By Gav Duthie: Anyone who witnessed Marcos Maidana’s lumbering display against Devon Alexander in 2012 on his welterweight debut would be forgiven for thinking he would never share a ring with Mayweather let alone a rematch. The improvement in the Argentines set up since then can be laid purely at Robert Garcia’s door.
If Maidana is to have any chance of dethroning Floyd it will mean Garcia will need to come up with the perfect game plan. The role between the trainer and the fighter in boxing is probably more important than any other sport. Here are some other of my favourite examples of how vital a trainer has been in a boxers success.
Angelo Dundee – Mohammed Ali
Despite being one if the greatest fighters of all time Ali had many technical deficiencies. To avoid punches he would step and move his head back making counter-punching virtually impossible and leaning him up to the ropes. Ali was trained by various others in the early part of his career before Angelo including the great Archie Moore. Most said he was very difficult and wouldn’t take direction. He had a big fall out with Archie when he tried to teach him how to set up body punches. If you have a look at his career Ali hardly threw one body shot from start to finish. Dundee realized you couldn’t change him only tweak his fantastic skills. Dundee stated many times the psychology of Ali meant that he would praise him on something he seen rather than tell him directly what to do. This way it seemed like Ali’s idea. Dundee helped make Ali the best fighter he could be by concentrating on the areas he was strongest making his weaknesses less relevant. To be fair though Dundee has never taken any credit for the rope-a-dope versus Foreman that was all Ali.
Brendan Ingle – Johnny Nelson
Not the highest profile of trainer-fighter combinations and I am normally not a fan of the Ingle style but in this case what they achieved was remarkable. In his youth Nelson was the guy who would hang around the gym like a bad smell. The Ingle family liked him but never seen him amounting to anything. He fought 13 amateur fights winning only 3 of them. Seeing that he wasn’t improving as an amateur he turned pro losing his first three fights also. It is a miracle that he stopped Carl Thompson to win the world title all those years later and he also made several successful defences of the title. With Johnny they had to combine his enthusiasm and aggression with their normal languid style and it worked to great effect.
Buddy McGirt – Arturo Gatti
Some of my favourite boxing moments is watching “Thunder” Gatti walk through walls against Ivan Robinson and Wilson Rodriguez to land his own shots. He was fighting blind in his losses to Robinson and the same when he spectacularly knocked out Rodriguez in round 6. His first fight with Mickey Ward is certainly top 5 of all time but Gatti was playing with fire with every fight and McGirt changed all that. It was probably too late in the day to get any more than a couple of years out of Gatti as a slicker boxer but i felt there was great improvement and we got a chance to see some of his potential. His next two fights against Ward were much more dominant by Gatti despite one knockdown, He boxed well behind the jab against dangerous undefeated Italian Gianluca Branco to win the WBC light welterweight title then destroyed Dorin and Leija before losing to Mayweather.
Emmanuel Steward – Wladimir Kltschko
Many fans see Wlad as some unstoppable “Ivan Drago” type robot but don’t forget the Ukrainian’s career was in ruins not that long ago. He had been knocked down by Steve Purcell and DaVarryl Williamson, knocked out by Ross Purity, Corrie Sanders and Lamont Brewster. After the Brewster fight his brother Vitaly told him in no uncertain terms you’re done with boxing. That was over 10 years ago and he has since won 20 fights in a row. Today Wladimir is the single dominant force in heavyweight boxing. Steward didn’t undergo a dramatic facelift when he took on the training role but he laid more importance on the jab and added much needed composure to his work. He helped teach him some of the ugly side of boxing i.e holding etc which is essential to his success as well as improved footwork and counter-punching. Even 2 years after his passing Wladimir says he still hears him in his ear, wandering what he would say.
Robert Garcia – Marcos Maidana
I really felt Maidana was going nowhere for a while, he’d lost to Khan, looked awful against Morales and was schooled by Alexander. Garcia helped him realise that power alone wasn’t enough. Much more of his work now stems from the jab. His body punching has improved as has his defence. The overhand right he throws made it very difficult for Mayweather to avoid with the shoulder roll. If he had a little more stamina he may have even won. Maidana was a hammer that has been turned into a well rounded implement. It may not be enough to beat Mayweather but Maidana will still be a very sought after fighter even if he loses.
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