Rodrigo Valdez

Another champion of my youth passed away in Colombia as former middleweight champion Rodrigo Valdez died of a heart attack at the age of 70.

The former world middleweight champion (Unified once, WBC twice) was rated as one of the most devastating punchers in the 160-pound division's history but had the misfortune to have his prime run into arguably the best middleweight of all time in Carlos Monzon.

Valdez owns three wins over Bennie Briscoe, who many including myself rate as the best middleweight to never win the championship, and made three defenses of his WBC title in the first reign.
Valdez was a dangerous fighter and Monzon decided that the cash wasn't there for a Valdez fight and was stripped of his title by the WBC with the WBA keeping Monzon as their titleholder.

Editor's Note: Doing some later research, Monzon's decision to not fight Valdez then was about money, but his reasoning was that Valdez didn't bring the payday that a "Battle of the Champions' against welterweight champion Jose Napoles did and the WBC stripped Monzon for fighting Napoles rather than Valdez.

Valdez, who had decisioned Bennie Briscoe earlier in his career, would stop him in seven rounds in their rematch to fill the vacant WBC title and make three title defenses against lower-level challengers before the inevitable match with Carlos Monzon.

The unification of the two world titles was set for June 1976, but a week before the fight, Valdez's brother was murdered and Valdez wasn't allowed to cancel the fight.
A listless Valdez (and understandably so) was easily decisioned by Monzon, who once again was undisputed middleweight champion-even if only the WBC had such a dispute before.
One year later, both organizations in a rare show of cooperation ordered a rematch between the pair due to the distractions suffered by Valdez before their first bout.
This match was much closer and better contested and round two saw Valdez drop Monzon with a booming right hand for the second time in the Argentine's career.
Valdez built a lead that he could not hold as Monzon took over and won a close, but unanimous decision.


Ordinarily, that might have meant a third fight, but Monzon decided to retire (and never return) and vacated both of his titles.
In another unusual form of working together (even back then, the organizations rarely dealt with each other for the best interests of boxing), the vacant titles were to be filled from the same fight.
Usually then as now, the sanctioning bodies fill their titles with various contenders that scatter championships among many, not one, so this was pretty rare and the two top contenders to fight for the two belts were Valdez and yet again Bennie Briscoe.
Valdez notched a 15 round decision and was once again middleweight champion, this time-everyone recognized him as such.

In his first title defense in April 1978, Valdez dropped the title to undistinguished challenger Hugo Corro and seven months later, most were even more shocked when Corro decisioned him again in the rematch.
Valdez notched two knockouts in 1980 and retired at the age of 33, never to fight again.

Of all sports, boxing might be the one sport this happens fairly frequently-that a possibly great athlete
can fall short of being considered great because someone else a little better that happens to be the same size comes along at the same time frame as the possibly great.
Rodrigo Valdez might have been considered a great middleweight, had Carlos Monzon not come along and Monzon was just a little bit better... 

Cleaning out the inbox

The inbox is more than full,so it's overdue for dumping.

We blast out of the gate with a cool post from TSN (the ESPN of Canada) with BarDown and the cartoons that he does based on each of the CFL teams.
These are awesome and I wish that they'd get more exposure along with the CFL getting "BarDown" a few bucks to use these officially.
They remind me of the stuff used in the 60's and 70's and that's a good thing...

SI.com writes about the forgotten dynasty of the USFL-the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars,who won two of the leagues three titles and lost the first by just 24-22 to the Michigan Panthers.
Considering the issues of the time in Baltimore,one unknown question in football history is this-had the USFL forced a better result in their court battle vs the NFL and if the Stars had pulled out that first title,would it be possible that the Stars could have entered the NFL in Baltimore?
If that happens,there is not a Browns move to Baltimore and all the resulting spinoff that happened from that.
Fun to consider.

Nigel Collins of ESPN (and a long time boxing scribe) scribbles about the only fight in the United States by Middleweight champion Carlos Monzon in 1975 vs Tony Licata.
Most observers rank Monzon as one of the top five middleweights and one in particular ranks him at number one.
Here's a hint-you read his writings all the time.

Ryan Clingman of the Wrestling Observer writes of the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest wrestling matches ever,which led to the greatest run of business in Japanese history with Mitsuharu Misawa breaking through with an upset of Jumbo Tsuruta.
It's a very detailed article that praises both men for the upturn in the business of All Japan Pro Wrestling and traces to both men's connection to the beginning of Pro Wrestling NOAH....

Hardball Times hits one back through the grill with a look at minor league food at various ballparks.
It's funny,I almost never eat food at my home three parks,but when I go to new parks,I usually try a thing or two.
None of the parks that I visit a lot tries anything different for the most part,so I try for new experiences....

