Was Cus D Amato the ultimate trainer in boxing history?Or were there others?

Was Cus D Amato the ultimate trainer in boxing history? Or were there others?

 

The most overrated, corrupt, hypocritical excuse of a trainor in boxing history for sure.

 

I think he was a damn good trainer who dedicated his life to the art and science of it.
I Boxing, perhaps more than other sports, has the obsession with always trying to determine who was “the greatest“.
I think when it comes to trainers it is even more subjective based on who they are training.

 

He was an excellent trainer who was highly revered and respected in the boxing community. But for me, history is filled with too many notable trainers to label a single one as “ the ultimate trainer. “

 

Yeah, Futch and Arcel are the top 2 imo. Although Freddie Brown is vastly underrated.

 

Freddie Brown. Also Dai Dollings, the amazing Welsh boxing mind, who Arcel credited with teaching him all he knew about training.

I like Cus but he is over stated imo.

 

What was wrong with his training tactics?

 

Tyson learned to be a counter/pressure fighter by watching Duran, D`Amato used to study older generation fighters with Mike, so Tyson was indirectly influenced by Arcel anyway.

 

Cus wasn't for everyone type of personality. He demanded complete control of a boxer's life. He brainwashed them with his theories and beliefs.
Cus may have worked in the gym with a fighter for a couple of hours but he worked his noodle 24-7.

 

This is why he only had few standouts. Boxing, fighting, is extremely dynamic - personality, style, even your geography affect it. Molding a fighter like a Lord with his Retainer, as Cus did, works only with a very specific type of person - and the peek-a-boo style limits it even more to desirable physical traits.

 

I think D'Amato is a little overrated because of the Tyson connection, which obviously gives him more crossover appeal than most other trainers. As others have said above, he was notoriously stubborn and couldn't really hack it when a fighter didn't want to / couldn't fully utilise his peek a boo style, which he swore by and seldom deviated from in the gym. Both Pat Ford and Benitez said they didn't really rate him as a trainer because he was so set in his ways and didn't listen to whatever they said.

Very commendable that he took a stance against Norris and the IBC during their peak influence in the late forties / fifties, and Cus could probably have boosted his world champion count had he compromised his integrity, so fair play to him for that. But his principles then make it all the more annoying and mystifying that he was so happy to let deserving contenders go by the wayside without their title shot as he steered Patterson towards so many awful and safe defences once he'd won the Heavyweight title. Sure, he probably had Patterson's interests at heart because there was genuine affection between them, but even so - he ended up mirroring (to a limited degree, admittedly) the very thing he'd rallied against years before.

Obviously had something about him as a trainer but I'm generally more impressed by him as a mentor and motivator to his fighters, and for his principles...For the most part, anyway.

 

D'Amato was himself mob connected,he used his feud with the IBC as a pretext to avoid dangerous Patterson's most dangerous challengers.

 

Amazingly, Brown nor Dollings are inducted into Canastota. Madness.

 

Brown was more of a cut man I believe.I'd guess most here have never heard of Dollings, but that may be a reflection of the way the forum has gone over the last few years.

 

Yank Durham's work with Frazier is extremely underrated to say the least