There is a general consensus that boxing is one of the most practical martial arts, offering the ability to defend yourself effectively after just a few months of training. This is true, but what about reaching the heights of sports? It takes years and even decades, and, like in all other disciplines, there are many other factors in play. Genetics, the draw of luck, career choices, and many other things matter. And, of course, we cannot ignore the importance of a good trainer. There are hundreds of them, but our article will cover those few universally considered the best in history.
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Cus D’Amato
An influential figure in the world of boxing, D’Amato trained many legends. He was also a manager. Likely, Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, and José Torres would not have reached the heights they achieved without his help.
Born in 1908 in NYC in a working-class family, D’Amato had a short-lasting amateur boxing career, but an injury prevented him from continuing. He opened his sports club at 22 and lived at the gym then. Rocky Graziano was among the first champions that Cus discovered. He went on to become the World’s Middleweight Champion.
After that, Floyd Paterson came into the picture. He was successful at the Olympics under the guidance of D’Amato, getting the middleweight golden medal in 1952. Their collaboration did not stop there: four years later, Paterson became the youngest World Heavyweight Championship. He was just 21 at the time. They stopped working together a few years later when Paterson suffered two consecutive losses by knockout.
But Mike Tyson was the most famous champion trained by D’Amato. They began working together when the former was just a teen, with D’Amato adopting him after Tyson’s mother’s death. They began working together when Tyson was around 12-13, and D’Amato trained him heavily for fighting with the peek-a-boo style, a technique that he preferred. Tyson broke Paterson’s record of being the youngest World’s Heavyweight Champion at 20, but D’Amato did not live to see it: he died a year before that.
Calling D’Amato influential is an understatement: only a few trainers managed so many important champions. D’Amato often focused on socially challenged fighters, helping them to get their life together. He often acted as a father figure to them, sometimes offering them places to stay and eat. Speaking of the fighting techniques, D’Amato was a proponent of a peek-a-boo style that involved holding the hands close to a face for better protection and more unexpected moves.
Angelo Dundee
One of the greatest boxing trainers, Angelo Dundee, had an impressive portfolio, having collaborated with a long list of famous fighters. However, working with Muhammad Ali is what made him famous.
Like D’Amato and others on this list, Dundee was born into a working-class family. He served as an aircraft mechanic during World War II, after which he apprenticed to be a boxing trainer. Finally, he started his career sometime in the 1950s after moving to Miami. His brother owned a gym, which made things easier for Angelo.
Things started becoming successful quite quickly: Dundee trained Carmen Basilio, who became the world welterweight champion. The year was 1955, and a few years later, Dundee started working with Cassius Clay, the guy we all know by the name Muhammad Ali.
Their collaboration started in 1960, although they first met in 1957. Apart from being a trainer, Dundee was a cornerman in almost all of Ali’s fights. He traveled everywhere with him and witnessed his rise to success. They collaborated until Ali retired in 1981 and remained friends afterward.
Apart from working with Ali, Dundee collaborated with many other champions, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Sean Mannion, George Scott, Carmen Basilio, Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Jimmy Ellis, José Nápoles, and Willie Pastrano.
Dundee was known to be honest and responsible, widely respected in the sport. After his retirement, he was still occasionally involved with boxing. He was a special consultant for Oscar De La Hoya’s fight with Manny Pacquiao in 2008 and also trained Russell Crowe for his role in “Cinderella Man.”
Freddie Roach
This list of top boxing coaches would not be complete without Frederick Steven Roach, who was responsible for training many boxing and MMA champions. After being involved in many street fights, he started an amateur boxing career when he was 18 and had moderate success in regional championships. He retired at 26 after he started developing the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
He then turned to training, starting as an assistant for his friend. He worked with Mickey Rourke in Hollywood from 1991 to 1995. After that, Roach continued his rise to success. His first world champion was Virgil Hill, for whom it was also the first title of that level. Overall, Roach is mostly known for the success of Manny Pacquiao, an eight-division world champion, universally regarded as one of the greatest boxers ever.
The list of other people who worked with Roach include Miguel Cotto, Gary Stretch, and Julio César Chávez Jr. Roach is known in the world of UFC as well: he trained Georges St-Pierre and Peter Quillin, as well as Andrei Arlovski.
Roach has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and is one of the most sought-after trainers in professional boxing. He is still pretty much active despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease from his young days.
Eddie Futch
There were only five men who could defeat Muhammad Ali in a fight. And four of them, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, and Trevor Berbick, were trained by Eddie Futch. Born in Mississippi and raised in Detroit, Futch was an athlete as a kid but did not turn professional as a boxer due to heart issues. He became a trainer instead.
He trained Frazier for the so-called Fight of the Century, a match that happened in 1971 and is widely considered one of the most publicized sporting events. Frazier defeated Ali, resulting in the first professional loss in the latter’s career.
Manny Steward
Emanuel “Manny” Steward was nicknamed the Godfather of Detroit Boxing. Raised by a working-class mother, he had an amateur boxing career before becoming a trainer at 27. He worked with over 40 world champions and is mostly known for his collaboration with Thomas Hearns. Some of the other notable boxers that he trained include Hilmer Kenty, his first world champion, Wladimir Klitschko, James Tony, Lenox Lewis, and Chad Dawson.
Steward owned Kronk Gym, a legendary Detroit sporting facility, and opened its branch in Arizona. He occasionally worked as a commentator on HBO Boxing. Steward died in 2012, aged 68, from the complications of the diverticulitis surgery.
Ray Arcel
Arcel was a prolific trainer, working in the field from the 1920s to the 1980s. During his incredibly long career, he trained 20 world champions. The list of them includes Benny Leonard, Tony Marino, Sixto Escobar, and Jim Braddock.
Arcel was raised in Harlem and began working as a trainer at Stillman’s Gym, a facility located near Madison Square Garden. He started working in the 1920s but took a long hiatus from the 1950s to 1970s after some disputes in the sport, as well as a street attack that was never solved by the police. He returned to work with Alfonso Frazier, Roberto Durán, and Larry Holmes.
Nacho Beristáin
Like many others on our list, Ignacio “Nacho” Beristáin started his career as an amateur boxer. He briefly turned professional but retired due to an eye injury at just 20. After that, he started working as a trainer. He played a role for the Mexican Olympic boxing team, getting multiple medals at the 1968, 1976, and 1980 Games. He also trained many notable boxers, such as the brothers Juan Manuel Márquez and Rafael Márquez, Ricardo López, and Juan Manuel Márquez, a four-division champion.
Beristáin is the most famous Mexican boxing trainer and was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the sport in 2010. Speaking of the preferred techniques, he proposes complex combinations ending with an uppercut.
Conclusion
With boxing being a popular sport with a rich history, it can sometimes become difficult to pick the best trainers that have ever worked with this discipline. In this article, we tried to select the seven best ones among the legendary boxing trainers. We described their biographies and achievements, focusing on the champions they trained and collaborated with.
