True about Freddie Brown building Roberto Duran, who was just an unpolished street fighter out of the barrio's of Panama.
Jack Blackburn was probably the best trainer there ever was. Look at Joe Louis left hand. The greatest left hand sport has seen. That was no accident. None other than Ray Arcel testifies to being the only one allowed in their private training sessions. Arcel was good friends with Blackburn and watched Jack work with Joe, real work, not for the writers. There was nobody better than Jack Blackburn teaching a fighter. Here's the list of great trainers. 1. Jack Blackburn Everyone else.
Freddie was a great teacher. He could take a polished fighter and see things that could improve them at the highest level. Ray Arcel was better with people, the media, maybe the mental part of boxing, psychology etc. That was an unbeatable team.
It's amazing considering how primitive boxer's were in Blackburns day , the very start of the 20th Century .. to think a caveman taught Joe Louis ..
Arcel had a long, long partnership with Whitey Bimstein way before he teamed up with Brown to handle Duran at the end of both of their careers. Just look at some of the 1930s boxing films and you'll see them working together. Bimstein and Arcel had pretty much the same division of labor as Arcel and Brown did with Duran. Bimstein also teamed up with Brown in the late 40s and 50s.
Bimstein was up there too according to articles by W.C. Heinz. I think he gets shortchanged in Forum 24 discussions because he didn't live long enough to make a late comeback in his career like his former partners Arcel and Brown did with Duran. As a result, virtually none of our contributors have first-hand memories of him. An argument can probably be made that he taught Brown and Arcel much of what they knew. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Bimstein If Wikipedia's failure to mention him as a Canastota alumni is correct, that is a crime which those of you who are gaga about that organization might consider addressing.
