Greatest Latino Fighters Ever

[Yogi]

again that is based on accomplishements and monzon dodged hagler, what does that tell you. He choose to defend his belt against lesser opponents when he knew hagler was supposed to get the title shot.

Hagler didn't become the #1 ranked contender until months AFTER Monzon had already retired, and he recieved that lofty position largely on the strength of his stoppage win against the highly ranked Mike Colbert in Nov of 1977, so I'm having trouble figuring out this "supposed to get the title shot" comment of yours.

In fact, Hagler wasn't even a ranked middleweight contender in the year previous, based on the Ring's annual rankings for the end of 1976, and it's also a well known fact that Monzon had planned his retirement well in advance of his final meeting with Valdez, which took place in the summer of 1977...

Quite the closed window there, and no, at the time I certainly wouldn't classify Rodrigo Valdez as a "lesser opponent" than Hagler, as Valdez was a very good, borderline great middleweight fighter...strong & tough as hell, great power combinations, reasonably skilled boxing skills behind his high guard, could fight on both the front foot and back (as shown versus Briscoe), etc., etc. Hindsight may tell us something different, but at the time the very dangerous Rodrigo Valdez was thought of as the second best fighter in the middleweight division behind Monzon, and certainly held a much higher position than did Hagler at the time.

[brownpimp88]

Hagler didn't become the #1 ranked contender until months AFTER Monzon had already retired, and he recieved that lofty position largely on the strength of his stoppage win against the highly ranked Mike Colbert in Nov of 1977, so I'm having trouble figuring out this "supposed to get the title shot" comment of yours.

In fact, Hagler wasn't even a ranked middleweight contender in the year previous, based on the Ring's annual rankings for the end of 1976, and it's also a well known fact that Monzon had planned his retirement well in advance of his final meeting with Valdez, which took place in the summer of 1977...

Quite the closed window there, and no, at the time I certainly wouldn't classify Rodrigo Valdez as a "lesser opponent" than Hagler, as Valdez was a very good, borderline great middleweight fighter...strong & tough as hell, great power combinations, reasonably skilled boxing skills behind his high guard, could fight on both the front foot and back (as shown versus Briscoe), etc., etc. Hindsight may tell us something different, but at the time the very dangerous Rodrigo Valdez was thought of as the second best fighter in the middleweight division behind Monzon, and certainly held a much higher position than did Hagler at the time.

Even if valdez is the #1 contender, hagler was still supposed to get a shot at the belt around 77-78, not the end of 79. Let me remind u that there were two champs at that time and hagler's draw against antuofermo was a bull**** decision.

[Yogi]

Even if valdez is the #1 contender, hagler was still supposed to get a shot at the eblt around 77-78, not the end of 79. Let me remind u that there were two champs at that time and hagler's draw against antuofermo was a bull**** decision.

I can agree with you in stating that Hagler could've or should've gotten his shot a little bit earlier, but that's only from 1978 onwards (not in 1977, when Hagler only just recieved the #1 position with a month to go in the year), as that's the only time frame that he'd be most eligible as the #1 contender...Not against Monzon

In Monzon's days of reigning at the top of the division, Hagler was never the #1 contender to Carlos' title, nor was he even a ranked contender for the VAST majority of it.

And no, there was only one world title around in the middleweight division at the time, as the WBC/WBA titles were unified during the first meeting between Monzon & Valdez in 1976, and stayed that way until the very end of Hagler's reign as champion.