Mike Tyson and Cus D'amato: 10 Most Cataclysmic Boxer/Trainer Combinations

There are always themes that stand out when one looks back through boxing history. Poor boy makes good on his potential and fights his way out of poverty. Gifted boxer is taken advantage of by those who should be looking out for his best interests. Fighter responds to personal tragedy by dedicating himself to his sport and winning a championship.

These stories, often clearly ploys by a promoter to attract dollars and personalize their fighters, are fun, dramatic, and give fans a means to relate to their favorite fighters.

One of these themes, boxer meets trainer and becomes elite, offers perhaps the most fun for fans, because it often begs the question, "who made whom?" Was the boxer a natural fighter who would have been great regardless? Or did the trainer have such a gift that he would be able to get more out of every fighter he worked with than any other coach?

Let's look at 10 such pairings.

Bear in mind, this is not a ranking, just a list. After all, it's impossible to say whether having Doc Kearns in Jack Dempsey's corner was more important than Sugar Ray Leonard having Angelo Dundee shout, "You're blowin' it, son!" Of course, at the end of it, the questions will still be there. But that's what makes it fun, isn't it?

Marvelous Marvin Hagler/Goody Petronelli

One of the measuring sticks of a great trainer versus someone on the second tier is how many great fighters he's trained. With Petronelli, though he trained many good to very good fighters, you can count his great fighters on one finger: Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

Hagler and Petronelli worked together from the time before Marvin was Marvelous. He was just a kid when he came into the gym, and it took some time before Petronelli approached him and asked Hagler if he wanted to learn to box. Petronelli went on to work the corner for every single one of Hagler's fights, amateur or pro. 

In a revealing interview on eastsideboxing.com, Petronelli goes into detail about how difficult it was for them to get fights. Even more importantly, he talked in length about how he was able to bolster Hagler's spirits after tough decisions, and how gifted Hagler was, both physically and emotionally. In Petronelli's own words, "Marvin was very tough mentally...he knew he had that mountain to climb."

How different Hagler's story might have been if Goody hadn't been kind enough to approach him as a shy teenager. While Marvelous certainly had the innate gifts to box, he may never have given it a shot without that invitation from a Brockton trainer.

Rocky Marciano/Charley Goldman

Marciano picked up boxing while in the Army, but never expected to fight professionally. According to some observers, he never should have. Goody Petronelli, in Sports Illustrated, "I never thought he'd make it. He was too old, almost 25. He was too short, he was too light. He had no reach. Rough and tough, but no finesse."

No, Marciano wanted to catch baseballs, not punches. After he failed in his tryout for the Chicago Cubs farm team, he decided to make a go of it with boxing gloves. However, the chances that he would end up retiring the only undefeated heavyweight champion without Charley Goldman are...slim, to say the very least.

Goldman and Marciano became attached after Al Weill took over as Marciano's manager. In Goldman's own words, quoted from nysun.com, "I got a guy who's short, stoop shouldered, and balding with two left feet. They all look better than he does as far as the moves are concerned, but they don't look so good on the canvas. God, how he can punch." 

What Goldman was able to do, however, is what most great trainers do. They take a fighter's physical gifts, and use them. For instance, Marciano was short. Too short. So, naturally, Goldman made him fight shorter, crouching down and popping up with his punches. 49-0 (43) says it worked. 

Daniel Zaragoza/Nacho Beristain

Nacho Beristain has trained numerous champions, and any combination of him and one of his fighters might have been an appropriate pick. So, why Zaragoza? Because it seems improbable that any of Nacho's other fighters ever did more with less. And if you're saying, "Hang on, that's Daniel Zaragoza, he's a Hall of Famer," my reply would be, "Case in point."

Watch that video at the top. Zaragoza is not fast. He's not great defensively. He doesn't hit very hard. He's skinny. He didn't have one of those anvil chins that some guys get by on. He's not even one of those classic isn't-great-at-anything-but-he's-good-at-everything fighters like Emile Griffith.

In terms of talent, Emile Griffith is probably Ali to Zaragoza's George Chuvalo. But there were two things Zaragoza had going for him. One was his heart, and the other was named Nacho. 

Beristain trained Zaragoza throughout his 17 year career, which included three World Boxing Council titles, and while there would have been a Nacho without "The Mouse," the chances that Zaragoza would have ended up in the International Boxing Hall of Fame without Beristain, and his demanding regimen? Slim to nil.

Sugar Ray Leonard/Angelo Dundee

Sugar Ray Leonard was a phenom. He was absolutely the complete package. With speed, reflexes, defensive acumen and an underrated punch, there was nothing he couldn't do in the ring (see Leonard-Thomas Hearns and Leonard-Wilfred Benitez). 

However, his dynamism was maximized by his relationship with Angelo Dundee.

While Dundee didn't handle the day in, day out responsibilities of a traditional trainer, he was the chief corner man for every Leonard fight until he boxed Don Lalonde in 1988. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, Dundee was Leonard's manager, and he did a masterful job of constructing one of the great careers in boxing, having picked the right opponents for Leonard at the right time. If there are doubts about Dundee's effect on Leonard as a corner man, just remember his famous exhortation in the Hearns bout, "You're blowin' it, son, you're blowin' it!"

Furthermore, remember Leonard's final few fights. With Dundee, whose most famous pupil is unquestionably Muhammad Ali, Leonard ascended to the greatest heights in boxing, beating every opponent set in front of him and losing only once, to Roberto Duran when Leonard decided to go off script. That defeat, of course, was later avenged in the "No mas" fight, when Leonard followed Dundee's plan. With Dundee, Leonard was 34-1 (24). Without him, Leonard was 2-2-1 (1).

