Carlos Monzon
Titles: World middleweight champion 1970-1977
Record: 87-3-9 with 1 NC
Born: August 7, 1942 in Santa Fe, Argentina
Years active: 1963-1977
Nickname: None
The debate rages, who is the best middleweight of all time? Hagler, Robinson, Cerdan,
Kid McCoy, Mickey Walker, Ketchel, Greb or Monzon? Carlos only fought 1 time in the
United States, maybe he would be rated the best ever if he had fought more in the USA
where many ring historians reside? Monzon's opinion on the matter: "I am much better
than Robinson. I'm told he won the middleweight title five times and I only won it once
because I beat the champion and never lost to a challenger." If I had to pick one man to
win the all time middleweight championship it would be Monzon, especially if the fights
were to go the 15 round distance. Given 15 rounds to work with the smart Monzon would
find the holes in his foe and be able to frustrate many men with his long arms tricky
defense. Maybe Angelo Dundee said it best when describing Monzon "he is the complete
fighter!" His was a tall frame (5 feet 11'1/2 inches) for a middleweight, which made
him look awkward and stiff in the ring at times. But his very hard jab has to rank among
the divisions elite (maybe the best) and he drove hard right hands behind the jabs with
great accuracy or hooked off it to mix things up. Opponents would always comment on the
problems they had getting past the long reach and accurate jab, even if they could
Monzon possessed a granite chin. You could not call Monzon's style flashy or pretty, the
best way to describe his style would be deceptive and grimly effective. Monzon is the
Larry Holmes of the middleweights as critics try to point to his opposition as his
greatest fault since there is no denying his skills or ring record. If it was not his
physical skill than it was his mental toughness which separated Monzon from the others.
Outside of the ring Monzon was the exact opposite, flamboyant, flashy, and a bit
pompous. Once Monzon started to make money and earn fame he embraced the playboy
lifestyle of the 1970's. Fast cars, fast women, expensive clothes and lots of drink. It
is amazing how Monzon held on to his title through all the abuse he put his body through
outside of the ring. Monzon might have made up for this in training, he only did
roadwork a month before the fight, running for 45 minutes each morning, and he never
went all out in sparring. Monzon's name was as likely to appear in gossip columns as the
sports page during his reign. HBO analyst (in 1973 still a sports writer) Larry Merchant
described Monzon the first time he meet him as "Stately, with the bearing of a Inca
chief. He fights with a imperial fury". Monzon was quoted before his one title defense
in the USA against Tony Licata "after the fight I will smoke a cigarette, drink a cold
glass of wine and go make a movie." He knocked Licata out in the 10th, and went on to do
what he stated before the fight...... this was Monzon at his best and worst. Even as he
was the most famous man in his country and the toast of Paris nightclubs he never forgot
the slums from which he rose from. On Christmas and other special occasions he would
fill up a truck with toys to distribute to the children of his old village. Monzon never
forgot his old friends and remained loyal to them without being dragged back into the
slums which was no easy feat. Much of his loyalty to the people of the slums stemmed
from his native Indian heritage, this prevented him from ever being fully accepted in
the upper classes of Argentine society. This and other facets of his early life gave him
the anger which was to drive him to greatness. "All of his life he is angry" was the
quote of his life long manager Tito Lectoure. Emile Griffith called him "Nasty" and
booking agents referred to him as "hot tempered". That anger made him a great boxer but
also put Monzon in jail. After his boxing career had ended a 46 year old Monzon was
convicted of strangling his estranged wife Alicia Muniz to unconsciousness, then
throwing her body of a balcony in a jealous rage. Monzon was sentenced to 11 years in
jail which he was still serving at the time of his death. Rightfully this has taken away
from Monzon's legacy, but a check of his in the ring performance is astounding! Monzon
was 1972's Fighter of the Year as voted by "The Ring" and The Boxing Writer Association
and perhaps the best fighter of the decade. He was involved in the fight of the year in
1970 in which he knocked out Nino Benvenuti in the 12th as voted by "The Ring" Magazine.
