On their own, with or without a strong corner backing them. Basically, fighters who didn't need great corners, or to be force fed every move by them.
Ali is the first name that springs to mind. It certainly didn't hurt that he had a good corner, but Ali was an innovator, thinker and opportunist who just needed someone to sponge him down, perhaps give him some encouragement and put in his mouthpiece. He's one of the few guys in my opinion who would be great regardless of who trained him.
On the contrary I thought Angelo Dundee was a HUGE INFLUENCE as a CORNERMAN in Ali's career. I think everyone knows Cassius Clay was trying to quit against Sonny Liston when he had something burning his eyes, but Dundee's decision was to force him to fight. And the decision paid off. I cant think of how a cornerman's decision and authority could have more significance that what Dundee did that day. Other cornermen would have called it off right there, and chances are high that Clay would have been persona non grata in boxing for sometime afterward if that had been the case. His career as we know it - and the entire legend surrounding it - would have been hard to ressurrect out of the ashes of such a loss. But of course, most cornermen would probably never send the fighter out blind to fight Liston.
Very true, but at the same time if Ali fought Foreman the way Dundee was begging him to between rounds, he could well have lost.
A corner is vitaly important for many reasons, regarding Ali/Clay, a boxer who's blinded against perhaps the biggest puncher ever is going to think about quiting I'd go with instinctive/cocky fighters to need a corner less, so would go with ALi (he didnt pay much attention to Dundee - Liston/Cooper fights defo got help), Eubanks did his own thing, Naseem Hamed did his own thing, Roy Jones, James Toney (didnt need to be told about gameplan/opponents weaknesses), Hopkins (didnt need to be told about gameplan/opponents weaknesses).
wildcard- robin reid. needed a trainer in the gym. but i used to laugh my ass off when he grabbed his own water bottle in with a boxing glove, and wipe his own blood away with a towel. it was almost like he asked for a short back oin sides.
As for heavyweights, I always thought Liston got by without a top shelf corner. You really don't see heavyweights reach the top and stay w/o a top shelf corner. I'm not sure Don Manuel was top shelf, but he did do a good job with Weaver. The thing is the top shelf corners are usually aligned with a top promoter as well & that sure doesn't hurt things. Jimmy Young pretty much did everything by himself come to think of it. Renaldo Snipes maybe.
Julio Cesar Chavez. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading Emmanuel Steward saying he was astonished to see how "do-it-yourself" Chavez was.
Moorer was taught by Emanuel Steward. Not too many guys have long sustained careers without a solid cornerman.
Yeah, his corner didn't really give him particularly technical advice anyway - mostly just "You're too good for him" "Relax" "Step it up now, Julio" etc. Chavez made his own adjustments.
Bernard Hopkins came to mind. I think Harry Greb would also fit that description. I think he learned by fighting so often and so many different styles.