Carlos Monzon vs Rodrigo Valdes 2

Carlos Monzon completed his long rule of the middleweight division at the Stade Louis II in Monaco on July 30, 1977, by recovering from the first knockdown of his championship career to defeat Rodrigo Valdes by unanimous decision over 15 rounds. Monzon retained the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council titles in his fourteenth successful defence, extending a reign that had begun with his knockout of Nino Benvenuti in Rome in November 1970. He weighed 159 pounds, while Valdes was listed at 158¼. The purses were reported as $500,000 for the champion and $150,000 for the challenger. Referee Roland Dakin scored the contest 144–141, Angelo Poletti returned 145–143, and Kurt Halbach had it 147–144, all for Monzon. The Associated Press made the margin narrower at 145–144.

The match was a renewal of their contest at the same ground 13 months earlier, when Monzon had defeated Valdes over 15 rounds to reunify the championship. The Colombian had entered that first meeting after the violent death of his brother only days beforehand and had also endured difficulty making the middleweight limit. There were no such immediate distractions before the return. Valdes, a hard and capable championship fighter with a strong right hand, came determined to impose himself before Monzon could establish the slow, controlling rhythm upon which so much of the Argentine’s success had been built. Monzon was approaching his thirty-fifth birthday and had not fought since their first meeting. His preparation and appetite for the profession had become subjects of discussion, although his authority in the ring remained unquestioned.

Valdes began with greater purpose. Instead of allowing Monzon to measure him at the end of the long left jab, he stepped inside, worked at a quicker pace and tried to bring the right hand over the champion’s lead. Monzon was accustomed to directing opponents from long range, keeping them upright with the jab and meeting their advances with a straight right or uppercut. Valdes denied him that comfort in the opening round by changing the distance and punching first. In the second, he achieved what no challenger had managed during Monzon’s championship reign. As Monzon extended his left, Valdes drove a right cross over it and sent the champion to the canvas. Monzon went down heavily enough to remove any question about the legitimacy of the knockdown, although he remained composed, rose within the count and completed the round without being overwhelmed. The blow also damaged the bridge of his nose and provided Valdes with early encouragement.

The challenger continued to command much of the first half of the fight. Valdes pressed behind the left hand, followed with the right and did not permit Monzon to settle for long periods. The champion appeared slower than in earlier defences and was obliged to give ground more frequently than usual. He nevertheless remained economical, blocking many of the shorter punches on his arms and shoulders while returning straight blows through the centre whenever Valdes became square. Monzon’s work was less eye-catching than the challenger’s, but he gradually restored his balance and began placing the jab with more regularity. A photograph from the sixth round shows the champion reaching Valdes with the left, and by then the difference in height and reach was again becoming important. Valdes still carried the greater momentum through the middle rounds, but each advance demanded effort and exposed him to Monzon’s accurate replies.

Valdes remained in front through the seventh and continued to trouble Monzon in the eighth, but the champion had begun to make the contest more orderly. Rather than attempting to recover the lost ground in hurried exchanges, Monzon returned to the methods that had served him throughout his reign. He stood tall, moved Valdes onto the end of the jab and brought the right hand behind it whenever the challenger tried to shorten the distance. The change was gradual rather than dramatic. Valdes was still dangerous and continued to land, but he was no longer able to attack without interruption. Monzon’s punches were becoming straighter and more precise, while Valdes’s work required greater exertion.

The decisive physical change came in the ninth round, when Monzon opened a deep cut above Valdes’s left eye. The injury bled heavily and required treatment between rounds. From that point the challenger’s task became increasingly difficult. His vision was impaired, his face was swelling, and Monzon had a clear target for the jab and right hand. Gil Clancy, Valdes’s manager, later identified the cut as the turning point and maintained that his fighter had been winning until it occurred. The champion, sensing the alteration in the contest, increased the frequency of his left hand and directed Valdes backwards for longer stretches. Valdes remained willing and continued to throw, but he was now fighting both Monzon and the damage around the eye. He was taken to hospital after the contest so the wound could be stitched.

Monzon controlled most of the later rounds through position and accuracy rather than any sustained assault. He kept Valdes at the proper distance, interrupted his advances with the jab and landed the right whenever the Colombian attempted to force his way inside. There was no attempt to chase a knockout. The champion understood that Valdes had spent heavily in the opening half and that the contest could be recovered by steady work. Valdes continued to resist and had occasional success when he could push Monzon towards the ropes, but his punches had lost some of their earlier speed. Monzon’s face showed the effects of the knockdown and the early exchanges, yet his legs remained dependable and his judgement of range improved as the fight progressed.

The final rounds were contested without surrender from either man. Valdes tried to recover the initiative by pressing forward, while Monzon met him with the jab, short uppercuts and straight rights. The challenger’s damaged eye remained a serious handicap, but he continued to seek the exchanges that had brought him success at the beginning. Monzon was not dominant in the manner of some of his earlier defences, and the Associated Press score reflected the closeness of the overall work, but the champion had done enough in the second half to overturn Valdes’s advantage. At the finish, all three officials favoured Monzon, although their margins differed considerably. Dakin had the champion three points ahead, Poletti two and Halbach three under the scoring system then employed.

The victory was the last of Monzon’s career. He said after the contest that he had shown he belonged among the great champions and that he intended to begin living outside the demands of boxing. However, his retirement was formally announced in August. He left the ring with a modernly recognised record of 87 victories, three defeats and nine draws, with 59 wins inside the distance, and he never returned. Valdes later regained the championship left vacant by defeating Bennie Briscoe in November 1977. Monzon’s final appearance had not been an easy farewell. He had been knocked down, cut and outworked for much of the first half, but his composure, reach and disciplined late-round boxing allowed him to leave as champion rather than remain long enough for decline to decide the matter.

I’ve always rated Carlos Monzon as one of the best middleweights I’ve ever seen, but Rodrigo Valdes made him look old before allowing him to look great. Their first fight had been close, and Valdes entered the rematch free of the personal tragedy and weight-making problems that had affected him in 1976. He was a serious champion in his own right, not another name added to Monzon’s record, and he proved it by dropping the Argentine with a right hand in the second round. It was the first knockdown Monzon had suffered during his seven-year championship reign.

For the opening half, Valdes was the quicker and more forceful man. He got inside Monzon’s long jab, worked at a higher pace and made the champion uncomfortable. Monzon did what the great old professionals did: he stayed calm, conserved himself and waited for the fight to change. The turning point came when he opened a severe cut over Valdes’s left eye. From there, Monzon took control with the jab and straight right, keeping the damaged challenger at range and forcing him to attack through impaired vision. Valdes’s manager, Gil Clancy, was right when he said the cut decided it.

Monzon won unanimously, although the 147–144 card was kinder to him than the fight deserved. I thought it was close, and the Associated Press had it only 145–144. But Monzon earned the decision because he solved the problem while Valdes could not. He retired afterwards, still undisputed champion. That was perfect timing: one fight later and the younger man might have beaten him.