Published by on November 18th, 2008
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By Scoop Malinowski
The great tennis champion Guillermo Vilas, the muscular, left-hander of Argentina is not only an avid follower of the sport, he was also close friends with the likes of Carlos Monzon, Victor Galindez, Nicolino Locche, among others. “I was good friends with Monzon. I saw him many, many times,” says Vilas, during our conversation in Flushing Meadows, New York at the recent U.S. Open where he played a senior mixed doubles event. “Monzon was a very good guy, very cool. I liked him very much. Very straight-forward. I’m a boxing fan. I like it. I always follow a lot of boxing. But Monzon was always very special.”
When asked what is the appeal of boxing, Vilas, who has authored two poetry books, replied: “Because it’s survival. Boxing is a way people survive before, from thieves, they adjust whatever problem they have. So it’s amazing how this type – if something happens, anything happens, a bomb comes and the whole world – only the boxers will survive the best. They know how to take pain. One who knows how to take pain can do more things. And that’s why I see boxing, Ultimate Fighting, it’s amazing, it’s very brutal, yes. But boxing is more coherent. But to me, that sport of survival is very important. And boxing adds to a lot of security that you can see now.”
Known as the “Young Bull of the Pampas”, Vilas had his best year in 1977, winning an astounding 16 of the 33 ATP singles tournaments he entered, including the French and U.S. Opens, where he defeated Brian Gottfried and Jimmy Connors, respectively. Vilas is the only man in tennis history to win ATP Tour singles titles on five different continents in the same year (Asia, Europe, N. and S. America, and Africa). That year in 1977 his match record was a remarkable 145 wins and 14 losses. Vilas says Monzon very much appreciated the skills required to play tennis. “Carlos, he loved tennis. He loved to see tennis. That was the amazing part. He liked to go and sit down and watch. Didn’t play. There was a study that the fastest sportsmen with the eye coordination are the tennis players. And the Formula I drivers also. And the rock and rollers play tennis, and the chess players. Monzon never played, he loved to see. The boxers like to watch but they don’t do any sport.”
The first boxing memory of Vilas was when he was around 16. “Locche was very famous boxer in Argentina. He went to fight in Japan against Paul Fujji and he won the world title there. Not long ago I got hold of a film of this fight from Carlos Irusta (Argentine boxing historian and writer). Locche then defended the title several times in Argentina and lost it (to Peppermint Frazer) in Panama.”
Vilas recalls the story about when Monzon went to support Locche in his fight with the Colombian Antonio Cervantes in Venezuela in 1973. “Locche lost (by TKO 9) and when they left and were walking a guy (with a gun) comes and says, Stop over there. Then Monzon opened his shirt (which Vilas mimes) and said, Shoot me. Or run. And the guy runs. And Locche said to him, How could you do that? Monzon said, When you take the gun out it’s to shoot. You don’t take the gun out to say, Hey Stop there. Vilas asked Monzon to explain what would have happened if the man fired. Vilas continued: Monzon replied, It would be a bad judgement on my part [laughter]. But he (Monzon) was right.”
Vilas also personally knew the former WBA Light Heavyweight champ from Buenos Aires who made ten world title defenses. “I was very good friends with Victor Galindez. Galindez quit. And then I wrote him a letter. And said he should come back. He published the letter in a magazine and said he is my friend and I want to give me his gloves and memorabilia. He kept fighting. I think he won one fight against Mike Rossman.”
“In the end he had a problem with his eye and he couldn’t fight any more. So he started racing. It was such bad luck. They were racing in an oval in De Mayo. His car broke down. He walked away and one car turned over like this, turned front back, front back. And he was walking and hear all this noise. But he didn’t turn. He was walking with his co-pilot. And the car squash him. 1980. Crazy day. How do you die like this? Not because he was doing something irrational. He was walking away.”
Vilas avidly follows the sport today. His favorites are: “The guy from the Philippines (Pacquiao). He goes and fights all over and he has no fear. There was the Prince (Hamed). The guy who had the longest streak. (Hopkins?) Yes, Hopkins. I was checking him then he lost a couple of times. Tell me, Klitschkos, they are two brothers? (Yes.) He’s very good. But when I saw them for the first time, I said, This guy cannot fight. Terrible. I said, What happened? Then you see, if you learn and you take people to teach you, you can get better. They said they would be world champion. I said, How? I said, I saw them fighting, it’s impossible. Then I saw, not long ago, fighting in Germany, the big fight, and the guy was amazing.”
