Re: Robert Garcia as a trainer
As someone has already said, there is a style he does well with. I think he can take many pure Mexican brawlers and bump them skill wise to boxer/puncher proficiency. His time in the ring and as a trainer has given him a lot of experience. He's not much for finesse though and you can tell that many of his fighters aren't overly concerned with defensive footwork/head movement/ shoulder rolling or controlling the distance. The problem is much of what we see in the ring with Garcia's fighters are the sole performance we judge them and him on.
I think there's a lot of gym time wasted on getting guys into fighting shape (physically/mentally/ motivation) and strategy only comes in to play after.. and its too late by then. He fully believes in what hes preaching to these guys but toughness and ferocity will get you only so far and then it gets you into trouble.
For someone like Rios in the Pac fight. Its hard to blame garcia. You're not going to get the guy to move his head or feet or throw combos in one training camp. If you're getting out boxed by Alvarado, there's a good chance you're going to get swept by Pacquaio. So getting your head beat in while waiting till your opponent fades or decides to plant his feet/sit down on his punches and give up his biggest advantage so you cant time him... is wishing big. Especially when the the trainer in the other corner is Roach and he knows that's your only option... and the fighter is Pacquiao who doesn't tend to stray from game plans.
To look at his fighters:
Brandon Rios: I don't know if he would do better being trained by someone else (Ronnie Shield might be a fit)
Nonito Donaire: I think he stopped some good habits and started to leave himself open but that could be a mentality thing also. Theres more than one issue there.
Mikey Garcia: i dont think he would do as good or better with another trainer.
Anthony Margarito: I think he was done at the point where he got to him. So its a non issue.
Kelly Pavlik:
Who knows...
I will say that he's a caring trainer. By allowing Rios Sr. and Donaire Sr. to sit in on camps. he's willing to try different things to make his fighters comfortable. Maybe he's too willing to make them comfortable and doesn't make his fighters do things theyre uncomfortable with. Who knows...
They want your @$$ beat because upsets make news. News brings about excitement, excitement brings about ratings. The objective is to bring you up to the tower and tear your @$$ down. And if you don't believe that, you're crazy.
Roy Jones, Jr. "What I've Learned," Esquire 2003
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