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By Cliff Rold - There is no shame in losing to the better man. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck not to be him. It is a truth that can be found in almost any fight but there are those pairings, those rivalries, which make the sting last a little longer. Sometimes, it’s the sting of coming out on the short end of a rivalry even while picking up a win along the way. Other times, it’s the lasting hurt of coming within a whisper of the brass ring and seeing it slip, seeing it torn, from grasp.
Few fighters absorb the whisper and manage to hang around long enough to make a lasting mark after their obstacle is removed.
Middleweight Rodrigo Valdez won a belt before he gave the great Carlos Monzon hell in the last two fights of Monzon’s career. He couldn’t capture Monzon’s world title, couldn’t prove to be the real champion. One fight after the Monzon rematch, he claimed the vacant title only to lose it in his first defense. He was never to regain the crown and, despite a memorable career in its own regard, he remains a Monzon opponent first.
Carl “Bobo” Olson had a hell of a career. What might it have been without Sugar Ray Robinson? Robinson bested Olson before winning the Middleweight crown from Jake LaMotta and after regaining it from Randy Turpin. Opportunity didn’t seem to be on its way but, when Robinson retired between 1952 and 1955, it came knocking. Then Robinson did too, unretiring and knocking out Olson for the title and again in a fourth and final affair. [Click Here To Read More]
Few fighters absorb the whisper and manage to hang around long enough to make a lasting mark after their obstacle is removed.
Middleweight Rodrigo Valdez won a belt before he gave the great Carlos Monzon hell in the last two fights of Monzon’s career. He couldn’t capture Monzon’s world title, couldn’t prove to be the real champion. One fight after the Monzon rematch, he claimed the vacant title only to lose it in his first defense. He was never to regain the crown and, despite a memorable career in its own regard, he remains a Monzon opponent first.
Carl “Bobo” Olson had a hell of a career. What might it have been without Sugar Ray Robinson? Robinson bested Olson before winning the Middleweight crown from Jake LaMotta and after regaining it from Randy Turpin. Opportunity didn’t seem to be on its way but, when Robinson retired between 1952 and 1955, it came knocking. Then Robinson did too, unretiring and knocking out Olson for the title and again in a fourth and final affair. [Click Here To Read More]
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