The ESB British Forum Encyclopedia

Yeah from me:twisted: His bro' Khaokor was farrrrrrrrr superior :good

Still Doug, go for it. I'll do his Twin:good:good:good

 

Quality stuff, one of my faves and the first Saad-Conteh fight is my favourite match of all time:good

 

Carlos Monzon

Statistics

Real name Carlos Roque Monzón
Nickname(s) Escopeta (Shotgun)

Rated at Middleweight

Nationality Argentine

Birth date August 7, 1942

Birth place Santa Fe, Argentina

Death date January 8, 1995 (aged 52)

Stance Orthodox

Boxing record
Total fights 102
Wins 90
Wins by KO 59
Losses 3
Draws 9
No contests 1


Carlos Monzón (August 7, 1942 – January 8, 1995) was an Argentine professional boxer who held the world middleweight title for 7 years, during which he successfully defended the title 14 times.

His glamorous and violent life was avidly followed by the media, culminating with his trial for the murder of his concubine and his death in a car crash soon thereafter. Argentinians adored Monzon throughout his career. He was, however, accused many times of domestic violence by his two wives and many mistresses, and of beating paparazzi. He toured all of Latin America and Europe with Argentine and Italian models and actresses. Accused of killing his wife Alicia Muniz, in Mar del Plata in 1988, the former champion was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

He died in a car crash during a weekend furlough. He would have been let free in 2001.

Monzón was born in the city of San Javier, Argentina, and moved to the capital of Santa Fe Province. As a youngster, he showed interest in boxing.
World Middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti had long had a distinguished career that included championships in 2 divisions and 2 wins in 3 bouts vs all-time great Emile Griffith. He had lost the year before to American Tom Bethea in Australia, but in a title rematch in Yugoslavia, he avenged that loss.

Nobody expected Monzón to beat Benvenuti in their title match (very few knew of him). Yet Monzón applied pressure from the start, and in the 12th, a right hand landed perfectly on Benvenuti's chin, and the title changed hands. Monzón also beat Benevenuti in a rematch, this time in only three rounds in Monte Carlo when his seconds threw in the towel.

In 1971 Monzón became only the second man to stop former three-time world champion Emile Griffith in 14 rounds, and later out-pointed him over 15 in a close fight (before the fight Monzón had to spar three rounds and run three miles in order to make the weight). Monzón then scored a win over tough Philadelphian Bennie Briscoe, over-coming a shakey 9th round, in which Briscoe almost scored a knockout; a knockout in five rounds over European champion Tom Bogs, a knockout in seven rounds over Mexican José Mantequilla Nápoles in Paris, France and a 10 round knockout of tough Tony Licata of New Orleans at the Madison Square Garden, in what would turn out to be Monzón's only fight in the United States.

However, a darker side of Monzón would soon begin to emerge. In 1973, Monzón was shot in the leg by his wife, requiring 7 hours of surgery to remove the bullet. In 1975, he began a very publicized romance with the famous actress and vedette Susana Giménez; they had previously met in the 1974 thriller La Mary, directed by Daniel Tinayre, where the two played husband and wife. Monzón hated paparazzi who detailed his affairs. He went to Italy with Giménez to participate in a movie, and started increasingly traveling with her to locations in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, letting himself be seen with her, though still married.
Soon the beatings he gave his concubine became public knowledge. Monzón was detained by the police repeatedly. Giménez also began wearing sunglasses more often, presumably to hide her bruises, and many times, paparazzi had to be hospitalized from the beatings suffered at the hands of Monzón, who had unpredictable violent outbreaks. During this period, Monzón divorced his wife, and later re-married another Argentine woman.

Monzón's Middleweight championship title was lifted in 1975 by the WBC for not defending it against mandatory challenger Rodrigo Valdez. Valdez, a Colombian, then won the WBC's title, while Monzón kept the WBA's championship. So in 1976, they finally met, this time, world champion vs. world champion.

