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“The Commissioner’s” Top 5 Ever Boxing Trainers

AJKRSRBioPicBy “The Commissioner” Alan J. Kindred

The history of boxing is littered with thousands, upon thousands of trainers. Guys who just threw a towel over their shoulder that were pretenders, and some who were the real thing. I wanted to take the time to look over a few who I feel are some of the most dominant and skilled trainer/cornerman in the history of the sport. Some are real teachers of the technical side of the game, while others specialize in motivation and psychology. Some have a bit of both. I also realize that sometimes the boxer can make the trainer in some instances, and sometimes it is a combination of both. I realize this is a highly subjective list, as with hundreds of skilled trainers over the course of boxing history, everyone’s top 5 may be very different. Here are the top 5 that I have chosen.

#5 Nacho Beristain

The one trainer who made it to the list that is still an active trainer is Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain. He is generally regarded as one of the best trainers ever, and perhaps the best trainer ever from the country of Mexico. His fighters differed from the stereotyped standard Mexican fighter, who was a slugger who winged hooks to the body and brought the action. Beristain’s fighters were cerebral boxers who had strong fundamentals, and had very methodical approaches, in which the systematically broke down their opponents. He began his career in boxing as a fighter himself, but retired due to an injury. After that he began training amateur fighters. He quickly advanced becoming a national trainer for Mexico in the 68’, 76’ and 80’ Olympic teams, with his fighters winning several medals.

He eventually started to train professional fighters and found great success. His masterpiece would be the great Ricardo Lopez, who is one of the best pound for pound boxers ever, retiring undefeated at 51-0-1, 38 KO’s. He has worked with 4 fighters who are in the International Boxing Hall of Fame including Daniel Zaragoza, Ricardo Lopez, Humberto Gonzalez, and Oscar De La Hoya. It is also likely that a few other of his fighters may also eventually get into the IBHOF. Juan Manuel Marquez is a lock for first ballot, while Rafael Marquez, Jorge Arce, Jorge Paez and Gilberto Roman appear like they have enough merits to eventually get in. Active fighters Jhonny Gonzalez and Abner Mares seem to be on the right track, depending on how their careers play out. One of the things about Beristain that is so impressive is that he was not a trainer who hit big with one fighter, and then absorbed a lot of already established fighters. He developed several fighters from the ground up that would eventually become great fighters. Lopez, Roman, Gonzalez, and both Marquez brothers developed under Beristain. He also manages many of his fighters, as well as train them. Beristain was inducted into the IBHOF in 2006 as a trainer, along with boxers Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez.

#4 Angelo Dundee

Angelo Dundee is best known as the trainer and cornerman for legendary champions Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. He began as an assistant to more experienced trainers such as Charlie Goldman and Ray Arcel. As time went by he learned more and more about the sweet science and became a lead trainer himself. Dundee knew the X’s and O’s of boxing, contrary to the popular belief that says he was just a motivator. It may be true that his greatest gift as a cornerman was that he knew when, and how to push his fighter’s buttons. He was a great psychological motivator, forever known for his line “You’re blowin it son” as he rallied Leonard on in his famous first bout with Thomas Hearns. Besides his two more famous fighters Ali and Leonard, Dundee also worked with Carmen Basilio, who was Dundee’s first world champion. He was with Basilio the night he defeated Sugar Ray Robinson. He worked with 8 International Boxing Hall of Famers including Basilio, Ali, Leonard, George Foreman, Jose Napoles, Willie Pastrano, Sugar Ramos, and Luis Rodriguez. He also worked with Oscar De La Hoya and Wilfredo Gomez in a limited capacity. Dundee was inducted into the IBHOF in 1994.

#3 Emanuel Steward

Emanuel Steward’s main claim to fame is bringing up all-time great Thomas the “Hit Man” Hearns, although this is far from his only accolade. He began in boxing as a boxer himself, and was a golden glove champion before eventually becoming a trainer. He was a staple of Detroit Michigan’s famous Kronk Gym which he later came to own. He started training amateurs which led to training professionals. He found success applying his trade, and his fighters became known for the “Kronk style,” boxers who would fight tall, use the 1-2 and get great leverage on their shots with tremendous power. Thomas Hearns was a classic example of this style. Hilmer Kenty was Steward’s first world champion, with Hearns to follow shortly after. Steward had arrived as a new and elite trainer in the late 70s and early 80s. Later Steward became known as a trainer for hire, often correcting popular fighter’s mechanics, especially the ones that suited his “Kronk style” of training. Lennox Lewis was one of these great success stories. Lewis would sometimes forget to fight tall, and it cost him in his two knockout defeats. However, with Steward’s guidance he was able to avenge both of his defeats.

