How close was Briscoe to his prime in his fights against Monzon?

I would think that the 1st fight had to be very close in order for Bennie to get a draw in Argentina, Briscoe was pretty close to his prime in the 2nd fight but Carlos improved vastly

 

Briscoe was as ready as he would ever be when he met Monzon for the crown in 1972. If Bennie had been fighting ANYONE else in that fight he would have won on a ko, based on that 10th round bomb he landed. What's so impressive about Monzon in that fight is that he basically stood and traded head on with Briscoe from the 11th round on. In the article for Boxing Illustrated Don Majeski wrote that in those last 5 rounds Monzon went from just a champion to a great champion.

 

Actually, to my understanding, fights that weren't all that close were often draws in Argentina in that era. Notice the hordes of draws on Monzon's early record, for example, or the ones abounding on the records of many other South American greats from decades past. It was often the practice to call pretty much any fight where nobody dominated a draw.

 

Great fight review that was. I think he tabbed it 12-3 in the end. Going toe-to-toe in the 14th with Bad Benny when you have such a huge lead is testament to Monzon's greatness. I really like BI in the 1970s, it actually championed Monzon as early as 1968 as a future world title holder.

 

anyone knows where i can get the fight?thanks

 

Primes are such a subjective thing to evaluate. In the first fight (I don't have a copy to review? Darn) he was probably at or near his peak, but he had also come off of a loss and had lost 3 of his last 6 fights. for the 2nd fight he had a string of impressive wins (and a recent SD loss) but was probably a little slower, although he (to a lesser degree like Hopkins) was able to be a formidable challenger to most MW he was not likely to upset anyone of monzon or haglers stature (or antuofermo). he was still good enough to beat many of the top contenders though (Mundine and cyclone). From memory I don't think draw was an unfair call, although I wanted a "BAD" verdict. The second fight was clearly monzon.

 

Been looking for it myself too.

 

Could be right there....thats true of Peralta,Ahumada,Monzon and Galendez...Argentina was fight fans country and they are not known for being unfair in judging and I have never heard anything negative about that decision(Monzon/Briscoe Draw) but even Loche had a lot of draws