that's before he crossed the line and beacame a killer.

Judgements get made on fighters characters almost as much as their abilities all the time on this forum (ie a particular fighter maybe called lazy,cowardly,a bully,weak etc) so I don't think pointing out Monzon's overall rotteness is unfair at all.

If a thread comes up just discussing Monzon as a fighter,that's fine I'm happy to talk about his greatness but when it's a discussion about Monzon the man then he deserves to be spoken of and judged for what he was-A PIECE OF ****.

 

So you pick Nunn to decision Monzon, have i read correctly?