Monzon sports a brilliant ring career which includes 88 wins, three losses (all avenged)
nine draws and one no decision. He retired as champion while on an 82-bout unbeaten
streak which spanned 12 years, eight months, and 11 days. The 82 bouts without a loss is
not a record, but can only be matched by other ring legends. At middleweight Carlos
holds the record for the longest reign as king of the 160 pounders (6 years, 8 months
and 23 days beating the old mark of five years, 7 1/2 months by Tony Zale) and his 14
successful title defenses (in a day when there was only ONE world champion) doubled the
previous middleweight mark of 7. He did all this while living a playboy/jetset lifestyle
that should have taken away from his ring skills. In his 14 title defenses (10 within
the distance), Monzon defeated five former world champions Nino Benvenuti, Emile
Griffith, Denny Moyer, Jose Napoles and Rodrigo Valdez and was a 3-1 underdog when he
knocked out reigning middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti. He also defeated Benvenuti in
3 short rounds in the return match following the second of Nino's two trips to the
canvas in the final stanza. His .871 winning percentage is only bested by four former
title holders titleholders, Marcel Cerdan (.964), Nino Benvenuti (.911), Freddie Steele
and Randy Turpin (both .880). Even though he was not a devastating one punch kayo
artist, with 60 knockouts (none in the first round) in his 101 bouts, Monzon has a kayo
percentage of .594 (but could have been much higher were it not for his chronically
injured right hand). That is only beaten by three other middleweight champions Stanley
Ketchel (.754), Terry Downes (.628) and Rocky Graziano (.627). Also remember that for
the last 5 years and 8 title defenses Monzon fought with a bullet lodged in his left
shoulder...... courtesy of his ex-wife who shot him in the forearm and shoulder during a
argument. Those are all impressive, still most who saw him will tell you it was the
intangibles and boxing instincts of Monzon that truly made him great! As a boy Monzon
crew up one of 12 children and began to work at the age of 6 selling newspapers, shining
shoes and delivering milk. Eventually Monzon found his way to Club Athletico Union De
Santa Fe where trainer Amilcar Brusa took "a skinny kid with rage in his eyes" in. Brusa
fed him, trained him, bailed him out of jail (for starting a riot at a soccer game and
brawling on a bus among other things) and eventually developed a legend of the ring. As
a amateur Brusa led and taught Monzon to 73 wins in his 87 amateur bouts. At age 21
Carlos Monzon got off to a less than glamorous start as a pro. Monzon went 16 and 3 with
one no contest in his first twenty professional fights and then won 14 of his next 20,
being held to a draw on six occasions. But Monzon would continue to win, with only three
draws to take away from a perfect record over his next forty fights. Included in that
stretch was a ten round draw with Bennie Briscoe whom no one else wanted to fight.
Monzon's early record is littered with good boxers who are not highly acclaimed in the
USA. Among the victims of Monzon during his rise in the Argentine rankings were Cele
Lima and Antonio Aguilar who both represented the then boxing mad country at the
Olympics. In the first fights with both Monzon drew with Lima and lost to Aguilar before
defeating both in rematches. After dropping the 10-round decision to Aguilar, Carlos
outpointed Aguilar once and knocked him out in their next two meetings. His other losses
to Felipe Cambeiro and Alberto Massi were also avenged. Monzon lost a eight round
decision to Felipe Cambeiro but beat him via decision a month later. Alberto Massi
scored a 10-round decision over Monzon on Nov. 9 1964, but was knocked out by Monzon two
years later. Early on Monzon averaged a fight a month. Monzon won the Argentine
middleweight title from Ramon Rocha in 1966 with a record of 29-3-6 but there was no
doubt Carlos was getting better and learning from every bout. A year later Monzon won
the South American middleweight title from Jorge Fernandez via 12 round decision. It
would still take Monzon two more years of winning before he was even ranked in "The
Ring" magazine top 10 middleweights. When Monzon traveled to Rome Italy to face reigning
champion Nino Benvenuti he was almost unheard of in the boxing world. Most had assumed
his 82-3-9 record was the result of the poor opposition he faced in Argentina and gave
him no chance to beat the popular Italian champ. This was the first time Monzon had even
fought outside of South America. Benvenuti was also considered one of the best boxers
pound for pound of the time, not to mention that the fight was to take place in Rome.
