Was Luis Manuel Rodriguez ever spoke about as a challenger for carlos monzon' belt?

he got KO'd by Benvenuti for the title and did he not retire afew fights later either before or around the time Monzon became champ

 

im not too well versed on LMR if im honest but what i have seen impressed

 

He was done by the time Monzon came along. If the timing had been different then he would have been stopped by the pre-'73 (shooting) Monzon, and would have lost a dull 15 round decision against the post shooting Monzon, IMO. Rodriguez was nothing but class, and could have persevered against a number of lesser middle champs, but not Monzon.

 

Dundee offered $100K to Monzon to fight LMR right after he won the title from Benvenuti.

Not sure what happened after that..Perhaps he was contractually obligated to rematch Nino.

By the time Carlos did that Rodriguez was starting to lose a couple on the trot and well into his 30's.

 

No. Even though Rodriguez was still a top 5 contender and calling for a title shot into the early '70s, the timing wasn't right for the fight to happen. Monzon was obligated to give Benvenuti a return match after beating him, and around the same time that happened, Rodriguez lost to Bunny Sterling and was displaced as a top contender. (Sterling then lost to Bouttier shortly after that, so Bouttier ultimately got the shot.) Not long after that, Rodriguez was KO'd by Rafael Gutierrez, which permanently ended his days as a serious contender.

 

There was in fact a 100,000$ offer for Monzon to fight Rodriguez as stated above.

Rodriguez was still a contender until mid-1971. His last significant win was a first round KO over Tony Mundine.

 

i don't think he would have.

Bunny Sterling(the jesse Burnett of the '70s middle scene) beat the hell out of him and basically ended his career as a top fighter. though he was on the slide even going into the benvenuti fight.that one usually gets painted as a great performance, but i thought Rodriguez was mostly out of sorts in an appalling punch and grabfest fight, where Benvenuti was even worse.