Great trainers as fighters

Jackie McCoy - 34-12-5 - fought Manuel Ortiz, Harold Dade and Luis Castillo

Eddie Thomas - 40-6-2 - British and European welterweight champ - fought Billy Graham, Ernie Roderick and Charles Humez

Ronnie Shields - 26-6-1 - fought twice for the jr. Welterweight championship - fought Billy Costello, Bruce Curry and Saoul Mamby

 

really enjoy watching Robert Garcia's old fights very skilled and fit as ****

 

Buddy McGirt is probably the best boxer come full time trainer? I don’t know. Jeff Fenech?

 

Buddy McGirt is probably the best boxer come full time trainer? I don’t know. Jeff Fenech?

 

Legend has it Blackburn embarrassed Jack Johnson in a sparring session. Jack Blackburn was much smaller. Johnson comped a resentment and held it for years. JJ even approached Louis's managers offering to train Joe to tweak Blackburn.
If its true that must of been one hell of a sparring session.

 

Victor Valle sr was good boxer
lost 2 fight only in professional. 1 loss was with Sammy Angott who become champion world later

 

John henry lewis was also trained by jack blackburn... Eddie futch another boxing genius was one of the sparring partners of Joe louis

 

You might be right. McGirt was an excellent boxer. His title win over Simon Brown was amazing. He could also turn on the power, like when he knocked out Howard Davis Jr. in a round.

80 pro fights. Two-division champion. He has already been inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame as a fighter. He was also named the Boxing Writer's Trainer of the Year once. No one who won Trainer of the Year was a better pro fighter than McGirt. Maybe he'll get to the Hall of Fame one day as a trainer, too.

Robert Garcia also deserves a mention. I remember when he was a 130-pound champ. And he's an excellent trainer. (Won Trainer of the Year, too.) McGirt was a much better pro, though.

 

I'd say Uncle Roger, Eddie Mustafa Mohammed or Buddy Mcgirt.

 

He could just as logically have been put in the Hall of Fame, based on his fighting record, as based on his record as a trainer.

 

Kevin Rooney was a better trainer and a better fighter than Teddy Atlas, IMO

 

Good call on Eddie. Forgot about him.

 

Angelo fought in Florida in 1943 while in the service in the USO shows under his birth name Mirena. He was a welterweight and had a record of 12-0-1. He also boxed in smokers before entering the service. His older brothers Joe, Chris, and Jimmy also boxed.

Here is a picture of Angelo in 1943 when he was still an active boxer.
https://imgur.com/qQGYfmb

This is a piece with Angelo talking about boxing while in the service.

"My off-duty time was spent at the USO Club, where I went bowling with some of the guys. I turned out for the boxing squad and won a few fights at welterweight at the Flamingo Bowl. In my unit there were a few jokers who were not overly fond of big city boys, especially if the boys happened to be Jewish or Italian, but they new that I could handle myself, and the bullies kept out of my way. Being known as a kid who boxed was a nice advantage in the unit, so I didn't mind the off-duty time I spent in training, and besides, I got steak instead of spam."
https://imgur.com/DXIK4GF

Here is a piece advertising one of his upcoming fights.


"Eddie Sulk, former Pittsburgh welterweight, and Johnny Nelson of New York have been lined up for the feature four-round bout on Monday night's boxing show of Basic Training Center No. 9 at the Pine Tree drive bandshell.

Angelo Mirena and Weldon Martin will tangle again in the semi-final. They boxed a draw last week."
https://imgur.com/nCuWxo8

 

Blackburn also trained the great bantamweight champion, Bud Taylor.

Not that these guys had all-time great results as trainers, but Jack Chase trained West-Coast fighters Roy Hawkins and Kaley Sonners. Tiger Jack Fox trained Joey Velez for a while in Spokane. Gorilla Jones trained Irish Bob Murphy in San Diego and Johnny Wells and Milo Savage when he was serving for a while as a trainer for George Chemeres' fighters when George was running a gym in Seattle in the late 1940s.

A lot of these types of relationships developed informally when a fighter didn't know what to do with himself after retiring. He'd hang around the gym and give a few pointers to, or jump into the ring with, a young fighter. He might not necessarily have been a day-to-day trainer per se, but he was still an influence.