Imo this guy is very overrated. Who has he actually made better? I just dont get why he gets praised the way he does.
Has Wilder won a fight since he got rid of him? With the exception of that no name bum he sparked out last month, I cannot think of a single win.
He seems pretty accurately rated to me these days, but yeah a couple years back people were talking about his as the best coach in the game.
Flash in the pan trainer. He teaches a very effective, but limited stile. Worked with Spence and Jermell, but in the end both men showed his teachings limitations. But I do think he is capable of making anyone into a decent boxer, and turn talented boxers into world class operators.
I started having my doubts about him after Crawford whooped up on Spence. He never developed a plan B. Just kept telling Spence to throw.
His whole gameplan is mainly to throw the jab and use it to set up a straight right hand, with some variance to both punches. Now if someone makes good adjustments to this, it´s crickets from James because he does not know what else to do.
Been saying this for years. He's a trainer who has all of the individuals he trains, struggling with the same issue regardless of their style they naturally bring to the ring. Each of his fighters are flat foot and their stances is too wide for them to be able to counter punch on the back foot. He wants all of his fighters to have a heavy jab, which slows down their reaction time vs quick counter punchers. Even looking at last night's fighter with Alycia Baumgardner. She's not a big puncher and she actually has bounce in her stance, but you can see the training she gets and lack of adjustments round to round. Derrick just so happens to have highly athletic and talented individuals in front of him and as long as they are winning, people will praise them, but the moment they face someone of equal ability or a style that isn't as common to the field, you can see the lack of answers come from him from the corner, thus, the quicksand effect in the ring from the fighter.
