I'll start: Bill Haney - Basically just a carpool dad for Devin driving him around to different gyms where other folks taught him to box Ben Davison - This guy is a gym teacher. That's his background. He taught kids physical education. Hasn't ever been in a fight Virgil Hunter - You would never have heard of him if Ward didn't walk into his gym. Had a lot of name fighters come through his gym and did nothing for them
I think you can learn a lot by just watching a sport. I definitely see why having a trainer that's fought is advantageous. But sometimes the trainer wasn't that great a fighter or fought nowhere near like his fighter.
Have you met someone who has hit a heavy bag for a few hundred hours but has never sparred? They don't know ****, but over time convince themselves they do. Some of them are so convincing that they can convince others. Imagine being a pro tennis player and having a coach who never played. It's crazy.
Agreed I reckon a good coach has to at least fought in the amateurs. It is important to know what it is like in the heat of battle to be able to advise in certain situations.
Helluva thread. Ben Davidson and his chief second who is known for a...YouTube channel...have made their mark on another fighter.
Some trainers have fought and train there fighters with the mouth of experience,other trainers have not fought and train there fighters with the voice of reason. In the heat of battle as mentioned for me it would be nice to go back to your corner and be confident in the knowledge that you are getting the right advice to go forward and win the fight. Some fighters do not gel with there trainers and then others get on like a house on fire with there fighters, some fighters need confidence,some fighters need discipline,it really is about having to find the combination that works for both the trainer and the fighter.
Lou Duva. Had a lot of top fighters in the 80s and 90s, and almost certainly taught them nothing other than to complain when they lost and generally behave unprofessionally. There's a reason he always worked with someone else, like George Benton, who actually knew what to do inside a ring!
being a teacher is a skill in itself. There have been great coaches who never boxed some of the most highly regarded coaches weren't boxers. But...it's clear that most coachs has their own style which they teach when each individual fighter needs to hone their own style really and learn from various sources but by the time these groomed kids are becoming pro's they are pretty set in their ways. That's why guys like Fury & Usyk even though they do have a default you can still see even to this day where they are pre-retirement the cumulation of their teachings which is fairly rare, most fighters are pretty bog standard and don't change through their pro careers like AJ. Keep an eye on Dubious because he's still young and much to learn and I think he has the ability to do so and add to his game.
Lee Wylie was excellent at breaking fights down on YouTube. He has a sharp mind for the nuances of the sport and is a good man to have in any team. But this doesn´t mean that he is a good trainer or of any help in that regards.
It goes the other way too. Sugar Ray Leonard was one of the uber-elite to do it, and he completely ruined Andrew Maynard. Joe Frazier ruined Marvis. But yeah, point taken. You want a guy who has been to war himself.
Well put by Floyd. Ben Davison should have a documentary on him for how far he's gotten in a sport he's literally never taken part in. He's got some Rasputin level of mind control over vulnerable folks. The reason his chief second is a YouTube guy is because the YouTube guy also has never laced them up and can't overrule Ben. I think the only value Ben Davidson has provided to the boxing world was being Tyson Fury's friend when he was 400lb and suicidal.