"BEST DEFENSE Monzon: Actually Carlos Monzon was a very difficult boxer to hit. He had awkward hand movement, a bit like an octopus I would say, that inhibited you to find the right measures to do anything. Even when he was against the ropes he used his height to make you miss (by) flexing his body backward. " In the THE RING issue from this month.
Obviously, from his career...100 fights, 3 losses, no ko defeats, decked what,...4 times only, and retiring unmarked...he had to have a great defense and/or a stellar chin IMO...I think Monzon's defense is rather underrated...he was very clever.
Monzon had that awkward extremely effective defense. It didn't look flash or classical but fight in fight out it got the job done, and then some.
And > Ali, everyone seems to look at flash as a defense barometer. Not so much the guy that makes people miss by millimeters. He was kind of like the lightweight Roberto duran in that he was so hard to catch clean. They even rode with bodyshots. But never seemed to get hit full impact. Especially with something they just never saw coming. And just how important is that factor alone? The ability to go 15 rounds and have the mental concentration 3 minutes per round to observe everything and not get hit clean?
I think Monzon's defense is the most underrated and important of his assets. I think his skills overall and particularly his punching power are overrated but Benvenuti is absolutely right when he praises Monzon's defense. When he was against the ropes he looked like gumby bending, and swaying away from punches.
Monzon was a taller middleweight in his day, often fighting shorter men. As such leaning back for him worked, but as Benvenuti said, he added another layer to his defense by moving his guard around. Monzon was never tested by a man his size with better hand speed or power. I'm thinking speed from a man 5'11" to 6 feet would penetrate Monzon's defense, but we never saw him fight an opponent with those attributes.