The venue of Palazzo Dello Sport was notorious for helping it's favorite sons win fights
in unusual manner when losing to foreign opponents. From the beginning however Monzon
fought aggressively scoring whenever he wanted with his jab to the shorter Benvenuti's
head. Form round 3 on it was obvious that it would take a miracle for Nino to win. In
the 7th it got even worse for Benvenuti when he was staggered by a straight right hand
and was hopelessly behind on points. The fight ended with a left hook followed by a
perfect straight right hand to the head of Benvenuti in the 12th round that put
Benvenuti down and out. This earned Monzon the middleweight championship which he would
not relinquish for 7 years! The rematch with Benvenuti would silence all doubters of
Monzon and clearly show who was the better of the two boxers. This time the fight took
place in Monte Carlo and the first of the 3 rounds was uneventful at best with both
feeling each other out. In the second however Monzon scored a knockdown using a left
hook that Benvenuti had not looked for since Monzon did not use the punch much in their
first meeting. The third and final round ended with Benvenuti staggered by a right hand
and his corner throwing in the towel before any more damage could be dealt out. Emile
Griffith would be next in line to challenge Monzon and he had two cracks at Monzon as
well. The first time Griffith was stopped at 2:40 of the 14th round on Sep. 25, 1971 at
Luna Park in Buenos Aires. Many thought Griffith who had fought many world title fights
would outsmart the new champion. But Monzon used his 5 inch reach advantage to
perfection, patiently jabbing and hooking off it when Griffith would dip his head low.
Still the judges had it a close fight before Monzon ended the fight in the 14th round
when he sent a flurry of punches on a dazed Griffith who was rendered helpless against
the ropes. A easy third round kayo of Fraser Scott followed. In his next fight against
former champ Denny Moorer things got harder. At one point Monzon was pushed out of the
ring during the fight. Monzon fought badly early probably losing 3 of the first 4 rounds
but in the 5th Monzon caught Moyer with his patented right hand sending him to the
canvas. During the follow-up barrage Moyer seemed to be protecting himself but the
referee decided to stop the fight. At the time it was considered a controversial stopage
but Monzon was coming on and most think the fight would have ended within 4 to 5 rounds
anyway. France's Jean Claude Bouttier, like Griffith, had two cracks at Carlos' crown
but was found wanting both times. In their first fight on June 17, 1972, Bouttier was
down once and had lost all 12 rounds on referee Rudolph Durst's scorecard when his
manager Jean Bretonnel refused to let him answer the bell for round 13. On Sept. 29,
1973, Bouttier got a second chance and more than held his own for the first 12 rounds.
But the Frenchman ran out of gas and was decked in each of the last three rounds as
Monzon won a unanimous decision by scores of 145-139, 147-138 and 148-145. Danish
challenger Tom Boggs made the mistake of opening a cut over Monzon's left eye in the
fourth round of their Aug. 19, 1972, title tiff and then paid for his "crime" by making
three trips to the canvas in the fifth round before referee Harry Gibbs ordered a
ceasefire. There was still doubt about who the best middleweight in the world was
as "Bad" Bennie Briscoe was thought by the American writer to be better than the
reigning champ since he held Monzon to a draw in Argentina while both were still
middleweight contenders. Their second fight was held in Luna Park, Buenos Aires and it
was obvious from the start that Monzon had gotten better. Briscoe attacked in every
round but his bob and weave style was now being accurately countered with the hard jab
of Monzon. Only the 9th and 15th round were close by any standard. Except for a ninth
round flurry when he Brisco staggered Carlos, the Philadelphian was completely
outclassed in dropping a 15 round decision by scores of 150-139, 149-137 and 149-143.