Perhaps an even better example of his trainer repairman persona was when he took on Wladimir Klitschko. Klitschko had a history of losing fights in mysterious or foolish ways, and Steward worked with him, not only to learn to fight tall correctly, but also to manage his stamina efficiently. At one point Wladimir Klitschko was looked at as a fighter who was shot, and needed to retire. Steward implanted knowledge in him that allowed him to become one the more dominant and long reigning heavyweight world champions in history, amazingly after he was seen as a shot fighter. Some fighters such as Naseem Hamed, didn’t have as much success, but Hamed wasn’t a fighter who was of the Kronk build and it resulted in an awkward style matchup between trainer and pupil. Steward was also a long time cable network commentator who gave valuable insight to the boxing fans. Sadly, he died in October of 2012 of Cancer. He had worked with 9 IBHOF boxers including Thomas Hearns, Lennox Lewis, Julio Cesar Chavez, Wilfredo Benitez, Oscar De La Hoya, Jeff Fenech, Naseem Hamed, Mike McCallum, and Aaron Pryor. He worked with several other that are either shoe-ins or are likely to eventually get in such as Michael Moorer, Gerald McClellan, James Toney, Wladimir Klitschko, Miguel Cotto, Evander Holyfield, and Vitali Klitschko. Steward was inducted into the IBHOF in 1996.

#2 Eddie Futch

Eddie Futch once chased an 11 year old misbehaving Sugar Ray Robinson out of his gym. He used to be Joe Louis’ favorite sparring partner, even as a Lightweight, because he was so fast. Futch was in the boxing game a very long time, over 70 of the 90 years he was alive. He began as a fighter himself, and was a promising amateur winning the Detroit Golden Gloves in 1933. Doctors found a heart murmur which prevented Futch from ever turning professional. After finding out he had to retire as a fighter, he then turned his focus towards training fighters. Futch was a student of the game and a great teacher of the X’s and O’s of boxing, as well as a brilliant fight strategist. He trained Joe Fraizer, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, and Trevor Berbick, 4 of the 5 men who defeated “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali.

In all he trained 9 IBHOF boxers including Alexis Arguello, Riddick Bowe, Bob Foster, Joe Frazier, Virgil Hill, Larry Holmes, Mike McCallum, Ken Norton, Michael Spinks. Starting with Don Jordon in 1958, his first world champion, Futch trained world champions in 5 different decades. Futch’s greatest strength as a trainer was perhaps his ability to come up with great strategies, not just for particular fights, but for each fighter he worked with. He was an adaptable trainer that could work with tall fighters, short fighters, punchers or boxers. He was named trainer of the year in 1991 and 1992, primarily for his work with Riddick Bowe. He was named the best trainer of the last 75 years in the 1997 75th anniversary of RING magazine. Futch was inducted into the IBHOF in 1994.

#1 Ray Arcel

Ray Arcel is best known as the trainer of Roberto Duran, as portrayed by Robert DeNiro in the upcoming movie “Hands of Stone.” Few people know just how prolific he was as a boxing trainer. The number of IBHOF fighters he has worked with is a staggering 21. Henry Armstrong, Max Baer, Jackie “Kid” Berg, Jimmy Bivins, James J. Braddock, Lou Brouillard, George Carpentier, Ezzard Charles, Roberto Duran, Sixto Escobar, Jackie Fields, Kid Gavilan, Frankie Genaro, Larry Holmes, Benny Leonard, Maxie Rosenbloom, Barney Ross, Billy Soose, Freddie Steele, Teddy Yarosz, and Tony Zale are all in the IBHOF. This is not even counting all the world champions he worked with that didn’t make it to the hall.

Arcel learned to be a great trainer at Grupp’s Gym in Harlem, New York. He was an apprentice to Frank Bagley and Dai Dollings who were very astute trainers and men of boxing. It was Bagley who taught Arcel to be an excellent cutman, a skill very few trainers possess, as they usually hire a cutman as a separate part of the team. After a short time as an apprentice, Arcel set off on his own and trained his first world champion, IBHOF boxer Frankie Genaro who won the Flyweight world title in 1923.

Arcel trained world champions in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 70s, and 80s, that is six different decades. He didn’t train anyone in the 1960s due to a sour business dispute involving mob ties, and an attack on Arcel himself in the 1950s. He returned in the 1970s however for Roberto Duran however. He claimed Duran was such a natural he didn’t want to alter his style much, but only to fine tune him. Arcel and Duran had a great relationship culminating in Duran’s victory over Leonard. It all came crashing down in the rematch however. Arcel, a man of old school integrity, said “no fighter quits in my corner,” and promptly left Duran, never to work with him again. Arcel would team up with Eddie Futch to train Larry Holmes for the Gerry Cooney fight. Holmes could say he had perhaps the best corner in history the night he faced Cooney. Arcel was inducted into the IBHOF in 1991.

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