Valdez's brother had been shot to death one week prior to the fight and he did not feel like fighting. Still, they were under contract and so the fight took place in Monte Carlo and Monzón handed an uninterested Valdez a beating, winning a 15 round unanimous decision and unifying the world title once again. Because of the special circumstances under which Valdez performed, an immediate rematch was ordered, once again in Monte Carlo.
This time, Valdez came out roaring. In the second round, right cross to the chin put Monzón down for the only time in his career. Valdez built a lead through the first half of the fight. Monzón, however, mounted a brilliant comeback and outboxed Valdez for the last 8 rounds, winning a unanimous decision to retain the title and score his 14th title defense.

Carlos Monzón with his second wife, Alicia Muñiz in 1982.
Monzón retired after this defense and kept a low public profile through most of the late 1970s and the 1980s. Susana Giménez left him in 1980. After the breakup, Monzón's private life was finally closed to the public, but the beatings continued, this time with his second concubine, Alicia Muñiz. In 1988, he allegedly beat Muñiz so many times that she, scared and bloody, ran to the balcony of their second floor apartment. According to the investigation performed later, he followed her there, grabbed her by the neck, and then picked her up and pushed her off the balcony, to her death, after which he followed her in the fall injuring a shoulder.

In 1995, he was given a weekend furlough to visit his family and kids, and upon returning to jail after the weekend, he crashed near the jail building, dying instantly. There have been rumors that he committed suicide by crashing the car, but there has been no evidence found that supports that claim.

His record stands at 87 wins, only three losses, nine draws, and one no contest. Of his wins, 59 came by knockout. His only losses were by points and early in his career. In 2003, he was named by the Ring Magazine as one of the 100 greatest punchers of all time. On the independent computer-based ranking of boxrec.com he is listed as the third best middleweight boxer of all time, after Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Robinson.

A monument to him stands in Santa Fe, Argentina.

:bbb :bbb :bbb

 

NO MAS :happy

Monzon, 2nd greatest 160lber ever IMO :good

 

Robinson lost too many at the weight to be above Monzon.

 

Respect...:good

Have you got Marvellous as first...:think

 

There's a surprise

 

Behind who Flea? Sugar or Hagler? For me, Sugar didn't do himself justice at 160.

 

Great thread by the way, it's gems like these which make this place a quality forum at times.

 

Shame they can't be put into a Wiki template and hosted somewhere....

 

Name: Madison Square Garden
Nickname: The Mecca of Boxing
Location: 4 Pennsylvania Plaza (8th Avenue & 33rd Street), Manhattan, New York City, New York 10001, United States
Capacity: 20,789
Opened: May 30th, 1871
First Fight: December 11th 1925,
Paul Berlenbach vs Jack Delaney (World Light Heavyweight Championship)

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Madison Square Garden has hosted literally thousands of fights during its 86 years, and more championship bouts than any ring in history. Many of the greatest fighters of the past eight decades exchanged punches and shed blood inside its ropes. With almost too many memories and historic bouts to list, any selection of some of the greatest episodes in the ring's history is bound to omit some remarkable contests. With that in mind, here's one attempt at a representative sample of notable and controversial evenings at the sport's most storied arena.

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Champion Joe Louis lay on the canvas after being knocked down by Jersey Joe Walcott at Madison Square Garden.


The first fight

Dec. 11, 1925

The Madison Square Garden ring made its debut appearance on Dec. 11, 1925, in a card that was topped by a world light heavyweight contest between defending champion Paul Berlenbach and former and future champ Jack Delaney.

In an exciting battle, Berlenbach -- who had won the belt from Mike McTigue a little under seven months previously (McTigue having lifted the crown from Delaney) -- was knocked down in the third and, according to a ringside report, "punched groggy" in the sixth and seventh, but rallied strongly over the second half to turn back the challenge of Delaney. (The real name of the challenger, who was from Quebec, was Ovila Chapdelaine, but his surname was transliterated by Anglophones into the one he used in the ring).

Delaney won a rematch, and regained the title, at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field the following year.

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The greatest of all time

Aug. 27, 1943

Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong were arguably the two greatest fighters pound-for-pound of all time, and they fought in the Garden on 37 occasions between them.

