Carlos Monzon vs Jose Napoles

[overhand_right]

How was the announcement of this bout received at the time? Was it seen as an even contest? Or was the ritual sacrifice it turned out to be widely expected?

[elmersalsa]

I was just a little boy, then. The only boxers I knew back then were Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello and Esteban De Jesus.

[dagosd2000]

I remember living in Mexico at the time. The Mexican press believed Napoles would win the fight more or less easily. His boxing ability would control and outsmart Monzon Angelo Dundee thought the same.So did I. This was the fight that spelled doom for Napoles. He was a great fighter when in shape,but he was getting away with things that caught up with him when he fought Monzon.He was drinking a lot and training less. He would show up at the gym with liquor on his breath. He trained for a 5 round fight. Very dumb. The added weight slowed him up.Together with a lack of proper training he hit the wall in the 6th round.He WAS out boxing Monzon early beating him to the punch,but there was no way ANY fighter was going to stop Monzon in a fight. If Napoles would have trained hard and been mentally prepared he might have had a chance to win a decision. Instead he quit on his stool.He later said Monzon thumbed him and he couldn't see. I take my hat off to him because he went after Monzon,but he left the ring humiliated.After Monzon thing began to unravel for Jose.

[chrisjs1985]

Napoles is probably better than Monzon, but to ask an aging and at the time, wayward welterweight with plenty of wear and tear to beat an all-time great, durable, in peak middleweight is a tough ask. Napoles probably would have best been suited to 140 whereas Monzon was probably a natural 168. His (Napoles) debut at welterweight was the Cokes fight for the title and I believe he was already about to hit 30 by then.

[dagosd2000]

Napoles is probably better than Monzon, but to ask an aging and at the time, wayward welterweight with plenty of wear and tear to beat an all-time great, durable, in peak middleweight is a tough ask. Napoles probably would have best been suited to 140 whereas Monzon was probably a natural 168. His (Napoles) debut at welterweight was the Cokes fight for the title and I believe he was already about to hit 30 by then.

When I saw Napoles fight Herbie Lee in Tijuana just before venturing to LA to fight Cokes,Jose was still a junior welter. Most of his career he fought between 130 and 140. He should have been the title holder at lightweight,but Ortiz and Laguna wouldn't come to terms with him.The Italian Lopopolo wouldn't fight him for the super lightweight title.it was at this time that Napoles was thinking of giving up boxing. He quit the gym and began drinking.it was George Parnassus that saved him. So Jose went up to welterweight.He could make the weight in his street clothes.

Napoles and Luis Rodriguez were close. Luis left the welters to go up a weight and fight Benvenuti. Today,we think of the dream fight being Luis and Mantequilla,but they didn't want to fight each other. When Napoles fought Griffith it was part payback for his countryman,Luis.(Napoles actually weighed less for that fight than Emile) When Napoles fought Monzon the difference in size was apparant at ring center.BTW:local San Diego middleweight,Charley "Bad News" Austin,who had two go arounds with Carlos in Argentina, told me that Monzon would weigh in on a separate scale.


I wouldn't have been surprised in Monzon was close to 170 that night