The straight right hand was landing with regularity impressing the judges as Briscoe
could not get out of the way of them.In the end Monzon would say "Any of the punches I
hit him with would have floored another rival". Lee Roy Dale was knocked out in 5 easy
rounds in Carlos' next fight. Against Griffith in their second fight at Louis II stadium
in Monte Carlo they went the 15 round route on June 2, 1973. This time the fight was
much closer and Monzon had to rally over the final five rounds to outpoint Griffith 147-
145, 147-144 and 147-143 for his 8th title defense. Maybe Monzon took Griffith to
lightly and in fact Monzon came in overweight on the day of the fight and had to run 3
miles to get down to the middleweight limit. After 10 rounds Monzon was behind on points
before Griffith began to fade and the right hands began to catch Griffith flush instead
of grazing him as they did earlier. Griffith said of Monzon "Carlos is a first class
champion. He is a better fighter than Nino Benvenuti ever was." On Feb. 9, 1974, Monzon
took on world welterweight champion Jose Napoles in a much anticipated bout held in
Paris. It was billed as a match between two of the best modern day champions of the
time. But once again Carlos made full use of his height and reach advantage to literally
toy with Napoles from the fifth round until Jose's cornerman Angelo Dundee told the
referee that Napoles had enough before the bell rang for round seven. Over the first 4
rounds Monzon dominated with his jab before opening up with combinations from the 5th
round on. Napoles claimed a thumb in the right eye had helped do him in, however Dundee
was very impressed by Monzon. Dundee said "Monzon is the complete fighter. He can box,
he can hit, he can think and he is game all the way." Monzon seemed disappointed after
the fight stating "I was hoping to have a good match." Monzon was stripped of his title
by the WBC shortly after the victory over Napoles under the pretext that he refused to
provide the WBC with a urine sample after the victory over Jose and that he had failed
to live up to an agreement to fight Rodrigo Valdez within 90 days after beating Napoles.
Any doubts from Australia that Monzon was ducking Tony Mundine were put to rest when
Monzon knocked out Mundine at 1:20 of the seventh round. Monzon now made his only
American ring appearance on June 10, 1975, when he took on challenger Tony Licata at
Madison Square Garden. Licata showed plenty of courage but little else as Carlos scored
three knockdowns before the referee called a halt at 2:43 of the 10th round. France's
Gratien Tonna was Monzon's next challenger but didn't provide much of a challenge as
Carlos' first good punch, a right to the head, sent Tonna to the canvas where he took
the 10 count on his knees in round five. The much hyped showdown with Rodrigo Valdez who
now laid claim to the WBC championship by kayoing Bennie Briscoe and then making
successful 5 defenses was set for June 26, 1976. The fight was for national and personal
pride, Monzon stated "I am going to let him last the full 15 rounds. That way I can
watch him bleed slowly." But the fight failed to live to expectations even if it did
clear up the confusion surrounding who the best middleweight was. The fight held in
Monte Carlo and again the recurring theme of Monzon's great jab and straight hand took
full effect. Whenever Valdez would begin a combination or single blow he would run into
a jab which was followed by a right hand or clinch. The final exclamation point 14th
when Monzon scored a knockdown en route to a unanimous decision win by the closer than
expect scores of 146-144, 147-145 and 148-144. The scores would set up a second fight
which was postponed for 3 weeks because of a cut sustained by Monzon in training. In
this fight Valdez got off to a fast start, sending Monzon to the canvas with a right
cross (the first time Monzon had been down in 13 years) to the head in the second
round. But Rodriguez was unable to follow up on the advantage. Monzon rallied in rounds
four, five and six keeping his cool by scoring with precision like right hand leads
(forgoing his jab) and counters as Valdes swung wildly, showing visible sings of tiring.
Valdez made a short rally round seven and eight evening the fight at the midway mark.
