Is it possible Monzon is overrated ? S.I. Vault article rips him ..

Kram also obviously hated Oscar Bonavena. He did quite a hit piece on Oscar after he defeated Karl Mildenburger in the heavyweight tournament in '67. He went waaay beyond the pale low rating Bonavena....even carping about the way he beat Karl.

 

I remember photocopying this article from the school library back in the early 80's They had all the SI magazines bonded together by year. I still have this!! Still have the short peice they did on Briscoe too after his bout with Monzon. Only a couple pages but a good read.

 

Kram is a pseudo-intellectual who likes to dismiss legends as myths whilst simultaneously showing off the words he just found in his thesaurus.

I don't pay much attention to what he says.

From what I've seen Monzon was a great, great fighter.

 

Phrases used to describe Ali like 'his face a forlorn long shot of Death Valley at the end of an Antonioni lens' is not highbrow.
It's pretentious, pseudo-intellectual bull**** like the sort of thing Hugh McIlvanney would churn out on a regular basis.

Hugh McIlvanney's articles always irritated the hell out of me, reading them was like swimming through glue.

I could never stand sports journalists who write articles as though it's some kind of university thesis and, in my opinion, both Kram and McIlvanney fall into that bracket.

If I'm harshly dismissing Kram's body of work (and perhaps I am) then Kram is guilty of doing the same to Monzon if he's basing a supposedly damning assessment of him on an off-night when Monzon was past his best.

Let the facts speak for themselves. Monzon pulverised Benvenuti to win the World Title and defended it fourteen times.

He was a truly great fighter.

 

That is it my friend.
Anothing interesting fact. Nigel Collins the former Ring editor wrote a book something akin to boxings characters or something and he was explaining how they were at a ceremony in NY in which Monzon stood off to the side apparently looking disdainfully and standoffish at everybody that is until Briscoe walked in. He respected Briscoe and smiled for the first time while warmly embracing his former foe. Good little tid bit.
Bennie worked for the Philadelphia department of sanitation on the back of a trash track or packer as there called here. Ran his whole route except when the truck went to the dump. Worked til he got his pension if memory serves me correct.
After he retired from boxing he didnt speak about it. Didnt give autographs and almost never gave interviews. Said that part of his life was over , had to move on. Quiet man
Edit in
I worked with a few older guys that lived in Bennies neighborhood and new him pretty good many yrs ago

 

McIlvanney was one of the best.

 

I couldn't stand him.

 

I don't particularly like Cosell. His voice irritates me.

I much prefer Don Dunphy. He didn't feel the need to talk for the sake of it and would often just comment at key moments, letting the action speak for itself.

 

All opinion mate

 

Kram wasn’t writing about Monzon’s body of work. He was covering a single event. Should a writer covering, say, Ali’s lackluster performance against a lackluster opponent like Evangelista wax poetic about Ali’s brilliance in the 1960s?

I went back and watched a good bit of Monzon-Licata to refresh my memory and he did not look like a ‘truly great fighter’ in that fight, which is the one that is the subject of this particular article. In fact, the TV announcer (Condon?) repeatedly remarks on Monzon’s lack of speed (‘he’s throwing half-speed punches’) and general energy level.

Monzon fairly sleep-walked through that fight. It’s not likely to impress an impartial observer.