Carlos Monzon vs Rodrigo Valdez 1
The main event.
1. 10-9 Monzon. Pumping out the jab, firing it at cheat height at times, not giving him the chance to go under. Couple fast one-twos like a prime second career George Foreman
2. 10-9 Monzon. Cautious, still scoring the jab, moving away from Valdez as he attacks. Looks slow but Valdez doesn't look as sharp as he did
3. 10-9 Monzon, It's all Carlos, he's starting to throw the right more, and it's surprising how often he lands it with such slow hands, combinations too. So good at judging when he can and can't get away with throwing it
4. 9-10 Valdez. Maybe being generous here but covered up well and caught a lot on the gloves, moved his head well. Only a couple of forays of his own but I think he scored a few decent shots
5. 10-9 Monzon. Another close one here, Valdez having to gamble and lunge a little to get shots off and as a result I'm not sure he is landing a lot of them effectively.
6. 10-9 Monzon. Slow start to the round, quite a bit missing but Monzon grows as the round wears on, landing some nice straight solid shots
7. 10-9 Monzon. Steady away for Carlos, just keeps moving the hands in this round, nothing spectacular, landing a decent number of firm shots. Valdez struggling to land clean, Monzon riding the shots so well, his head movement like his hands, not quick but times the movement very well.
8. 9-10 Valdez. Seems to hurt him early with a good right, Monzons head clears quickly and he grabs for time. Valdez struggles to back it up, again a result of Carlos head movement. Monzon comes back and lands some decent shots, almost tempted to award him the round
9. 10-9 Monzon. Jabs well, manages things well on the back foot and leaning out of range, he makes fights so difficult for shorter fighters to get to him
10. 10-9 Monzon. Valdez looking tired and being narrowly outboxed. He did land some decent bodyshots but it looks thrown out of frustration at not being able to land upstairs as anything else.
11. 10-9 Monzon. Lands a lot of head shots here. Valdez tired, keeps swinging though and gets some body work in again but eats a lot of straight shots and uppercut now. Monzon not missing with much now, even if not 100% flush, plenty moving Valdez head.
12. 9-10 Valdez. That was a better round from him, there was a spring in his step, he was bobbing and weaving inside, springing in with hooks, feinting the left to the body and firing the right hook to the head. He needed that round and needs to keep that up
13. Jumps straight into round 14. Went back and checked and there's about 5.30 of footage without a break, but it freezes a little in the middle. I could try and watch it again and split it but I don't think it matters much on my card.
14. 10-8 Monzon. Valdez starts brightly, but he is getting desperate and reaching and gambling. Monzon starts stepping back and teeing him up and after a few nicely placed shots, he walks Valdez onto a right. You feel for Valdez who has been rolling the dice late in the fight.
15. 10-9 Monzon. Valdez still going for it, despite almost getting put through the ropes last round, Monzon looks content to see the round out with a lead on the cards, but he seems to up get to work in the second half of the round, not sure Monzon is ever comfortable not working in a round. You could score this one either way.
146*-138 Monzon
* assuming I would have given Valdez the 13th.
Monzon, deals with arguably his best opponent in reasonably comfortable fashion. As ever, nothing dazzling or flash, he boxes well to a plan negates almost everything his opponent does well and works away consistently and never seems rushed or phased by anything, content to do his own thing.
It looked as if the already fairly slow Monzon had lost a little pace here but he is so very accurate punching and manages distance as well as any fighter I've ever seen. His head work was tidy here too, the fact that he doesn't look slick means I don't look for it but he rolled with so many of those hooked shots from Valdez in this one it was really noticeable.
A very good boxing display against a very good opponent