Vilas watches boxing live and on TV, even his wife Phiangpathu and four-year-old daughter Andanin enjoy the action. “I go to Las Vegas whenever I can. The biggest match I saw was Chavez against The Surgeon (Frankie Randall). You know what I do? Because it’s seldom there’s a big fight when I’m in Vegas. I go to the Showboat, they have these small fights. I go to every match. I saw like five knockouts. It was amazing. Every Wednesday and Friday we watch international boxing on TV. They have the Argentine fights so I see that too. My wife enjoys it, so does my daughter. When she sees boxing, she goes like this (simulates combination punching) [smiles].”
His favorrite boxing films? “Raging Bull. Hurricane. When We Were Kings. I think every sportsman should see that movie. Because all the technical things are inside, how Ali used the crowd, how he prepare the crowd, and what a celebration it was for them. So many things to write about.”
Some more boxing memories of Vilas: “My father took me to see Bonavena fighting. I was impressed because I bought some gloves and it hurts. You have to get used to the pain. There is protective padding in the gloves but it hurts anyway.”
“Monzon used to put injections into his fingers, because he hit so hard that his bones were deteriorating. He had the punch of a heavyweight. He was very tall (5-ft, 11-in) and light for his weight category. And he had those injections because it was very painful when he hit the opponent. He had this amazing timing. He was very accurate. Whenever he got you – in the body or the middle of your chest – you could see the other fighter was taking very much. Amazing. Amazing sport.”
Monzon vs. Hagler? “Monzon tried to come back one time (he retired in August of 1977 at 35). They were trying to convince him to fight Hagler. He was considering. I was talking to him one time and he was smoking. And I ask him, Do you think you can come back? He showed me the cigarette (and said), I don’t think so [laughs]. He thought that Hagler was a very good fighter. But against somebody who knew how to move – Hagler was always fighting the same way. If he could get around, Monzon believed he was an easy target at certain moments of the fight. If you were intelligent enough. He said Hagler needed a certain way to get his opening. He knew what it was. (Monzon) said, I know how to get him.”
Monzon’s close call with Briscoe: “One fight with Bennie Briscoe (draw in 1967), by luck, Briscoe hit him. He told me he didn’t know what was happening for one or two seconds. And Briscoe didn’t know that he was groggy. And I think it was around the tenth round, Monzon said he didn’t see this punch and he couldn’t see for like one or two seconds. He was out. But he knew he was out, he said he was very conscious at the time.”
Vilas on the Beijing Olympic boxing: “They should fight without the (headgear) protection. And instead of counting the punches, one, two, three, four, it’s not fencing. To put some professional judges. They should fight, make different categories by age. But the older ones fight without protection, that’s the way it should be.”
Vilas also has some lighter memories of his friends. “Some people thought Galindez was kind of, not fat, but overweight (chubby). But it was not because he ate too much or ate the wrong foods. It was because he would drink 12 liter bottles of Coca Cola a day. He loved the Coca Cola. Monzon used to drink Coca Cola mixed with the red wine. Did you ever try that? Whew!”
“There was a very funny time with Monzon. It was the year that I won everything (1977) and he retired from boxing. And we went to a sportsman event at the end of the year in Buenos Aires. And he asked me, Now you’re gonna win? And I said, humbly, I don’t know, because there are so many, many good sportsmen. And he hit me on my left arm! It was ridiculous, he hit me so hard he paralyzed me. And he said, I don’t like guys who play humble. Very funny guy. BAM! I won the trophy and I couldn’t lift the trophy! I said, I cannot move my arm. He said, Lift it with the other one! Monzon was a very great guy.”
At the conclusion of our conversation Vilas adds that it is a pleasure to take part in this interview. He expresses gratitude that the world boxing champions of Argentina are still being chronicled and some of their stories are being written about today, three decades later.
Tennis great and boxing fan Guillermo Vilas (pictured on right) at Roland Garros 2004.
