Personally, I have to give the nod to Toney. The reason being that Roy was a gifted athlete that relied upon reflexes and unorthodox stylings which would be incredibly difficult to apply to anyone other than the top 1% of fighters in the world.Toney seems to be the one that I would go to for fundamentals. To me, Toney’s weight problems and constant fluctuations highlight his skill and defensive brilliance. The ability to stand in the pocket against naturally far larger men seems to be unparalleled. Add in his shoulder rolls, head movement, boxing from the ropes, and counter punching. It’s exactly these textbook old school techniques that I think are badly needed in today’s fighters. I remember assisting in the gym and studying guys like Paul Ingle and Buster Mathis Jr for their bobbing and weaving, as well as guys like Paul Spadafora, Sweet Pea, and Toney. It’s said that legendary trainers like Cus D’Amato required that his pupils studied film on a regular basis. For me, training with guys like Toney or even in the Mayweather gym could provide so much. I just couldn’t see too many guys being able to emulate the brilliance of someone like Roy however. He’s just too abnormal, too much of a freak of nature.
Both are extremely experienced and knowledgeable, so either could make a great trainer. That said great fighters rarely make good trainers, since being a great trainer requires putting your protege first, which is hard for former boxing stars to do.
Does not matter. Speaking the Queens English is not the pre-requisite of a great trainer. Think of Uncle Roger Mayweather and Floyd Joy Mayweather Snr.
i mean Toney had a better fundamental education and was a great boxer but he also was notoriously lazy and inconsistent. not what you want in a trainer. toney also like only used to spar to train so your trainer wouldn't know much about other aspects of training. RJJ is a student of the sport. while he couldn't train another him because of his natural gifts not being there for everyone, i've seen some footage of him training ppl and he seems like a good teacher. needless to say he's also watched a lot of fights closely and analyzed a lot of styles. Toney was more single minded in his career I think that would hurt him as a trainer.
Toney`s training habits were awful, Steve Collins sw him drinking loads of coke in between sparring sessions and told him he shouldn`t be doing that and he replied that it was fine.
Teaching a fighter to transition his weight is important, so I give the edge to Roy because of this. This content is protected
Style of fighter doesn't have too much to do with it, imo. Freddie Roach was a crude face first brawler. Doesn't mean anything.
Roy has an incredible ring IQ. People think just because he fought with his hands down that he didn't understand boxing technique. First of all that's now how it works, it doesn't matter how athletic you are, you still need to know how to box. Second if you pay attention he does a lot of subtle technical moves that he doesn't get credit for. Skill and technique is about far more than just you guard.
My brother's friend from childhood (Amer) works in the gym and when I've talked to him he said that the knowledge acquired there is incalculable.
It's funny a lot of the smartest fighters have a brawler or pressure fighting style, while a lot of the slick technicians at least sound dumb. I've thought about this and I suspect it's because if you're smart and don't like getting hit you find something else to do and don't become a pro.
