Billy 'The Preacher' Graham: Trainer of Champions

The 1974 ABA North West Counties welterweight champion walked into the original Phoenix Gym in Salford (not the current one at Betta Bodies) in the Autumn of 1988 with his kitbag ready to start boxing again, but his old buddy Phil Martin threw him the bodybag and pads and told him to forget about boxing again but to help him out as a trainer instead. In the mid-70's, Graham had 12 wins and 2 losses as a professional boxer, then competed in a lot of 'smokers' (unsanctioned fights) in the late 70's before calling it a day.

Graham started working with Steve Foster and Ensley Bingham in January 1989, and vast improvement was shown in both boxers over the next few years with Graham eventually leading them to world title shots by the mid-90's. Graham had took over the gym himself in the early 90's and had a gym-full of champions and prospects, with no helpers. He had taught himself how to be a trainer.

The bodybag and pads were always out, the gym always had fighters in it with Billy taking a slamming alday as he brainwashed them with his technique while they were hammering away at him. He was training more fighters than any other trainer in the country, and always improving them. Maurice Core was the first fighter to turn pro under Graham, and Graham led him to a European title shot.

He's trained his share of world-level fighters like Ricky Hatton, Michael Brodie and Carl 'The Cat' Thompson. He's also trained the likes of Andy Holligan and Pat Barrett to world title shots. He helped Mark Winters with his technique. He created a very good prospect called Mark Haslam who fell out with Billy and left him after a fight with Tommy Peacock, Haslam did nothing after getting rid of Billy. John White was another very good prospect that Graham created, but he got thrown in prison. He took Michael Gomez on in 1998 and moulded him from very raw material into a multiple champion. He trained Wayne Rigby to his wins over Hugh Collins and Tanveer Ahmed, Rigby replaced Billy with another trainer (Bobby Shannon) for a fight against Bobby Vanzie and lost (and did nothing after getting rid of Billy).

His rules have always been simple: he refuses to train any fighters who smoke (even though he smokes himself!), he refuses to train any fighters who won't use weights, and he refuses to train any fighters who aren't straight with him.

His current stable includes the likes of Ricky Hatton, Matthew Hatton, Matthew Macklin, Anthony Farnell, Stephen Foster (Steve Foster's son), and Patrick J Maxwell.

I would say that Billy Graham is the best 'attack-minded' trainer that Britain has ever seen, and he has a very advanced boxing brain. Look at that job he did with Ricky Hatton, he single-handedly learned Ricky how to effectively work off opponents leads and thread punches through small gaps. He single-handedly learned Ricky how to move his head on the way in and throw a little jab on the way out. He single-handedly learned Ricky how to shift his position and step around to open an opponent up. He single-handedly learned Ricky where to place his body shots to have the best effect. Ricky had none of those tools in the amateurs (Graham didn't start training Hatton until the summer of 1996), he was a heck of a talent as an amateur but over the years with Billy his skills became super-advanced.

He needs to teach Hatton some new tricks and fast ;)

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Originally Posted by Smashup

He needs to teach Hatton some new tricks and fast ;)

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Nah, just don't let him enter the ring at 160lbs (Kerry Kayes fault)! Or he'll appear slow and sloppy, being 5ft6 and all that.

Do you agree his lateral and head movement is poor..?
Always fights in a straight line and walks into way too many punches!
Would like to see him more like A Young Tyson style wise. ;)

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Originally Posted by Smashup

Do you agree his lateral and head movement is poor..?
Always fights in a straight line and walks into way too many punches!
Would like to see him more like A Young Tyson style wise. ;)

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His head movement has improved a hell of a lot in the past few years although i admit it was back to the old ways on saturday night. He has also improved a lot by parrying a lot of shots.

Its a shame he had a bad day at the office on saturday as he was improving defensively upto then and was keeping all his critics at bay. Now Its like he has smashed open a beehive and they are everywhere trying to swarm him.

Give the guy a break he had a bad day, everyone does at somepoint. He still beat a world champion and no matter how much he looked like losing on sat night and how much everyone thinks he nearly got knocked out in the last. The FACTS remain that he won and if you score the fight on a round to round basis then Hatton came out on top. Simple.

Another FACT though is he needs to brush that performance off and get back to basics in the gym before his next fight. Hopefully it has brought him back down to earth.

