Monzon = Genius. Discuss.

Agreed I think it would have been be a great, extremely competitive bout though. Robinson could have very well beat Monzon I feel like Robinson possessed superior skills, but at 160 I think Monzon's natural strength advantage proves the difference.

 

Wrong. Monzon never moved anything like Taylor. Both were boxer-punchers, I agree. Taylor's whole style is much smoother and fluid than Monzon's. And when he was edging Hopkins over the first 8 rounds it was lateral movement, footspeed, and constantly keeping the fight at long range around the perimeter of the ring. Monzon would move back from punches when opponents launched attcks, tie them up, and show half steps to the side when boxing behind the jab, but he wasn't a fleet-footed boxer. He was more inclinded to stand, create distance, and break opponents down within range.

Different style.

 

I think Hagler beats Monzon. But that would be a hell of a fight. I just think his southpaw right hook would get to Monzon.

 

Monzon was a bad boy. #2 all time resmue at middleweight and top 3 head to head. The only fighter in history other than a prime Greb(resmue alone) that I think could beat a prime Jones at middleweight. He had great stamina, very good power, a chin of grainite, and a long, strong, very accurate Jab, the best ever at middleweight. While not the fastest fighter, he more than made up with it for his timing, and he was a very smart fighter. The number of very good or great (albeit smaller) fighters is outstanding. Monzon is without a doubt a top 20 ATG on my list.

 

Except for Tony Mundine & Nino Benv., Monzon was always bigger than his challengers.

Give Monzon credit for fighting a lot in Europe, but he only fought once in the U.S. that I know of.

I would have liked to have seen him at MS Garden, Las Vegas, or Los Angeles a few times more going against some of the American middleweights that were based here.

When his European fights were televised on U.S. home TV, many times I really had no way of knowing how good the European fighters were even though they had gawdy records.

Emile Griffith was too old when he got his shots at Monzon. Was Bennie Briscoe better than Hagler?

If you go back to the early sixties, you had Fullmer & Tiger with the capability of bull-dozing in and making the fight really rough and ugly.

And then the Hitman, even taller than Monzon, with the ablility to box, and carrying a right hand even stronger than Carlos'.

But Monzon was great and beat all-comers as champ.

 

Guys like Benvenuti, Briscoe, Valdez, Griffith, Napoles, etc were very good fighters, excellent opposition. Briscoe was not better than Hagler, but a past prime Briscoe went the distance with him. Monzon beat a prime one twice.

Hagler's MW wins were no better, not even as good really, though the names are bigger due to having guys like Hearns and Duran on there.

He only fought in America once, but he fought all over the world as well, even though most of his early fights were held in Argentina, which is why he holds all those draws, because of how the scoring was done over there.