Whenever I think of Duva, I can always picture him being carried away and nearly dropped off a stretcher when the riot at MSG was ongoing at Bowe-Golota 1. They seriously could not have been carrying him any more crookedly if they were deliberately trying to lob him off.
His life obsession was all boxing. That's all he cared about. I never thought he was much of a trainer, more like a cheerleader as others have stated. As for the man himself, he wasn't that nice of a guy. If you were somebody special, like a famous fighter or celebrity, he had time for you, anyone else, forget it. That's just how he was. I trained at his gym as a kid.
With the advice being given by George Benton.Duva was a cheerleader imo and frequently more trouble in the corner than he was worth.Just my opinion.
Seems to me Chavez is responsible for that. He’s got a guy counting out loud, emphatically, sticking fingers in front of his face. Yet he claims to be focused on a guy 20-odd feet away climbing up steps (as if no cornerman had every done so). The ref asks if he’s OK and he doesn’t nod or anything to acknowledge it. The reason is he’s completely out on his feet, not because Duva is doing somersaults and handstands and shooting fireworks out of his ass as some great distraction from what’s right in front of his face. If someone was counting in front of your face like that while you were trying to drive a car, would you be oblivious to that because someone is riding a bicycle on the sidewalk across the street?
Duva told him between rounds 11 and 12 that “ he needed the last round to win. “ Decades later on one of HBO’s legendary nights series, Duva denied that he told him that and said that he urged him “ to dance and stay away “ while side by side footage showed the contrary
If he told him that, it was probably with good reason. Chavez was likely to get the benefit of the doubt on scorecards as Don King’s house fighter. Knowing what the scorecards were after the fact doesn’t change that as good advice at the time.
Everyone at the time including the judges had Meldrick ahead except for one judge. Duva recanting his earlier advice years later kinda says something
Maybe it says old peoples’ memories fail them. No one knew what the cards were before the last round. We all knew that Chavez had a way of getting the better side of it with judges (including that one judge — how would Duva know that it wasn’t two or even all three judges?). How many times have we seen the A-side fighter (the one aligned with the most powerful promoter in the game and said promoter’s main attraction at this point) be ahead when “everyone” has them behind? Duva made the best call he could make at the time and undoubtedly knew that Meldrick might not get the benefit of the doubt and could very well need every round/point possible to beat Chavez. It’s like the old football coach once said: Hindsight is 50/50. Knowing what we know now is not the same as what Duva knew then … not like the judges were sharing their cards with him after every round, which is what your point of view kind of assumes.
well…. I was around to see the fight live and have listened to plenty of the aftermath over the years sooo….. Go with whatever conclusion you’re happiest with I guess.
The aftermath cannot figure into Duva’s advice at the time going into the last round. He didn’t know what would happen in that last round, nor did he know what the judges’ scorecards were. I watched it when it happened too. I thought Meldrick was winning … but I also knew judges did funny things in Don King fights. Did you watch Douglas-Tyson live? Who did you have ahead going into what turned out to be the final round? Well one judge had it even and one had Mike ahead. If it had gone the distance (without Douglas knocking Tyson down again … or maybe even if he did but didn’t finish him) and given away the last round, there’s a very good chance he’d have been robbed. If Duva told his guy to run like hell and he gave away that round and it turned out that TWO instead of just ONE judge had Chavez narrowly ahead, he’d have been criticized for telling his guy to give away the fight — and you, me and everyone else would be saying ‘you had to know Don King’s influence over the judges was going to have them leaning toward JCC, what an idiot Duva is for being the only person not to know that.’ The corner doesn’t know what the scorecards are.