The Cleveland Plain Dealer takes an interesting look at some of the various players that the Cavaliers could be interested in with the Brendan Haywood trade chip before August 1 when it would expire.
The players and positions vary,but gives plenty of food for thought for possible new Cavaliers..

The New York Times writes about the trip to Pluto and the resulting end of planetary exploration.
It's not as much about New Horizons as much as the various probes sent out through the years and hopes of finding even just a speck of life on the trail....

That cleans things out for a while.
One quick note before I go,I haven't forgotten about the podcast.
It is just that I have had a planned guest have to back out twice in the last few days.
There is one coming soon-I promise!!!

Forgotten Superstars-Carlos Monzon

We return to the Forgotten Superstars universe with the man, who in my opinion, is the greatest Middleweight of all time.
Sugar Ray Robinson? Nope, not at Middleweight anyway.
The Welterweight Robinson might have been the greatest fighting machine ever, but the 160-pound version lost to Gene Fullmer, Randy Turpin, and Carmen Basilio.
A great fighter, most definitely, but not the best.

Marvin Hagler? Nope.
Hagler was great, but he seemed to be intimidated against fighters that exuded greatness like Roberto Duran and Ray Leonard and I think against this man, he would be no different.

Bernard Hopkins? Not quite.
Hopkins has kept his skills far longer than most, but despite his long reign, name me one great fighter that he beat at 160?
Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya were natural welters and his record shows good, not great fighters and not one true great win over a natural middleweight...

So, who does that leave?
I bet that one person (if he is reading this) knows the answer and vehemently disagrees and the rest of you are wondering who Carlos Monzon is.
Carlos Monzon is my pick for the greatest middleweight of all time.
"Escopeta" (Spanish for Shotgun) Monzon cleaned out an entire division during a seven-year reign that saw him defeat Hall of Famers Nino Benvenuti (twice) and Emile Griffith (twice), Hall of Famer, and the reigning Welterweight champion Jose Napoles, Bennie Briscoe, who we mentioned as maybe the best fighter never to win a title and the excellent Rodrigo Valdes to unify the part of the title that had been stripped from Monzon for taking a bigger money bout against Napoles and then beat Valdes again in a rematch.
Seven other contenders fell at the hands of the cocky Argentine.
Check this YouTube complete with a really cool Johnny Cash song over the Monzon pics...



Monzon looks ordinary upon first glance in his youtube appearances until you look closer.
Using the long left to set up his crunching right, Monzon is never out of balance and rarely fights the other fighter's fight, yet evolves to counter the strategy of the opponent.
Box him and stay on the outside and the long left pops you until the right is set up for the kill.
Charge him and try to bully him on the inside and fight yourself hammered with the harder shots until inevitably you are the bullied and backed away for one's own safety.
The 6-2 Monzon was able to use his height and power to lean away from punches and avoid heavy shots and never took the beatings that so many boxers took.



Why was this man, who along with Roberto Duran were the fighters of the '70s not as well known in America?
Well, only one of his title defenses was in the USA, a tenth round KO of Tony Licata at Madison Square Garden in 1975, and as the Klitschko brothers are showing now, it is tough for Americans to care about fighters that don't fight on these shores very often, despite most of Monzon's bouts being shown on American television.

Carlos Monzon also earns credit for leaving on top of his game after his rematch win over Rodrigo Valdes that saw Monzon dropped in round two in what was the only knockdown of his reign.
Monzon got up and won a clear decision, but retired after that win saying that he saw his skills beginning to slip.
Monzon would never fight again and the result was just missing by a year or so a potential bout against Marvin Hagler.

Monzon was a character out of the ring as well and often not an amusing one.
Monzon was known for his chain-smoking, which made his amazing stamina even more amazing, his dating of famous actresses in his home country, his abuse of women, working as a pimp before becoming a contender and his murder of his second wife by throwing her over the balcony at their condo.
Monzon was sentenced in 1988 to eleven years in prison, but after a weekend furlough in 1995, Monzon overturned his car on the way back to prison and was killed.

No matter the outside issues and keeping things in the ring-Carlos Monzon was truly a Forgotten Champion and the best Middleweight ever.....

Bullpen Notes

A quick nod to Tom Noe over at Exploring Food My Way as Tom finally hits White House chicken to finish his Barberton Chicken experience.
A great article and Tom makes his final call on his best Barberton Chicken restaurant.

So what game at Wrigley Field did Ferris Bueller actually see on his day off?
Baseball Prospectus does the digging and figures out the answers.
That's right-answerS.
Check the link to find out more about the filming of this 80's classic...