Name a fighter whose career was negatively affected by the loss of a trainer ...

Naseem Hamed

Although much of that might have just been Hamed being lazy and living the good life, and eventually facing a great fighter in MAB

 

Gerald McClellan and Emmanuel Steward.

 

Kevin Rooney’s career definitely took a downturn when Tyson fired him.

 

Tyson - Kevin Rooney trainer, Bill Cayton Manager

Don King got in Mike's ear and said Cayton was taking too much. Maybe so but in the long run Mike would have done better to have a buffer between him and DK

 

you beat me 2 it

 

It’s deeper than that.

Cus died and left Tyson in the managerial care of Jimmy Jacobs and Bill Cayton. Tyson had no relationship with Cayton but was close to Jacobs … or so he thought.

But Jacobs was terminally ill. He never told Tyson that. And he arranged legally that Cayton would take over Tyson’s career with no input from or knowledge of it by Tyson himself.

Rightfully, Tyson felt betrayed.

Likewise, he was betrayed by Rooney, who he had warned not to talk about his wife or family life, especially with the press. So what did Kevin do? Talk about his marriage to the press. Tyson fired him. Again, rightfully so.

King is an absolute snake, but he had nothing to do with any of that.

 

Didn't Michael Nunn fire Joe Goossen right before the James Toney fight?

 

Elisha Obed when his original trainer/"Bundini" Moon Robinson disappeared around his last title defense against Tony Gardner. I've never seen a fighter fall so fast as he did right afterwards.

 

I mean he lost to Douglas...lol

I think he fell in love with his power like Wilfredo Gomez versus the featherweights.

 

James Kirkland when he let Ann Wolfe loose...

 

I watched a recent doco on Tyson - and I haven’t watched many on Mike so this might be old, well known news, but: -

It was said that Tyson was already drifting from D’Amato’s influence and control before Cus passed and before Mike became Champ.

And it was also interesting to hear Mike talk of Cus. I detected some ambivalence in his words and feelings.

Certainly, the way Mike described the relationship (deliberately or not) - it came across as Cus treating Mike more as a commodity and someone D’Amato could vicariously live through.

For his part, Cus had said he was close to having nothing to live for until Mike came along - and since then, he now had “reason”.

But, it seemed what Cus was living primarily for was to have a fighter (Mike) who could win “him” the HW title, and be the youngest in doing so (breaking the record of another fighter previously in D’Amaro’s “care”.)

Whatever life lessons, morals or principles Cus taught Mike, they could also be viewed as the “means” to Cus’s own ends/objectives - “means” that only, by coincidence, aligned themselves with certain features of sincere care otherwise.

Perhaps back then Mike understood this in some measure or perhaps, as we all do, he’s sorted or still sorting some of it as he has become older and wiser.

Mentors are never going to be around forever - and the actual idea is that you take what is taught to you (which is supposed to be good for YOU and whatever endeavours you choose to pursue) and make it your own - thereby not needing that mentor around you 24/7, IF at all.

While I understand Mike was still young when Cus passed, Mike was still in his care for a good number of years - long enough for the pointed teachings to take hold in Mike himself without constant reaffirming.

 

Yeah it seems some boxing fans either became boxing fans because of Tyson or came to idolize him so much that they literally wanted/expected him to live some monk-like existence in upstate New York living in Cus’s house caring about nothing but boxing for the entirety of his career.

And that’s just not realistic. He had been in that environment for a long time and then he became a man and gained fame and fortune and all that goes with it. He liked living that ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’ life where he would have a jewelry store open just for him after hours and walk through with his entourage saying ‘one of these, three of those, two of that’ and then go out partying with people. He also got married. He was one of the most famous celebrities (not just athletes) in the U.S. and the world, and he wanted to live that jet-set life.

He was going to rebel at some point regardless, and just like an overly sheltered kid who goes off to college and sees what he or she has been missing, he wanted to do all of it at once and make up for lost time.

There became a point where he was no longer going to subject himself to just being a pupil and realize all those people were getting rich off him and they needed to realize they worked for him and he was going to call the shots of what he wanted to do, how he wanted to train and who he wanted to hang with. I think they weren’t prepared for that and never saw it coming.