What are some of the best examples of bad advice given to a fighter during their bout?

I can't remember the exact advice, but I think the corner of Meldrick Taylor between the 11th and 12th round told Taylor that the fight was close and he needed to fight to win.

 

Not so much from a trainer but from all his stupid hangers-on that Leon Spinks allowed in his corner - against the wishes of Georgie Benton - for the Ali rematch. Benton, who devised the plane to win the title, couldn't get a word in edgewise with all the gibberish Leon's no-nothing compadres were offering, including the now immortal piece of advice, "More gusto!" Halfway through the fight Benton packed up, left the corner and the arena.

Also, the actor Robert Conrad always loved boxing and decided to purchase the contract of featherweight Frankie Crawford. While working Frankie Crawford's corner for his bout against the world-rated Dwight Hawkins, Conrad offered some very unique advice while Frankie was getting his arse handed to him. He offered absolutely no advice. He just rinsed Frankie's mouthpiece and sent him out again to meet the coming storm until Frankie got KO'd in the 8th.

 

Tyson vs Biggs: They told Biggs between round six and seven “The guy can’t fight inside so if you got no legs Fight him inside”. Lol Biggs got destroyed in the seventh. Stupidest advice I’ve ever heard, get closer to a prime Tyson.

 

Cool Mark .. good thread .. another recent one. Fury vs Wilder. This was a fight that we saw Fury early on having success throwing combinations and getting his right involved in the fight .. Then about half way through Ben Davison tells him, you are going to win this fight with your left. Well second half of the fight, Fury's work rate goes down and completely falls off the cliff in the 11th and 12th rounds. I believe he threw less than 20 punches in both the 11th and again in the 12th .. and his right just faded from the fight 2nd half.. Fury often looks really busy doing next to nothing. Although, his movement for a big man is very impressive... However, in a close fight especially being floored twice, Fury had the opportunity to take this fight but just passed on it, imo. Bad advice from Davison imo. Especially given the fact of the very poor performance we saw from Wilder...

 

I've read that before the 15th round in his third bout with Ali, Ken Norton was told to take it easy because he had the fight won.

 

Georgie Benton repeatedly telling Meldrick Taylor to not back up against Chavez, and that he needed the 12th, is the first that comes to mind.

Mickey Duff telling Honeyghan to try to box Sterling and not get into a war with him was a head scratcher.

This one’s a stretch but Roldan’s corner telling him that his eye was ok and that he should keep fighting Hagler could have been catastrophic.

 

DLH's corner telling him the fight was practically won vs Tito so he went running with the track stars for 3 regrettable rounds.

Berto in the Guererro fight. His anger-belching father yelling that old adage when a fighter is getting their arse handed to him he keeps yelling at his son "Box him! Don't fight his fight!"

I'm thinking, but boxing isn't really what he did. More of a boxer puncher. Now he is supposed to develop some sweet science skills because the Ghost is roughing him up? Horrible advice.


The absolute worse of all time is most Ronnie Shields fights ESPECIALLY with Baby Bull. This dude always had like 20-35 pieces of advise, way too much.

Ronnie: "look i need more work. and look... I need you to get inside. You got to focus more on the body. And I need you to use that jab....and listen I need you to come out quick, so you don't get caught. And listen....
Damn Ronnie enuff!!!

Wasn't he the guy that had the condom er, uh balloon to apply to Tyson's eye in Tokyo?

 

When Rafael Ruelas fought a fighter named Mauro Gutierrez (I believe) he got dropped in the 2nd round. He sits on one knee while taking the count, fairly coherent, but instead of looking at the referee he instead is staring at his trainer Joe Goosen on the apron who is holding up his fingers in tandem with the referees count. There was just one problem, Joe was one second behind on his count. As the ref is saying '10' Joe is holding up '9' and Rafael is counted out.

 

I dunno. In retrospect what else could Benton say? Biggs legs were shot from all the body shots that according to Tyson afterwards were making him cry out like a girl every time he landed. His face was all busted up from all the shots that Tyson was landing at will so if he couldn’t move away and couldn’t hold Tyson off what advice could Benton or anyone give him apart from just stand there and fight?

 

You are right of course, but still. Imagine you hear your corner say hey go slug it out with Iron Mike Tyson. Truth be told they should have stopped the fight after round six. I know that’s not popular but they knew Biggs had drugs problems and they knew after round two he wasn’t going to win. Instead is telling him to go out and stand toe to toe with Tyson, they should have had the ref stop it.

 

It has been mentioned before, but a corner I thought was solid but to me didn't put out too much opinion was Hagler's corner with Goody and Pat. Even against Leonard, they did not have the urgency they should have. I think also, Marvin was very sensitive, so they could not tell him things bluntly. He wouldn't have gone for that. For a tough guy, he was very sensitive.