Something definitely was amiss with George. Not to take anything away from Jimmy Young who fought a smart fight,but there were moments when Foreman looked like a fish out of water.
Gil Clancy let George Foreman appear on several talk shows instead of stressing training, Jimmy Young took this opportunity serious, he acclimatized himself to the humidity of Puerto Rico, promoters promote fights, not the fighters job, George is not Muhammad Ali.
Gil Clancy had nothing but issues with Foreman in training for this fight. Clancy did a big article in one of the mags about this on what he went through. The story goes that Clancy wanted to teach Foreman about boxing, but all he knew was to knock the other man out. Clancy insisted that was why he lost to Ali. He had no plan B just keep trying to knock him out. So for a slickster like Jimmy Young he forbade Foreman from touching the heavy bag and had him strictly on the speed bag. Clancy said he actually never thought highly of the speed bag himself, but he just didn't want Foreman on the heavy bag and was working on stamina. Well, after a few days of this Foreman didn't like it and actually brought in a sub-trainer right in front of Clancy and they went to work on the heavy bag. Clancy said he sat and watched day after day Foreman's muscles getting bigger and bigger as he pounded on the bag and when the bout took place it was the same old Foreman gassing after a number of rounds when he didn't get the KO.
Good post. George was swinging for the fences every round against Jimmy Young, He should have listened to Gil Clancy, learning to just box would have given Foreman a better chance, then I wouldn't have won $10.00.
People often confuse being a boxing trainer with puppetry. You can lead the horse to water but he has to want to drink. If you ever spent any time training fighters — amateur, tough-man, pro — you’ll realize pretty quickly that showing someone how to do it and telling them to do it are far different from getting them to do it. You can try to work on a guy’s jab and then put him on the bag and say ‘just jab for two rounds, nothing else’ … and turn your back and you turn back around and he’s throwing nothing but rights and hooks. Sometimes you’re banging your head against a wall … sometimes you get it across in the gym and as soon as they get in the ring and get hit they revert to what’s natural. Some take to coaching like a fish to water, but they’re few and far between. I have no idea what George was like or what Gil was like at this time but when it doesn’t translate to the ring it’s not always the trainer’s fault.
You are right, then the same thing goes for Mike Tyson with Kevin Rooney, Mike was not a puppet either.
That’s something I think Tyson fans really don’t get: the very reason Tyson got rid of Rooney is why it wouldn’t have mattered if Rooney had stayed as trainer — Mike didn’t WANT anyone telling him what to do, how to train, how to live his life. If he wanted to change trainers and get someone who would be a task-master and hold him accountable, he’d have done that … instead he found yes men. I also don’t think it would have mattered had Cus stayed around. Mike would have probably dumped him same as he did Rooney and Cayton. Mike was rich and famous, a young man who was no longer going to be a controlled teenager. He was married and he was the cash cow for all those around him … so he wasn’t going to live in a room in some old man’s house in the middle of nowhere when he could spend all hours partying and doing the scene in NYC where he was treated like royalty. And he wasn’t going to discipline himself to training either. As for Rooney, Mike explicitly told him to not do ONE thing — ‘don’t talk about my marriage.’ So what did Kevin do? Talked about Tyson’s marriage to the press. Tyson was the boss and Rooney was the employee and he forgot the golden rule — he who has the gold makes the rules.