The tide turned once again and dramatically in round 10 when Monzon opened a cut over
Rodrigo's left eye and with his right eye swelling shut Valdez became a sitting duck for
the sharp shooting Monzon. Carlos also claimed he injured his right hand in round 10 but
was a winner on the scorecards of referee Roland Dakin 146-141, Heinz Halbach 147-144
and Mario Folette 145-143. The Ring magazine score had Monzon in front 146-140. Monzon
collected a career high $500,000 for the fight but after Monzon immediately retired
stating "I think I showed everyone I'm one of the great ones. It's definite now, I
dedicate this final victory to my country." It was a worthy exit for a boxing legend
who was the king of all he surveyed. Monzon now drifted off into retirement with 14 of
his last 16 fights being title defenses. After his retirement from the ring Monzon was
set for life financially. He owned a 1,750 acre ranch (Esperanza - the hope), 12
apartment buildings and a variety of business interests (which were not successful and
lost him more money than he made). But Monzon could never find anything to hold his
attention like boxing did. The one thing he did try his hand at and wanted badly was
acting during his boxing career he acted in the movies "The count is over", "La Mary",
and "El Machodo" and now wanted to do this full time. While he had done acting while he
was champion he now found as his fame decreased he was no longer wanted. As his acting
career dissipated some shady characters began to hang out with Monzon. Carlos began to
drink heavily and even reportedly experiment with cocaine. In 1979 he meet dancer Alicia
Muniz at a airport waiting for his flight to Paris and for 9 years they were to have a
stormy love/hate relationship and give Monzon his son Maximiliano. Their relationship
came to a horrible end when Monzon strangled Alicia to death in a jealous rage before
throwing her off a balcony. Monzon was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in June 1991. On January 8th, 1995 the life of Carlos Monzon came to a end on a
lonely stretch of highway in Santa Rosa de Calchines, only 50 miles from his hometown,
when the car he was driving went out of control and crashed. Monzon was returning to
jail from a weekend furlough (given to him for good behavior) when his car flipped
repeatedly throwing Monzon from the car where he died before help could arrive. Monzon
was 52 years old at the time of his death. Over 30,000 people came to his funeral and
Monzon's casket was passed along by his fans to his final resting place. In 1996 a
statue of Monzon was erected by the poor of Santa Fe people who had always stood
by "their" Monzon.
Carlos Monzon
Career Record: 87 W, 3 L, 9 D, 1 NC (59 K.O's)
-1963-
6 Feb Ramon Montenegro Argentina KO2
13 Mar Albino Veron Argentina NC1
9 Apr Albino Veron Argentina KO 2
26 Apr Mario Suarez Argentina KO7
3 May Raul Rivas Argentina KO5
31 May Jose Rodriguez Argentina KO5
17 Jul Andres Cejas Argentina KO4
9 Aug Lisandro Guzman Argentina KO3
28 Aug Antonio Aguilar Argentina L10
18 Oct Benito Sanchez Argentina KO8
6 Dec Rene Sosa Argentina KO6
-1964-
17 Jan Roberto Carabajal Argentina KO8
13 Jun Angel Coria Argentina W8
28 Jun Felipe Cambeiro Brazil L8
10 Jul Roberto Carabajal Argentina W10
24 Jul Walter Villa Argentina KO9
14 Aug Juan Diaz Argentina KO9
4 Sep Americo Vaca Argentina KO3
25 Sep Francisco Olea Argentina KO9
9 Oct Alberto Massi Argentina L10
28 Oct Francisco Gelabert Argentina KO4
18 Nov Celedonio Lima Argentina D10
