There have been some great great trainers out there:

We talk about the Charley Goldmans, Chappie Blackburns, Ray Arcels and the Angelo Dundees .... and they were indeed great trainers, but (for me) they had their single biggest success with one fighter (Marciano, Louis, Duran and Ali respectively)

Emmanual Steward is also a great trainer, but nowadays he has such a reputation that all the best fighters go to him anyway .. and you could argue that they would have been successful without him just because of their talent. I think this argument may be applied to Angelo Dundee in the case of Ray Leonard.

Some trainers reallly do influence the way their fighters go around their business - you can tell a Brendan Ingle or Cus D'Amato fighter immediately. The problem with that is that all your fighters will have the same inherent strengths and weaknesses because you have given them all the same style.

Enzo Calzaghe might turn out to be one ofthe greats, but so far he has only really produced Joe at true world class levelo and I don;t know how much of that is due to his son already being a mighty talent, or how much is due to his coach. Time will tell, I think.

For me, my greatest trainer is Eddie Futch - hugely respected in the fight game, built the style around the fighter (Norton and Frazier were utterly different fighters, yet had the same trainer) His fighters had no stylistic weakness (yes, they had weknesses, but that was down to their pytsique etc, not their style .... and Futch manaaged thsi while creating and developing different styles!)

Actualy, his greatest success is as a human being .... he pulled Joe Frazier out in the 14th round of the Thriller in Manila because he protected his fighter and saved him from his own bravely. How many trainers would have the balls (or be 'in charge' in their own corner) to pull a former World Heavyweight Champ out in the second to last round of a grudge match war that we being viewed around the world.

Pure compassion and class ..... "Son, no one will forget what you have done today" he told Frazier, and I haven't forgotten what Futch did thrpoughout his career.

Rest in Peace Eddie!