School me on him during his time as a trainer. How good was he? Who were the best fighters he trained? How does history remember him?
Duva was more of a cheerleader than a technical trainer, which is why he always worked with others, like George Benton, who actually taught the technical aspects of boxing to the fighters.
As a trainer Lou was a great boxing character. I think Dan was the real brains behind Main Events and deserves most of the kudos for getting many of the USA 84 Olympians signed up. I am being a bit harsh on Lou; much of boxing is for the silly pro Wrestling dabbling and the rants and raves. But although he has a lot of young talent and few future greats in his stable, he still needed to develop them as fighters, so he did not do a bad job with the likes Whitaker, Taylor, Holyfield and Biggs. And I am just sore with him, because I was at the wrong end of one of them infamous rants. Zakman makes a good point about Benton, who for a period I think many thought was the best trainer in the world.
I met Duva back in 07/08 briefly, certainly a nice guy told you like it was,knew the sport in and out.holyfield had said his biggest mistake was firing Duva,if anything being a motivator and voice can be almost as important as the technical training. On what percent was his effect on the actual training of his fighters,i would say hes on a Dundee level,which is more of a behind the scenes or co trainer type.Beghhind the scenes of this and that with fall outs with certain guys,well only really Duva knows that.
How is he a liability in the corner,thats where he was at his best?That makes no sense,duva is the type of guy you want in your corner to be a vocal motivater and voice at the refs.
Motivator yeah that's what he was and a very good one sometimes comes across as a hot head the time he got cut after a altercation with roger mayweather come to mind and who could forget the free for all that went on when gene hatcher beat johnny bumphus
And that's the guy you want,not a soft spoken guy to just look at you with no advice.Personally i would take him/Steward and Atlas as the guys who can motivate and communicate,though steward was a real trainer compared to them.
Never seen a guy back his fighter more passionately than Duva used to. Agree with Zakman though that the actual tactical advice was from George Benton.
Not if you're Tyrell Biggs. I used to like Lou but then more and more I started hearing stories on these boards about things I didn't like. It's boxing I know and sometimes people need to be ruthless but still.
I was particularly thinking of Meldrick Taylor. As Steele was asking "are you ok?", Taylor was distracted by Duva who was manically gesturing at him from the edge of the ring.