Gerry Cooney with Manny Steward as his trainer

BIG DEE HERE= Why would that help him as Steward is the most overrated trainer in boxing history. Any trainer who couldn`t win with the fighters he had would be a moron. Every fighter Steward trained couldn`t tie a fighter up when they were hurt and that`s a stone cold fact everyone that started their pro career with him when hurt got knocked out as they couldn`t tie the other fighter up to save themselves. EXAMPLE= Hearns vs Leonard, Leonard
hurt him and then beat him through the ropes. He should have had Gil Clancy
or Eddie Futch in his corner.

 

Steward made so many fighters early on and should be commended for it. You say with the fighters he had, but he made/moulded Hearns and McCrory and co and deserves respect for it.

Give me your list of trainers who have made more and better fighters than Steward early on at Kronk.

 

BIG DEE HERE= That`s what I`m saying he cornered the damn market on good fighters coming out of the amatuers. Look at all the great fighters he had he couldn`t help but win. Trainers look their whole lives for a champion
and they fell into his lap big-time. The fact remains to anybody that knows the fight game and boxing as a whole will tell you what I said is true none of his fighters can defend themselves or save themselve once they are hurt badly by the other fighter. Name them from the Kronk Gym who were big names in big fights and were hurt. did they survive? the answer is NO NO NO.
THEY GENERALLY GOT KNOCKED THE **** OUT. DO YOU THINK ONE TRAINER COULD MOULD AS YOU SAY IT 20 FIGHTERS AT ONCE. **** NO HE HASN`T THE TIME. THE GUY HAD WHAT AT ONE TIME 4 CHAMPIONS AND ANOTHER 5 TOP CONTENDERS AT THE SAME TIME. HE HAD ASSISTANT TRAINERS
HANDLING THESE GUYS. AND IT SHOWED AS THEY DIDN`T KNOW BASIC
SURVIVAL SKILLS. HEARNS, KENTY,PAUL YOU NAME THEM FROM THAT GYM
AND THEY DIDN`T HAVE THE SKILLS NEEDED TO SURVIVE WHEN HURT.
I WATCHED A GUY A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO FROM THE KRONK GYM ON TV
AND WHEN HE GOT HURT HE COULDN`T TIE THE OTHER GUY UP AND WAS KNOCKED THE **** OUT.

 

I still strongly disagree with MUCH of what you say. How could Steward "cornered the damn market on good fighters coming out of the amatuers" when he developed his fighters from Detroit? Not exactly cornering the market. They didn't fall into his lap either, he brought up a Hearns and McCrory from scratch. Did an incredible job too. Hearns got stopped once in his life POSSIBLY in part to poor clinching but Steward and Hearns sure rectified that. Watch the Kinchen and SRL II fights. He's also not totally responsible for how a fighter reacts hurt as much of this is instinct too. You can hardly go around half ko'ing guys in the gym so they can learn what they've got under such conditions.

Lets look at what the Steward signature did for fighters. The Kronk style with the snapping jab and long hard right hand left such fighters as Duran, Roldan and many many more face first. It also took a guy like Jimmy Paul all the way to a world title. It's easy to sit back and pick, but you also have to give credit where it's due.

Again i offer you the chance to name some trainers that have trained more fighters from scratch to world class and titles than Steward.

Steward is actually one of the most successful trainers in history for developing his own fighters from scratch. He also did some excellent things with already established (Lewis) fighters, whilst falling short with others. That's nature.

He's also been responsible for some brilliant gameplans including Hearns pristine outboxing of a Benitez thought to be the more skilled proponent.

 

Good post. Steward has had a bit of bad luck recently though. He has Klitschko at the moment but the rest of his stable isn't going too well.

 

I do.

A green and totally unprepared Cooney gave a prime Holmes a decent fight and hurt him several times.
A Cooney trained by Clancy with some tough learning fights under his belt could have and would have beaten declining 1985 version of Holmes.

 

Maybe, but who knows. should Valle/or a Clancy etc. have weathered Cooney more before Holmes, maybe. But would have it made a difference, maybe Cooney would have cracked before getting the big money fight. Maybe he would have gotten better and maybe had a real shot.


That's part of the problem with these "if so and so trained/managed" threads.

There are too many variables, and honestly us, as fans are really not close enough to the picture to know, we just make guesses based on what we think we know, and see on the surface.

 

Cooney had 25 fights going into the Holmes fight, I don't consider this green.

 

He hurt Larry twice. Once with a left hook to the ribs, and the other was the low blow felt 'round the world.

 

Out of interest i wonder if peeps in here know exactly who recommended Valle to train Cooney.

 

I think Manny Steward could have made Cooney better technically. We all know he is a great trainer. But Cooney's problems were not because of Victor Valle. Valle was a good trainer. Cooney's problems were all psychological. Maybe Manny could have reached him and helped him think straight, put him in the right rame of mind, and help Cooney destroy his demons.

 

Victor Valle was NOT the weak link in Gerry Cooney's arsenal. Mike Jones and Dennis Rappaport and, Gerry Cooney are to blame... Cooney's managers should have kept Gerry Cooney more active in the ring. They should have upped his quality of opposition, as well... Instead, Cooney was always getting injured in training, while Cooney's managers were lining up "Bums, Stiffs and Old Farts" for Cooney to feast on... In a nutshell, Manny Steward would've packed his bags and split the scene like "Limabean" Green... Manny Steward would not tolerate such managerial nonsense like the crap Gerry Cooney had going on....

MR.BILL:hi:

 

I don't like converted southpaws.... Too much reliance on the left hand to do all the work.... Converted southpaws normally have "Love-Tapping" right hands... I like a well-tuned TWO-FISTED fighter who throws sharp punches in combination form; that was NOT Cooney...:nono

MR.BILL

 

No! Cooney was a flake and he was his worst enemy

 

Gil did train Cooney for the Foreman fight didn't he? The one thing I believe Manny may have helped Cooney with is with putting some snap into his jab. He never could quite put it out there with anything on it, and especially when he would double up on it.