How good was Paul Spadafora and his trainer?

Due to the nature of his more severe crimes, Spadafora's run in with a 63 year old woman is often forgotten:

“The woman told police … Spadafora took off her hat, drank her beer and put her in a headlock,” according to the article. “When the woman went outside to call police, Spadafora followed her and threw her to the ground.”

 

Not sure how good he is at training fighters but he's one of my favorite YouTube trainers, anyway.

 

I wanted to see Ricky Hatton do a number on him.

 

I never followed his career much, but always understood he was something special. I recall hearing that he was getting the better of FMJ in sparring. Anyone know if/how true that is? I know sparring stories are often rubbish, but I recall this had some credence.

 

He got the better of Floyd in sparring, but it's important to put it into context.

Floyd was not in fight shape - Spaddy was. By all accounts Floyd was easily controlling the session until he got tired. Only then did Spaddy take control.

Floyd would have dusted Spaddy had they fought for real.

 

Spadafora's crowning achievement is a sparring session with Floyd.

 

I don't see any reason to question him in particular but I assume there's a whole lot more to being a great trainer than making sense while you have your fighter demonstrate fairly basic mechanics and technique.

 

Time is a funny thing.
Spaddy didnt duck anyone. He was a fast super slick southpaw that none of the big names wanted to deal with- payday wasnt worth the headache.
The Mayweather sparring is the funniest of all stories. And peop!e forget what really happened.
Spaddy was training for a bout and Mayweather was in between bouts.
Mayweather and his people came to the gym and RAN thier mouths how Mayweather could easily beat up Spaddy. Spaddy and his people said nothing.
2nd time Mayweathers group came in again and kept talking trash-Mayweather included. Again Spaddy and his people kept quiet.
3rd time Spaddys trainer had had enough of Mayweathers group and basically told Mayweather to back up his talk.
And Spaddy boxed his ears off. And NOW its because Mayweather was rusty. He wasnt in shape. Whatever. He asked for it and got beat up.

 

Spaddy was much like Michael Nunn. Both had amazing talent and the sky was the limit for both of them but for one thing: Their hometown.
You couldnt get either one away from their hometown and that was the undoing of both.
In the beginning Spaddy was ok- he trained hard and for the most part stayed out of trouble.
But once the money came rolling you couldnt get him away from his childhood friends who for the most part were not the nicest of people.
Hatton vs Spaddy?? Hatton wouldnt have laid a glove on a focused Spaddy.

 

You're off with this one. Spadafora's team loved getting him easy paydays in Pittsburgh for a couple years after he won the title, and that's fine since he was a young champion with limited experience. Then they started putting him against better fighters in Manfredy and Dorin. After that, he was gonna get high level fights at 140. They never intended to put him in with the top guys at 135.

And he never kicked Floyd Mayweather’s ass. They had a competitive spar and Mayweather had to rest after. Mayweather almost green lit Spadafora as an opponent late in his career so he couldn’t have been too bothered.

 

He got the better of Mayweather. End of story.
Hate to tell you Pittsburgh isnt a hotbed of boxing anymore and wasnt in Spaddys time for sure.
How many boxers do you know who are eager to face a slick southpaw that will make them look bad even if they manage a win.
Most people pay for blood and guts and punchers- those are the ones who usually have a big following.
Slick saftey first boxers dont usually have a large following.
Of course Spaddys people used Pittsburgh to stage Spaddys bouts- it was his hometown.
But believe me they were trying to land the big fight for a big payday.
Only problem was there wasnt any takers.

 

Did Spaddy just get compared to Michael Nunn?

LMFAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

NO. NO. JUST NO!

Sweet Jesus, what an insult to Nunn. Mike Nunn at one point called the next Ray Leonard. He was top 3-5 P4P for several years.

At NO POINT was Spaddy highly regarded. And at no point was he even top 20 P4P.

This guy went life and death with Victor Sosa, and he was clearly beaten by Dorin.

Worst comparison ever.