Who do you guys consider the most mesmerizing or at least the most psychologically canny of the great trainers of the past and recent times? Which trainer had to revert to stratagems and mind games in order to get through to their fighter..that sort of thing. I've often been intrigued by the almost father-son aspect of Clancy and griffith...the quiet, reserved almost relationship between the Petronelllis and Hagler..we know somuch about how Dundee had to get his point through to Ali by using reverse psychology sometimes due to Ali figuring he knew what to do himself all the time. And guys like Ray Arcel with Duran...anybody have any insight on stuff like this?
I've read quite abit about Louis and Blackburn. Jack was so sound on the bottom line fundamentals he taught Joe and he knew his fighters limits.
I think Pedro Diaz is very interesting to watch in action, and not just because he looks like Alec Guiness. Nacho Beristein is probably the most knowledgeable trainer in the game. It's not an accident that he's trained three of the top 10 finest technically sound boxer/punchers in the last 25 years in Rafa, JMM, and Ricardo Lopez. And how many guys could take someone as limited in talent as Daniel Zaragoza and turn him into a hall of famer? Yes, when Nacho speaks I always listen and I always learn.
That Brendan Ingle fella -- his concepts seem to run quite contrary to conventional boxing wisdom but he's had the kind of success to make me think he knows some things that others don't.
Kid Jofre. Eder´s dad. He said inspiring words to Eder against Medel when Medel was doing some damage in Eder....He changed the fight with his words telling Eder about his mother, and Eder talks about that in every interview about the fight.......and everytime Eder says it, he cries.... And people say that even with that quiet personality, he was really a great motivator, and without him Eder never would be Eder......no doubt about that....
When I see the word trainer in a thread, can't help but remember mine. Bear with me if you've read this before: Stillmans Gym was like rush-hour on Broadway in the mid 1940s: ATGs 'n trainers bumping into each other tearing across the cavernous former union hall, while a florid Lou Stillman growled non-stop epithets over a loud speaker drowning out clanging bells and telephones. It was against that setting on a frigid afternoon, I climbed the 13 steps to Stillmans to learn how to box and emulate local idols, Rocky Graziano and Jake LaMotta. The gatekeeper at the head of the stairs, collecting quarters for entrance, was manager Jack Curley, under the gimlet eye of Stillman seated on a raised chair next to ring # 1. I paid and asked Jack Curley if he could set me up with a trainer. After appraising me like pawnbroker, he crooked a finger at a character the image of the Penguin in a Batman comic book. Izzy, see what the kids got. He musta been mid-40s, 'bout 5-7 bulging wall-eyes, the drained pallor of a lifetime in airless gyms, and dark, kinky-curly hair threatening to uncoil but bulldogged down and parted in the middle like a 20s bootlegger. His nose was much too long for his face and pointy as a dart. He had no chin, no neck, was shaped like a pear and his stomach hiked up his trousers to his chest. He wore what must have been a white T-shirt at one time and unbuttoned cardigan sweater with a towel thrown over his shoulder. Rocking back on his heels, he shuffled over, chest out, straight up and flatfooted; his shoes pointing outward like a Garment Center salesman. The only thing missing was the Penguin's umbrella. He was my coach for the years I trained at Stillmans. His name was Izzy Blank, and he looked after me like a son. Though Izzy never gained the notoriety of a Charley Goldman, Ray Arcel, Whitey Bimstein, and the like, he was respected and embraced by the fraternity and was spared -- for the most part -- from Stillmans wrath As good or bad as I ever got, Izzy never allowed me to forget what he thought unpardonable: As a teen, I did what all the other kids did, I carried a condom in my wallet-- not that I had chance to use it -- but it was expected. One day while changing, the rubber fell out of my wallet onto the floor and Izzy saw it. If I did anything after that that didn't live up to his expectation, he shrugged: "Sure! How can he fight? He's in the saddle!" I had to do three times what anybody else did. If I so much as took a deep breathe: "The kid's in the saddle!" Izzy Blank died a few years ago still unsung -- a funny, dear man that was my professor at the University of Eighth Ave.
mack lewis training fighters for 50 years wasting his savings on a run down gym. until Vincent Pettway wins his first title in in 95 against rossi. a dream fulfilled for an early 30 year old but an entire lifetime looking for the illusive world title.
A guy seldom mentioned is George Benton. He was low key & did a tremendous job with all those olympians Lou Duva signed from 1984. He could really work wonders with boxers and he did a really underrated job before falling out of favor with the Duva's.