I keep reading that he worked with Ali. I know he trained fighters against Ali but he never worked with did he? I can't imagine that. Best color commentator I listened to. Brought real knowledge & wasn't afraid to be critical. I remember him riding Hagler for not fighting southpaw to start his fight with Leonard. One of the best.
Hagler....and 100,000 other observers, know Hagler totally fked that fight up in a 12 rd fight. Should have gone about 4 rds with Hagler winning by TKO stoppage. ("War" was not on Hagler's mind that nite).
I think of Gil Clancy as being a bit of a Joe Goossen type guy. Yes, they both guided guys from the beginning to championships, but both guys were more of the hired gun types, who could take on an established fighter and bring out new wrinkles in his game. As others have pointed out, Gil and Manny Steward messed up the good work Jesus Rivero had done for Dela Hoya. I've always thought Rivero would have been the best long term choice for Oscar. Also, Gil and George Foreman didn't seem to work great together, even though they obviously respected each other. They just didn't have great professional synergy.
Gil played a massive role in boxing history but like a lot of trainers who became famous it went to his head. I read a fascinating interiew with him years ago where he was asked a lot of questions that he answered superbly (he was good copy) but followed a theme. "if he listened to me he would have won". It was never " he followed my gameplan to the letter but walked onto a hell of a shot, but thats boxing" it was always "he didnt listen" or that the guy brought somebody into camp that told him to do the wrong thing. He was a great trainer, there have been a lot of great trainers but nobody is right all the time.