Why did Monzón only fight once in the US?

If you look at Monzon's title defense record, you'll see he fought mostly in Europe while champion.

Like any other big name boxer, Monzon fought for whoever gave him the biggest paydays. My guess is that American promoters didn't give Monzon the big money he wanted, so he signed with foreign promotional outfits.

The real question, perhaps, is why didn't American promoters offer Monzon the big paydays. Maybe the American promoters felt Monzon wasn't popular enough with American fans. I don't know.

Another thing to understand is that Argentine boxers fight most of their early and mid-stage careers in their home country. They almost never fight abroad until they surface as top contenders. This would explain why Monzon fought 80 or so fights in Argentina before the rest of the world got to see him.

 

Good post. But I think it's more of a cultural thing, Euro fighters learn the stand-up style from a young age and it's often ingrained on their psyche. Most of us watching love a tear-up much more than a chess match. Who wants to see Joe Bugner when you can have Nigel Benn?

 

Monzon and Griffith were both popular in Europe, and both were paid more to fight there. If Monzon had offers from United States that were as high or higher than ones in Europe, he would have fought here more.

 

.........Agreed. I've been trying to pinpoint when the shift occurred, the point where euros started fighting like.........well, like Americans. Not sure what the impetus was there, but from memory it seemed to start around the time Nigel Benn started hitting the big time. It wasn't Bruno, I know that.

 

He was comfortable on or near his native soil?

That hasn't changed even today. Many fighters underperform away from home.

 

How can a fighter be comfortable fighting in italy when his home is thousands of miles away in argentina?

Carlos fought a great deal of his title bouts away from home so its obvious he was comfortable away from home.
To be honest its most of the yanks who seem to have a problem even making a fight abroad,never mind sucessfully.

 

Yeah, Monzon was a real homer. 15 world title fights, 3 in Argentina :roll: . Compare that with a real road warrrior like Hagler: 15 world title fights also: 13 in the USA. Monzon: what a fraud.

 

Honeyghan before him. But definitely around that era. Sibbo was hell-for-leather, but he was never champ of course.

 

Don't tell me tell Griffith ,who was from the VirginIslands actually.

 

That's why I said "...and american based". Monzon beat him in two different continents anyway. Incredibly bad loser Griffith, which was surprising considering what a decent chap he was. Then again, anyone with Clancy would turn into a whiner themselves. So you could hardly blame him.

 

I'm certain that the answer to this question is economic and market based. Monzon won the championship in Europe from a wildly popular European fighter...right then and there he would have established himself as a hot-sell on the European promotional market.

Further, many of the leading middleweights of Monzon's day were Europeans, such as Jean-Claude Bouttier, Tom Boggs, Gratien Tonna and others. Therefore it only makes sense that Monzon's fights with these guys were held in Europe.

I know that throughout the 1970s Monzon became something of a pop hero in Europe also. Papparzi from Paris Match and other tabloids were always following him. Hence, Europe, not America, was Monzon's boxing turf.

 

All good info by the posters' above.

Another sidelight is a lot of those Monzon European fights were shown on CBS & ABC Sat. & Sunday afternoon sports shows, and with the 6 hour time difference, the European night fights were afternoon times to us in the USA.

 

In the 1970's, the vast majority of title holders came from outside the US, ergo, beyond the aging Ali, the US market was not that much a major component to the profitable angle of the sport.

Funny how history repeats itself.

 

Also, when the top American middleweights were in line for a shot they invariably lost. Watts entered the top 10 as early as 1972 when he was mashed by Don Cobbs, Monroe was top 3 in many rankings when he Love hit him on the kisser and wrecked his plans. Vito: ranked #1 at 160 by Boxing Illustrated throughout 76 was then battered by Mo Hope. Each of them lost when the were in a position of a title challenge. Hagler lost two in 1976, one controversial, the other by a big margin. Colbert's team offered the Monzon camp a laughable purse to come to Oregon to fight their man but Carlos chose the easier pickings of Rodrigo Valdez instead.


Uk fighters too blew their opportunities. Kevin Finnegan pencilled in for a shot in late 75 until he was defeated by Gracian Tonna, who himself received the shot. Minter was talked of a possible opponent before Carlos retired but was himself stopped by Ronnie Harris.

 

He was probably worried about a home town decision in the US. Schmeling had his title robbed from him when he risked it in the US against Sharkey.