Who was the greatest trainer in boxing history?

Mickey Goldmill

 

It's hard to argue with you. He trained Joe Louis, the greatest heavyweight of all time, at least until 1975 or thereabouts. But there's one thing that bothers me. Why didn't Blackburn correct Joe's tendency to drop his left after jabbing? Why was Louis allowed to be so shockingly vulnerable to Schmeling's right hand?

 

And a shout-out to A.J. Liebling for his quote of Charley Goldman, about being unmarried and living "a la carte".

 

Cus understood who Sonny Liston was and understood that Floyd was just too fragile to beat him. I thought he did a good job with Floyd. Floyd was a chinny guy who was fighting with an explosive, aggressive style. At his best with Cus he had fine head movement and was very explosive. He couldn't really take a heavyweight punch flush without it having a visible effect but if you check out his head movement and overall footwork and speed, I think Cus probably got the best out of him as a heavyweight and managed to prolong his reign as much as possible by avoiding Liston for as long as was possible. It also helped that Floyd had elite heart so he was always getting up. Tyson didn't have such heart. I think Cus wouldn't have wanted Mike anywhere near Liston either.

 

Choosing to avoid tough opponents is a manager thing, not a trainer thing.

Dan Florio was Floyd’s trainer, btw. Cus was his manager.

 

It is absolute fact recorded from the time in more reports than you can count.

I’d say it would make less sense for Cus not to want to enlist a man who had trained Joe Walcott, Tony Canzoneri and, in some capacity (I don’t think ever as chief trainer) Gene Tunney. Be kind of silly not to want that kind of trainer around your gifted prospect.

 

It's arguable that many of the issues around Tyson were fostered by D'Amato when he trained him. Obviously Tyson's ultimately responsible for his own actions but I think D'Amato contributed greatly, allowed him to get away with so much, to some extent encouraged a dysfunctional sense of entitlement and overall it does not sound healthy. Given the hellish environment Tyson came from he needed much more structured support.

 

Cus wanted another champion that the boxing would would credit him for ‘creating’ much more than he wanted what was best for Mike Tyson.

And he got what he wanted.

He adopted Tyson, which means he legally took on the responsibility of being the parent and raising him properly … not just showing him how to hook off the jab. He failed miserably in his duties outside of the boxing ring.

 

I will go with Emanuel Steward.

 

Ray Arcel.

 

Interestingly, Ray was in the corner opposite Joe Louis 14 times.

And went 0-14 unless I’m mistaken.

That’s no knock on Ray — a great jockey can ride an average horse against Secretariat 14 times and never win.

 

Nor should it be a knock on Ray. He molded Duran into a force of nature. No small task taking that wild eyed kid and making him a master boxer.

 

Freddie Brown deserves half credit for Duran — perhaps more. He was the day-to-day trainer and Ray would come in close to fight time. Ray and Freddie were an amazing team … kind of like Ryan and Clancy on commentary.

 

This is really interesting information, and kudos to @Saintpat, if this information is correct, exact, true.
However, IMO that information does not reduce Ray Arcel to that extent (as if I were a trainer ).