Forgotten fighter-trainer pairings

[El Kabong]

Well the idea of the thread was to list fighter-trainer pairings that people look back on and go "When the hell did that happen"....when people think Tyson they immediately think Cus D'Mato and Kevin Rooney.

[rjj tszyu]

Well the idea of the thread was to list fighter-trainer pairings that people look back on and go "When the hell did that happen"....when people think Tyson they immediately think Cus D'Mato and Kevin Rooney.

Yeah for sure! The first thing I think of when someone says "Prime Tyson" is Mike bobbing and weaving his way in, avoiding all punches coming his way and landing his own dynamite. When Don King made him sack Rooney he almost immediately lost that and there went his invincibility.

The thing with Tyson was he was finely tuned and the few men that were around him from the beggining (Rooney, D'Amato and Atlas) moulded him into the fighting machine he was in the mid to late eighties, they knew him inside out both physically and mentally and when he no longer had these people around him, in hindsight it was always going to be downhill from there on!

[El Kabong]

I don't buy that he was ever "invincible" but he definently was a more complete heavyweight than Floyd Patterson. Floyd had great handspeed, pretty solid power, but no chin, and no size on him. Tyson was bigger, stronger, and he could take punishment if he had to.

[rjj tszyu]

I don't buy that he was ever "invincible" but he definently was a more complete heavyweight than Floyd Patterson. Floyd had great handspeed, pretty solid power, but no chin, and no size on him. Tyson was bigger, stronger, and he could take punishment if he had to.

Me neither! I was using the word invincible as a figure of speech. It was a label that was branded round for Tyson a lot in those days but looking back now he always had flaws and I think anyone who could have stood upto him and his punch like Evander did later on would have always beaten!

[El Kabong]

OK, that's understandable.


This thread also has me wondering why guys like Tommy Brooks, Ronnie Shields, et al don't have better fighters or don't have any good heavyweights.

Also I am wondering why Kevin Rooney's best fighter since Tyson left was Vinny Paz, and his best heavyweight since that time was Thomas Hayes. If his system works, and for some guys (stocky, short fighters, with quick hands) it does.

[rjj tszyu]

OK, that's understandable.


This thread also has me wondering why guys like Tommy Brooks, Ronnie Shields, et al don't have better fighters or don't have any good heavyweights.

Also I am wondering why Kevin Rooney's best fighter since Tyson left was Vinny Paz, and his best heavyweight since that time was Thomas Hayes. If his system works, and for some guys (stocky, short fighters, with quick hands) it does.

I think that basically the U.S. is short of fighters on the whole at the minute, with a lot of would be fighters taking less dangerous routes such as Football and basketball etc.

If the guys with the natural talents aren't really there anymore, at least not in the same way they once were, then even the great trainers can't make them into the next Evanders or Roy Jones'.

The reason I used the 2 names I did are I know that both were capable at other sports (Evander Football and Roy Basketball) and apparently could have made pro at them sports, but both chose boxing instead and both became ATG's. In this day and age I think a lot of people in the same position may well take the other sport due to the risk/reward factor.

Thats not to say a good living cannot be made from boxing, it's just a sport that you have to reach the top in and risk being killed every time you perform to make millions.

So to me it's not the trainers that lose it but rather the natural talent is few and far between now!

[Master]

Jorge Rubio and Amir Khan
Naz and Manny

[Jody Lane]

I don't buy that he was ever "invincible" but he definently was a more complete heavyweight than Floyd Patterson. Floyd had great handspeed, pretty solid power, but no chin, and no size on him. Tyson was bigger, stronger, and he could take punishment if he had to.

Me neither! I was using the word invincible as a figure of speech. It was a label that was branded round for Tyson a lot in those days but looking back now he always had flaws and I think anyone who could have stood upto him and his punch like Evander did later on would have always beaten!

I agree. Tyson was a bully and all you need to do to beat a bully is stand up to him (in Tyson's case you needed a good chin too).