The no hard sparring is quite simply the dumbest thing I have heard. The one place you can make mistakes is sparring. You fighting an opponent with a particular style you can try and get sparring to replicate that. It's nothing but pure arrogance to think one is above that.
Arrogance and stupidity. Every boxer in history has done sparring, why would a trainer think otherwise. Now i do agree with a mixture of technical spars and hard spars, as especially in UK, most spars in camp are hard, included in that is amateur GB squad training but if you watch how the Cubans and old Soviet block used to get ready for the Olympics or high level competition, they mix in a lot of tech spars.
If Anthony Yarde was to to take the Lyndon Arthur rematch, lose again and then retire the next day he would have overachieved massively in boxing and had a good career in the context of how and when he started in the sport. He started boxing extremely late, had virtually no amateur career and turned pro on the back of his natural athleticism, his physique and a handful of fights in a boom period for British boxing based on the 'AJ effect'. He was in the right place at the right time, had a good manager (Tunde) who was able to capitalize on his marketability, rather than his boxing ability- which was really almost unknown. He was headlining televised BT shows when he hadn't even won a British title, and had done nothing of note. Based on his experience level he should have been fighting in a leisure center for a few thousand pounds, because of his platform 10 fights in he had better sponsors and a bigger profile than some world champions lower down the weights! He's now a millionaire, has fought for a world title, and is in a position which he probably never dreamed he would be in 9 years ago when he walked into a boxing gym. I don't think he has any great chance of beating the best at domestic level, let alone genuine world level. Does it really make a big difference from this point onwards if he gets a better trainer? I think he could have (and still can) beat Lyndon Arthur but that is just about his level. How far can he go in a tough division- not far it seems. He's got no chance of going down a weight obviously, and zero chance of fighting at cruiser at a competitive level so not sure where he goes from here...
Yeah I agree, I was fascinated watching it. This is the Yarde people should see, not all that posing, shouting "Lions In The Camp" and acting a little off. This was a sensible, honest and thoughtful Yarde, he came across really well in it.
He needs a clean break. You cant have Tunde hanging around as a manager or advisor, it's just too much of a conflict with whoever the new trainer/team will be. It's hard for the kid but boxing is brutal. You could say Tunde has done ok helping him management wise but let's face it Yarde would have got those opportunities without him. Tunde is an opportunist, with Yarde being his meal ticket. Take Yarde away and he doesn't have a dam business! Boxing is full of these no-talent vultures hanging on to the talented boxers.
Carlos Monzon actually was openly critical of how American boxers sparred. He claimed that they damaged eachother too much and didn't really work on anything. I actually think that PROLONGED hard sparring is very damaging to boxers long run and wouldn't be shocked if the majority of brain damage boxers get is in some way related to it. Think about it- pro boxers who have say 35 bouts in 8 years is about 4/5 bouts a year. Now then think about how many ROUNDS those boxers spar in preparation for the fights- HUNDREDS of rounds. Everytime the head is struck its detrimental to the brain- every punch. Now imagine a boxer training for 2 montjs for a big fight and sparring 10 hard rounds a day 6 days a week for a month- thats alot of shots to the head.
Chris Eubank Sr never did a single round of tech sparring. Nigel Benn never did a single round of hard sparring. Horses for courses.
Sparring is crucial but some of the top trainers like Peter Fury and Dom Ingle have their fighters mainly technical sparring. I think that's the best way as important to learn but you dont want the fight knocked out of someone young, from regular hard spars.
Nigel Benn’s first trainer Brian Lynch didn’t believe in sparring and he was finally found out against Michael Watson. Ironically, Yarde was found out and stopped in identical fashion with a stiff jab against Kovalev. As soon as Benn changed trainers and started sparring quality fighters in the states, his level and ring IQ rocketed.
Yeah I agree with that. I watched an interview with Scott Quigg yesterday who spent a fair bit of time towards the back end of his career at the Wildcard and he could hardly string a sentence together. Was quite disturbing to watch.
Yep Quigg has been sounding increasingly punch drunk for years. He clearly regressed after moving to the Wildcard gym, that turned out to be a bad move they must have had him regularly in gym wars .