What was Carlos Monzons best skill as a boxer?

Carlos Monzon's best skill as a boxer were his physical advantages, he was calm cool and collected in the ring. He had a long hard punishing left jab, he countered to the head and body, and had a punishing right hand that produced 61 KO's of his 89 victories. Carlos had immense confidence, and he was nearly 6 ft, tall for a middleweight, had an iron chin, had 82 victories in a row, retired as champion with 14 title defenses under his belt. Champion from 1970-1977. Again, you can only fight the opponents that are available in your era, not from the future or past. He defeated a lot of quality challengers.

 

I was impressed, saw him win the title from Nino Benvenuti in Rome, Italy, KO 12. I followed him the rest of his career. Briefly met him following the Daniel Gonzales vs Sugar Ray Leonard fight on March 24 1979, went to get a beer, we approached each other, nodded up, as we greeted each other, very tall and confident looking. He was not a boastful man, his dukes took care of business in the ring.

 

Thanks. Great post. That was a killer right hand on Benvenuti. Monzon was about 5'11 1/2"., tall for a MW but his rangy physique and upright style made him seem even taller again. Some of the more reputed boxing magazines used to stretch him to 6'2" but seeing him alongside the likes of Ali etc,. you could see he was more around the 6 feet mark but quite an optimal overall build and height for a MW.

 

Yeah, running into Carlos Monzon was kind of odd to me as I kept telling everyone that I was going to meet him and get his autograph. I know about the violence that he committed outside the ring which I do not like, but his skills as a fighter in the squared circle is all I enjoyed seeing, he was a great winner and champion, not many great fighters retired as champion, he did.

 

I could guess perhaps that most if not all have seen this vision before but no harm no foul linking it anyway.

I know with due discerning eyes that we can see through the inferior quality of older footage to still understand and appreciate the excellence of past greats.

However this is very clear HD footage of Monzon v Valdez II HLs that I’ve only come across in more recent years. Previously I figured the available footage I’d seen prior to this was as good as it got so I wasn’t necessarily looking for anything better.

Though Monzon was a great, long time MW Champ, they didn’t afford much filming quality to his fights. That was reserved for the HW division.

Anyway, seeing Carlos and Rodrigo strut their stuff in HD is very cool.

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Monzon wasn't fast, and retired after some hard fights at the end of his career which did not include any punchers and the ones he fought were much shorter with limited reach. In a way he was never tested by the overwhelming majority he fought and retired fairly young.

 

His greatest attribute was in the bedroom the guy was a legend at pulling birds!

great fighter too obviously!

 

Read my post, you can only fight the fighters in your respective era's, not from the future or past. Carlos Monzon fought the opponents from his era, he was not boastful, did not speak any English, but got the job done. He retired as champion, Nov 7 1970 - Aug 29 1977, had 14 title successful defenses. Not many can boast that they retired with the belt, they usually got beat before they retired, never made it. So Rodrigo Valdes and Bad Bennie Briscoe were not punchers? Carlos beat both in title defenses. He was not ignorant or greedy to stick around past his time, only the fools do, and that is not machismo that is wise, he retired at age 35. But the main thing was, he was a winner in the ring, 82 bout unbeaten streak, all the way back to Oct 9 1964. Great champion.

 

A little jealous?

 

I have followed Carlos Monzon since he won the title from Nino Benvenuti on Nov 7 1970 until he retired as champion on Aug 29 1977. He was methodical, but got the job done.

 

So well put Richard...and so very true.

 

Monzon's greatest singular skill...even more so than his physical advantages that Richard listed so well..was his gold standard ring I.Q.....exceeded by no one really.

 

footwork and defense

 

I’ll say this and I really liked Marvin Hagler so not trying to rag on him. Rather it is to highlight an outstanding quality of Monzon’s.

There is NO way Carlos would’ve ever been susceptible to mind games and/or fall prey to his own vanities or compromise his performance to gain greater adulation.

Marv erred badly going orthodox in the early rds to prove he could outbox Ray. Because Ray talked him out of doing what Marv did best. Sure, Hags might’ve thought he could afford such folly only to step on the gas and put Ray out anyway. Even so, it was still folly.

Monzon fought exactly to his strengths every time out. He also never wavered from
the strategy best suited for the opponent before him. He didn’t mug, showboat etc. Pure efficiency without deference to being a crowd pleaser.

I’ll also add that while Monzon’s power seems to be reasonably acknowledged, it’s perhaps a bit underrated still. He could really hit and consistently so. So much so, that once the power of his jab was established, he could feint or semi feint with it, causing his opponent to shift in anticipation and then time them with his following right hand.

Hand speed wise he was no SRR or SRL but then I wouldn’t say he was necessarily slow either, he wasn’t throwing flash pitty pats which can be delivered faster and ultimately he got the telling punches home and in combination. In its own right, I would say his right hand could actually be pretty fast, certainly it ran straight and true without excess travel.

He also held no disdain for any type of punch, great variety. As Richard M. said, methodical, efficient and always got the job done.

I’ll also add that while he was a machine in executions he was no robot and was adaptive when necessary but for the most part, the blue print he went in with was already well considered and more than appropriate.

 

He is on youtube....whats the issue with watching him?