So first off I dont believe the stories that Baer didnt train. The man never had any fat on him and fought a 20 rounder so no way. My main purpose for this thread is say Bear had a Blackburn a Futch or another great teacher in his corner a man who molded and taught him from the get go. Where does that change Bear in the history of things? He obviously had the talent just not the teacher.
He seem to have the physical tools, size, athleticism, POWER, chin... Outside of the Louis affair, he seemed to be pretty unflappable and hard to intimidate, a natural fighter. But he was a free spirit and I don't know that he ever would have stuck to a trainer's game plan if it veered from his own instincts.
I don't think that a great trainer would have made a huge difference, because his problems were related to focus. Basically the Campbell incident messed him up. He started to have nightmares about it, took up smoking, and let his training suffer. The rest became inevitable.
Baer was walking into the Louis fight with a really bad hand problems. He broke it in the second round during the fight. He was a sitting duck for Louis. Baer would have been an absolute monster with a Futch of someone else in the corner. Problem was he had already killed a man with his power. I don't think he was ever the same nor could he be considering his demeanor was so carefree.
Exactly,...an absolute monster....and no one can convince me that he would be if he had better trainers.
It would've been interesting to have his entire career set, and see if there was a difference in aggression during his younger days before the Campbell incident. Baer had so much power, that he was able to be playful. He was never in too big of a danger that his power couldn't bail him out in, so he made faces, danced, taunted, etc. It's possible that he developed a habit of doing this to calm his nerves or to feel more in control. The only time you don't see that is the Louis fight. He barely makes a playful smirk. It's possible that a world class trainer might've improved him, and streamlined his focus and abilities, but it's hard to say. His ability to follow his instincts, like Seamus said, might have helped rather than hurt.
You know killing a man in the ring doesn't mean you were a monster? You also realized he punched the guy in the back of the head right? You do know they wore smaller gloves right? Baer would never have been anything special. He was a decent fighter for his era where he could faced 170 pound guys for the most part. He was always slow and crude. No trainer could fix that.
Dempsey stated that Baer was basically mentally beaten before Baer stepped into the ring with Louis. Similar to the Norton vs Foreman situation.
The Baer vs Campbell tragedy: http://www.thefightcity.com/august-...kie-campbell-tragedy-primo-carnera-joe-louis/