Napoles was at his very best going into this fight and was given a great chance to defeat Monzon by most of the writers at that time. Carlos had just come off a relatively unimpressive year in 1973, and had a bullet lidged in his shoulder that came from an altercation with his wife at the time. Napoles had just blitzed his competition in the welter division since regaining his title from Billy Backus, all the top contenders and some really good deserving challengers like Adolph Pruitt, who Jose just destroyed in 3 rounds. Jose had Angelo Dundee as his trainer, and Dundee was very confident that Napoles was way too quick and sharp for Monzon and would outclass him. Monzon, as was mentioned before, was coming off a drab 1973 which saw him defeating Emile Griffith and Jean-Claude Bouttier, both by decisions and both in rematches from earlier defenses, and neither fight showed Carlos at his best. The Monzon-Napoles fight was held in Paris in February of 1974, and there was a big build-up of Napoles by the experts and the celebrities of the world at that time. What happened was that Monzon reverted to form of pre-'73 and administered a masterful, almost casual, total beating of Napoles. The word in Sports Illustrated that was used to descibe Monzon was "majestic" in the way he almost unhurriedly, in a cool, detached sort of way, dominated Napoles completely, and shut him down before just starting to unload that right hand of his in round 6. He carefully measured Napoles with the left, and began dissecting him in the 5th and 6th, manhandling him easily and positioning Jose into place to land the right repeatedly. It was a calculated taking apart of Naples which so impressed Angelo Dundee, that he said afterwards that Monzon was a "super champion", not just a great champion, for so coolly and matter of factly taking apart an acknowledged great fighter and champion like Napoles. What alot of people for get is how really great Jose Napoles was as a fighter, with the nickname Mantequilla, he could do it all, had precision and power with speed and was defensively too much for his opposition. Much is made of the fact that Monzon was much bigger than Napoles and it was somewhat of a mismatch going into the fight, but this isnt really true, in that Napoles was a more formidable challenger for the middleweight title in early '74 than was Roberto Duran in '83, and the poundage difference between Napoles and Monzon wasn't that great, like it is in many heavyweight bouts. Monzon sort of proved that he was in a class by himself as middleweight king, and that hasn't changed in all the years since the Monzon - Napoles fight.
Red Cobra, always enjoy your insights on the match-ups. There is no doubt that Monzon was a super champion as Dundee put it. But from what I've seen of Napoles, (which is not as much as I'd like...I'll admit) he always is fighting in attack mode within hitting range...sort of standing in the pocket if you will...using his reflexes on defense to open counter punching opportunities...and against welterweights, he looks like a very punishing fighter. But against a middleweight giant like Monzon, it simply played out disasterously for Napoles...You drew a comparison between the Monzon/Napoles and Hagler/Duran fights...fair enough. But it appears to me that Duran was more versatile than Napoles what what I've observed on film...It looks like Napoles has too machismo for his own good...But although, I don't think Monzon would kayo Duran....Duran does not match up well at all, either... However, I think if a smaller fighter(welter) were to be matched against Monzon, having great foot and hand speed would be an absolute necessity. But still finding the range to fight Carlos is very problematic... None of Monzon's title fight opposition had any of those attributes...I think that Griffith showed the blueprint in the second fight....and so did Boutier to a small degree. Just my thoughts. Peace.
This fight shows that Monzon isn't just a slow, plodding fighter with just the one-two in his arsenal, and just a fighter that was tall enough and strong enough to just wear you down. Many of his critics will say this to denegrade him, but watching this is proof of the opposite. Those were beautiful, expertly delivered combinations.
Thanks. I love to see a guy like Monzon make mastery look routine, fruit of putting in the hard work. Monzon, strong candidate for greatest middleweight champion of all time, was more than merely a brute; he was technical, accurate and very smart in the ring.
That's very true. Monzon was very subtle in what he did in the ring. At the end, or near the end of the 6th and last round, if you watch it on YouTube, you'll notice a move that, as I said, was an example of the subtle manhandling that Monzon used on Napoles. Near the end of the round, with both men in a corner, Monzon uses that long left of his to grab Napoles along the left side of his head, and move him to his (Monzon's)far left side at arms length, where he positions Jose for a well placed right hand. He just moves the guy around to set him up for his big shots in such a casual way, but it's such a tricky, calculated thing that it's really neat to watch. Monzon knew just exactly what he could do to a guy at what particular time, and just what he could get away with. All that stuff was debilitating to his opponents, and tended to shut them down, and then wear them down. Monzon may have not always just frontlined big power shots, and blasted guys out of the ring, but on the other hand, he fought more conservatively than that, and had such great ring generalship.
Thanks, and those are some good points of yours too, but remember the defense Napoles made against Emile Griffith in '69, where he employed great speed and ring trickery against Griffith all night long, and never fell for the bait of getting in a slugfest or a toe-to-toe war with Emile. He suckered Griffith repeatedly with a quick left hand feint to the head, and when Griffith tried to counter the feint, was countered two or three times with rapid combinations to the head in return. This went on, over and over all night, according to reports, as Napoles was content to just outbox Griffith, but he also put Griffith on the deck in round three with a counter right uppercut. Napoles also masterfully outboxed guys like powerful Carlos Hernandez (before stopping him in 6), Ernie Lopez twice, and the excellent Adolph Pruitt, again, outboxing these guys thoroughly before stopping them in title defenses.
Found the entire fight: Round 1-2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-TBvPZd4U Round 3-4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbWaSB-hGYY Round 5-6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjlQCTfwNPA