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Originally Posted by RHHatton

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Originally Posted by Smashup

Do you agree his lateral and head movement is poor..?
Always fights in a straight line and walks into way too many punches!
Would like to see him more like A Young Tyson style wise. ;)

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His head movement has improved a hell of a lot in the past few years although i admit it was back to the old ways on saturday night. He has also improved a lot by parrying a lot of shots.

Its a shame he had a bad day at the office on saturday as he was improving defensively upto then and was keeping all his critics at bay. Now Its like he has smashed open a beehive and they are everywhere trying to swarm him.

Give the guy a break he had a bad day, everyone does at somepoint. He still beat a world champion and no matter how much he looked like losing on sat night and how much everyone thinks he nearly got knocked out in the last. The FACTS remain that he won and if you score the fight on a round to round basis then Hatton came out on top. Simple.

Another FACT though is he needs to brush that performance off and get back to basics in the gym before his next fight. Hopefully it has brought him back down to earth.

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Hatton my friend alot of these posters on here were just waiting for the chance to get on Rickys back, dont worry about it i dont, apparently he is the most over rated fighter that ever lived LMAO!!

Ricky will come back and again silence these doubters sorry i mean Haters!!

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Originally Posted by Smashup

Do you agree his lateral and head movement is poor..?
Always fights in a straight line and walks into way too many punches!
Would like to see him more like A Young Tyson style wise. ;)

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Well, back in the amateur days he had NO real defence at all (purely relied on overwhelming opponents with his attacking, or taking a few bounces back and in again with timing and footwork). But Billy got him improving in the defence department after the Quiros fight (and Billy has never been much of a good defensive trainer in all honesty, so credit to him here), I've looked over Hatton fights closely pre and post Quiros and post-Quiros he's rolling with punches more.

Hatton's lack of defence is slightly overrated. He gets lazy for these reasons - consistent pressure, strength and chin. Much of the time people think he is getting caught but he isn't. I remember people saying Maussa was tagging him but the truth is Maussa landed just 10% of his shots.

I reckon that Jim Watt, Henry Wharton and Carl Froch would give Smashup, Gary Mason and Nigel Benn a hiding.

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Originally Posted by WWatt

I reckon that Jim Watt, Henry Wharton and Carl Froch would give Smashup, Gary Mason and Nigel Benn a hiding.

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I'm fucking joking

CC for the read WWatt, interesting

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Originally Posted by miles

CC for the read WWatt, interesting

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ThanQ.

all fixed

hatton's camp did a poor job with him this time round... Based off his last 2 performances they're game plan was...

Get Ricky strong and make it so he can punch for 45 minutes with a minute break every 3 minutes... and that was it off Ricky would go...

He obviously hadn't been fine tuning or developing his boxing ability and technique... Hs camp was awful... they not only trained him to do the wrong thing (try and bully a man natural stronger than him) they failed to give the results and Ricky was lucky in as much that he lost the fight side of the bout but did enough to be awarded enough rounds for a close UD.

I get the feeling they got caught up in their own hype and didn't think they had to work on a little thing called 'boxing' ;)

Billy Graham is a great trainer.

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Originally Posted by AdamGB

hatton's camp did a poor job with him this time round... Based off his last 2 performances they're game plan was...

Get Ricky strong and make it so he can punch for 45 minutes with a minute break every 3 minutes... and that was it off Ricky would go...

He obviously hadn't been fine tuning or developing his boxing ability and technique... Hs camp was awful... they not only trained him to do the wrong thing (try and bully a man natural stronger than him) they failed to give the results and Ricky was lucky in as much that he lost the fight side of the bout but did enough to be awarded enough rounds for a close UD.

I get the feeling they got caught up in their own hype and didn't think they had to work on a little thing called 'boxing' ;)

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People shouldn't take much notice of his last three fights. Against Tszyu, the tactics were to smother him and not allow him to fully extend his right elbow (or else!). The Hatton camp felt that Maussa couldn't fight backing up. And against Collazo, Hatton was carrying a lot of unnessacary weight.

What Hatton needs to do is fight at 140, and fight at 140 more regularly again (not every six months). That should get some sharpness back and hopefully rekindle that old spark.

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Originally Posted by WWatt

What Hatton needs to do is fight at 140, and fight at 140 more regularly again (not every six months). That should get some sharpness back and hopefully rekindle that old spark.

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Do you cats agree?

do u guys think Amir Khan should train under him?