In consecutive fights in 1938, Armstrong, the reigning featherweight champion, added the welterweight and then the lightweight belts, becoming the first and only man to hold titles in three weight divisions simultaneously. Robinson won the first of his six world championships in 1946, recovering from a second-round knockdown to outpoint Tommy Bell and claim the welterweight crown, and went on to contest the welterweight and middleweight titles in the Garden many more times.

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Sugar Ray Robinson, right, plied his trade regularly at the Garden.

The two legends fought just once, two years after Armstrong's last title fight -- a 12th-round TKO defeat to Fritzie Zivic, also at the Garden -- and three years before Robinson's first. And although Armstrong was past his peak and Robinson not yet at his, the fight (which Robinson won over 10 rounds) was surely the greatest combination of talent ever to square off in a boxing ring.


Ends of eras

Oct. 26, 1951; Feb. 9, 1991

Fighters rarely know when to quit, even -- perhaps especially -- the great ones. Joe Louis fought 12 times in the Garden, but it is the image of his final bout there -- indeed the last fight of his career -- that lingers.

Louis had retired from the ring with a record of 61-1 on March 1, 1949, just over eight months after defending his heavyweight title against Jersey Joe Walcott. He returned to the ring in 1950, dropping a decision to Ezzard Charles in a bid to reclaim the title. He won his next eight fights before running into the fast-rising contender Rocky Marciano, who knocked him down with a left hook in the eighth, and then through the ropes for the knockout. Marciano would go on to become champion, but Louis retired again, this time for good.

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Emile Griffith, left, was involved in a tragic bout with Benny Paret

At least he stayed retired. Forty years later, Sugar Ray Leonard, who had already retired from the ring three times, made his Garden debut, and was pummeled by the younger, faster Terry Norris in a shot at the junior middleweight belt. He retired again after that, before making a final, embarrassing comeback attempt against Hector Camacho in 1997.


Death in the ring

March 24, 1962

Boxing is an inherently dangerous business, and as is to be expected of any venue where fights have taken place for over 80 years, the Madison Square Garden ring has seen its fair share of tragedy. No such tragedy was more widely seen, reported on, written about and dissected than the 1962 welterweight championship bout between Emile Griffith and Benny "Kid" Paret.

It was the third meeting between the two: Griffith, behind on points, had knocked out Paret in the 13th round in the first fight to claim the title the year before; and Paret had regained the crown six months later on a controversial split decision. In the buildup to the rubber match, Paret had enraged Griffith by insulting him with a slur that questioned his sexuality, and after suffering a sixth-round knockdown, a relentless Griffith dominated.

In the 12th round, Paret became entangled in the ropes and, unable to extricate himself, took a pounding that would prove fatal. He lapsed immediately into unconsciousness and died 10 days later.


The Fight of the Century

March 8, 1971

On March 4, 1968, one month after the opening of the fourth (and present) Madison Square Garden, Nino Benvenuti beat Emile Griffith for the middleweight championship, and Joe Frazier knocked out Buster Mathis to receive New York State recognition as heavyweight champion of the world.

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Joe Frazier's war with Muhammad Ali, left, was dubbed the "Fight of the Century.

In 1970, Frazier unified the title by defeating WBA champion Jimmy Ellis, also at the Garden. But he could never receive full public recognition as heavyweight champion until he beat Muhammad Ali, who in 1967 had been stripped of the title and banned from boxing for refusing induction into the armed forces. Ali returned to the ring in 1970 with victories against Jerry Quarry and, in the Garden, Oscar Bonavena, setting up the eagerly anticipated clash with Frazier.

It was dubbed the "Fight of the Century," not just for the in-ring potential -- it would be the first time two undefeated heavyweight champions fought for the title -- but for the societal undertones: Ali, the draft-eschewing member of the Nation of Islam; Frazier, adopted as the establishment fighter and derided for that fact by Ali, who incessantly referred to him as an "Uncle Tom."

The unpleasantness of the buildup was mirrored in the fight itself, the two men exchanging hellacious combinations before Frazier finally floored Ali with a left hook in the 15th round en route to securing a unanimous decision victory.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyezmRI-7cE[/ame]

 

This gona keep us busy for a long sunday afternoon:good

 

Thank you Laz for telling us new fans about that obscure character Amir Khan.

 

Nice one Rob.

 

superb rob...you got class