-1965-
8 Jan Andres Selpa Argentina D10
11 Mar Andres Selpa Argentina W10
9 Apr Emilio Ale-Ali Argentina D10
19 May Anibal Cordoba Argentina W10
14 Jul Alberto Redondo Argentina KO8
31 Jul Felipe Cambeiro Brazil W8
14 Aug Manoel Severino Brazil D8
28 Aug Manoel Severino Brazil D8
6 Oct Gregorio Gomez Argentina W10
17 Nov Celedonio Lima Argentina KO5
8 Dec Antonio Aguilar Argentina W10
29 Dec Carlos Salinas Argentina W10
-1966-
4 Feb Ramon Rocha Argentina W10
17 Feb Norberto Juncos Argentina KO7
29 Apr Ismael Hamze Argentina KO9
3 Jun Marcos Bustos Argentina D10
8 Jul Benito Sanchez Argentina KO4
3 Sep Jorge Fernandez Argentina W12
1 Oct Angel Coria Argentina W10
18 Nov Luis Pereyra Argentina KO2
2 Dec Alberto Massi Argentina KO8
23 Dec Marcelo Farias Argentina KO3
-1967-
13 Jan Carlos Salinas Argentina KO8
27 Jan Eudoro Robledo Argentina KO4
15 Feb Alberto Massi Argentina W10
9 Mar Osvaldo Marino Argentina KO7
25 Mar Angel Coria Argentina KO6
9 Apr Benito Sanchez Argentina KO3
6 May Bennie Briscoe Argentina D10
10 Jun Jorge Fernandez Argentina W12
29 Jul Antonio Aguilar Argentina KO9
16 Aug Tito Marshall Argentina W10
8 Sep Ramon Rocha Argentina W10
6 Oct Carlos Estrada Argentina KO7
20 Oct Ramon Rocha Argentina KO7
18 Nov Tito Marshall Argentina W10
-1968-
15 Apr Juan Aguilar Argentina D10
17 May Alberto Massi Argentina W10
19 Jun Juan Aguilar Argentina W10
5 Jul Benito Sanchez Argentina KO4
14 Aug Douglas Huntley Argentina KO4
23 Oct Charlie Austin Argentina W10
7 Dec Johnny Brooks Argentina W10
20 Dec Emilio Ale-Ali Argentina W10
-1969-
10 Jan Ruben Orrico Argentina KO9
14 Mar Mario Taborda Argentina KO3
25 Apr Carlos Salinas Argentina D10
6 Jun Carlos Salinas Argentina KO7
5 Jul Harold Richardson Argentina KO3
9 Aug Tom Bethea Argentina W10
5 Sep Emilio Ale-Ali Argentina KO7
27 Sep Manoel Severino Argentina KO6
12 Dec Carlos Estrada Argentina KO2
-1970-
11 Feb Antonio Aguilar Argentina KO6
7 Mar Juan Aguilar Argentina KO9
17 Apr Adolfo Cardozo Argentina KO3
18 Jul Eddie Pace Argentina W10
19 Sep Candy Rosa Argentina KO4
7 Nov Nino Benvenuti Italy KO12
(Won World Middleweight Title)
19 Dec Charlie Austin Argentina KO2
-1971-
19 Feb Domingo Guerrero Argentina KO2
6 Mar Roy Lee Argentina KO2
8 May Nino Benvenuti Monaco KO3
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
25 Sep Emile Griffith Argentina KO14
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
4 Dec Fraser Scott Argentina KO3
-1972-
4 Mar Denny Moyer Italy KO5
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
17 Jun Jean-Claude Bouttier France KO13
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
19 Aug Tom Bogs Denmark KO5
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
11 Nov Bennie Briscoe Argentina W15
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
-1973-
5 May Lee Roy Dale Italy KO5
2 Jun Emile Griffith Monaco W15
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
29 Sep Jean-Claude Bouttier France W15
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
-1974-
9 Feb Jose Napoles France KO7
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
5 Oct Tony Mundine Argentina KO7
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
-1975-
30 Jun Tony Licata NY KO10
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
13 Dec Gratien Tonna France KO5
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
-1976-
26 Jun Rodrigo Valdez Monaco W15
(Retained World Middleweight Title)
-1977-
30 Jul Rodrigo Valdez Monaco W15
(Retained World Middleweight Title)