Was Victor Valle A Good Trainer?

I think Valle, Sr. was damn good..... He knew his ****.......... But, he never truly worked with the greatest of talent.........

Valle's best boys that I can recall were "Cooney, Billy Costello & Jeff Lampkin." Not bad guys, but not great either........

MR.BILL:deal

 

I think his right hand was coming along well prior to Holmes. It was a right which initially stunned Norton, and another right which tore open Young's face. What Gerry needed was more competitive experience to progress further than he did, and that puts the onus on Rappaport and Jones to match him with opposition which could extend him. (Why did they fail to rematch him quickly with Eddie Lopez in a ten rounder?) Valle was competent in my opinion, and he had Cooney work hard on developing his right, particularly with that specially designed "Valle bag." I do believe he should have emphasized Gerry's jab more, against the time when he might have had to win over a time limit longer than eight rounds.

 

Cooney's jab was effective cuz of his height and reach, but I hated the way he pawed with the jab......... Cooney's right basically sucked.......... But it was there against a shot Norton in 1981.............. Cooney's right cross was not a good punch thrown by Cooney............ Cooney was a left jabbing hooker.........

MR.BILL:bbb

 

I always thought Cooney's jab was a bit under-developed. It looked like they were banking on their puncher's chance against Holmes, which is always a bad thing. Then again, a skillful, quick heavyweight like Holmes is bound to neutralize your jab. But at least he would've added some variety to his offense.


I'm waiting for Bummy Davis' (the poster) thoughts on Valle as a trainer.

 

I think there were things at work in Cooney's camp that limited Valle's chances to work on the jab and the right, i.e. Cooney fighting once every two years.

 

Pictures I saw of it indicated a padded bag of a triangular configuration nestled up against the wall and ceiling so that the flat side Gerry was punching was facing down to him at a 45 degree angle, forcing him to punch upwards at it. Valle conceived of it as a device for strengthening under developed muscles in Cooney's right arm and shoulder. (I only recall seeing still photographs of him working on it, but maybe somebody here who saw him train back in the day could shed more light.) I was dubious at first, but he did execute some decent looking right hands at Young, so that device must have been of a certain amount of benefit to his progress.

 

Victor Valle was a very good trainer.

As has already been noted, Cooney was developed (or under-developed) just as you could expect for a contender with such limited competitive ring experience.
And seeing as Cooney was phoning in sick and not turning up at the gym to prepare, on top of having managed to whittle his fight schedule down to once every year or less, Valle cant be expected to work miracles.
Cooney managers were partly to blame, and Cooney himself mostly.

Having said that, Cooney showed a decent jab for a hook-happy novice with such immense raw power.

 

It merits pointing out that Valle made the decision to stop Holmes-Cooney and rescue his charge from absorbing further punishment after Larry floored him for the second time. Whatever you may think of him as a trainer, he was a compassionate and responsible chief second in a situation where others more mercenary than he might have left Gerry to continue to fend for himself.

 

I think Coney's biggest problem was management more so than his trainer.

He went into the Holmes fight having never beaten a decent contender after feasting on also rans and a couple of over the hill name opponents. I mean the guy had fought 2 rounds in two years going into Holmes! FFS!

Cooney was never going to learn the finer points of clinching and such under such scenario's, he needed to be pushed and pressured by decent foes in the heat of battle.

His silly managers were more worried about building great hype with low risk to get as much money as they could for his impending title shot. They should have been nurturing him as a fighter against a steadily improving class of opposition.

I guess on one scale they succeeded, millions were made.

 

Remember the whacko twins chose Valle as trainer because of Cus DaMatos glowing endorsement, not to shabby. The evidence of Cooney becoming a big time boozer coke feind as of the Norton KO is strong.

 

Yeah, but what the hell, Cooney may have guzzled some beers and whiffed some Coke rails here and there, but he never entered the ring looking a slob or grossly outta shape.....

Cooney's main flaw as a fighter was the fact his team pampered and protected him, as well as keeping him in-active..... But, all in all, the teams plans' basically worked-out in making millions' of buckaroo's.....

Victor Valle was basically a trainer / coach of Cooney.... Valle had no real say so in "Bidness" affairs.....

MR.BILL

 

Cooney was Cooney's main problem. He was a psychologically fragile fighter. He didn't seem to like to fight very much, used injuries as an excuse not to train and sunk into depression after the Holmes loss.

The whacko twins strategy of pointing him toward one big payday seems sound. He was never going to hold together long enough to be a really polished fighter.

 

I know I was not involved in the original discussion on Victor Valle, but here is a list I have compiled over the years of fighters trained by him.

Yama Bahama
Jose Torres
Gerry Cooney
Alfredo Escalera
Ronnie Harris
Esteban DeJesus
Jose Monon Gonzalez
Samuel Serrano
Jose Stable
Billy Costello
Doug DeWitt
Glenwood Brown
Emmanuel Lucero
Robert Duka
Johnny Boy Vargas

There are some fine fighters on this list including some quality Champions, and top contenders.