Age certainly played a role, but Dundee was still vital to Leonard's success. 

Jack Dempsey/Doc Kearns

Jack Dempsey was a tiger. He was a ferocious, man-eating mauler who came to represent an era. He was, according to the title of one biography, "A Flame of Pure Fire." He also owes most of his success to Doc Kearns. 

Much like Dundee and Leonard, Kearns' primary role was not as a strict trainer. His bread and butter was management, though Kearns often worked in Dempsey's corner alongside Dempsey's chief trainers. And what a manager he was. 

Before Kearns, Dempsey had success in the ring, and his record before and after they began their partnership in 1917 is almost identical. Dempsey was highly regarded by those who knew of him, but it was Kearns who burnished his star and made it shine brighter than Babe Ruth's.

Kearns' partnership with promoter Tex Rickard helped Dempsey go from West Coast rumor to nationwide superstar, arguably the first of his kind.

Kearns would engage in gimmicky stunts like betting $10,000 on a first round knockout for Dempsey in his title shot against Jess Willard, who at 6'6" and 245 lbs. was a behemoth. Of course, Kearns' was almost vindicated when Dempsey knocked Willard down seven times in the first three minutes.

Their relationship ended acrimoniously after Dempsey's victory over Luis Angel Firpo, but the tremendous effect Kearns had on Dempsey's career was positively historic. 

Thomas Hearns/Emanuel Steward

Emanuel Steward likely would have been known as a great trainer even without Thomas Hearns. After all, Steward was partially responsible for the tremendous amateur success Kronk gym experienced during the 1970s. However, having a fighter like Hearns certainly accelerated Steward's ascent as arguably the greatest trainer of all time.

Hearns was primarily a boxer during his amateur days, a stick-and-move artist who at one time lost to Aaron Pryor. Under Steward as a pro, Hearns developed into one of the most terrifying power punchers in history. Just check out his obliteration of all time great Roberto Duran.

Although Hearns was not Steward's first world champion, he was Steward's greatest early success. After missing out on the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Hearns decided to turn pro in 1977 rather than try for more amateur success. It proved to be an excellent choice when Hearns knocked out Pipino Cuevas in two rounds in 1980.

After a 29 year career, Hearns had won major titles in five weight classes, and remains perhaps Steward's greatest success in terms of guiding a fighter's career from start to finish. 

Floyd Patterson/Cus D'amato

Floyd Patterson would never have been a champion without Cus D'Amato. It's that simple.

Patterson was so shy and insecure that he sneaked out of the ring in disguise after his loss to Sonny Liston. He regularly told fans who recognized him that they had made a mistake, and he was actually Floyd Patterson's twin brother.

D'Amato was able to give this apprehensive youngster shape and confidence enough to win the middleweight Olympic gold medal in 1952, and the heavyweight world title at the age of 21. 

Patterson, of course, was naturally gifted. His leaping left hook, nicknamed a "kangaroo punch," flew in the face of boxing convention, but was good enough to make him the first heavyweight to regain a championship. D'Amato's "peek a boo" defense allowed Patterson to hide a soft chin for years. 

Patterson was D'Amato's first great success as a trainer. Though he would go on to train other greats, including Jose Torres and Mike Tyson.

Patterson, with some of the fastest heavyweight hands this side of Muhammad Ali, grew under D'Amato's tutelage, eventually becoming a trainer himself. He greatly benefited from the expert management of D'Amato, who was extremely careful about opponent selection during Patterson's reign.

Although the two split after Patterson's second loss to Liston, these two were lucky to have found each other when they did. 

Manny Pacquiao/Freddie Roach

We all know the story. Fast Filipino walks into Wild Card gym, he and the trainer hit it off, and the two go on to become the most famous boxer/trainer duo in the world. We've heard or read it a hundred times. But there's a reason for that: this story bears repeating. 

Pacquiao was already a champion once, having won the lineal flyweight title versus Catchai Sasakul, but no one had any inkling that he was an all-time great waiting to be discovered.

Roach didn't know who Pacquiao was the day he walked into the Wild Card with his late manager, Rod Nazario. After one session with the mitts, however, the two knew that they would be together. 

Roach and Pacquiao won Pac-man's second world title in their first match together, against Lehlo Ledwaba at 122 pounds. Since then, the two have won six more, including three Ring Magazine world championships.

Furthermore, Roach has been able to get Pacquaio to consistently learn new skills, which can be difficult when you're working with a boxer who had already found great success. One needs only to remember back to the first Erik Morales-Pacquiao match to see what a profound effect Roach has on his pupil. From that fight to their second match Roach was able to help Pacquiao develop a right hand, something that he had previously lacked. 

From a one armed gunslinger with an anchor for a left hand to the pound for pound best (or thereabouts) fighter in the world, Pacquiao owes a great deal of his success to Roach, and vice versa. 

Mike Tyson/Cus D'amato

With most of the pairs on this lift, a fighter either spent his whole career with a single trainer, or became much better after finding one that fit. With Tyson and D'Amato, it's the exact reverse. 

Tyson needed D'Amato more than most fighters need their trainers. There was literally no one else who could keep him in line, and once D'Amato died, Tyson began to go off the rails. It got so bad, in fact, that at one point Teddy Atlas, a protege of D'Amato's, once pointed a gun in Tyson's face.

From the rape conviction in 1992 to a Christmas tree ornament incident ten years ago, Tyson's personal life was one mess or scandal after another until recently.

It's somewhat ironic that almost all of Tyson's professional success came after D'Amato's death in 1985. In fact, Tyson was able to unseat Floyd Patterson as the youngest heavyweight titlist just six months after D'Amato's death. He went on to have a tremendous career, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year.

However, when reviewing the past 27 years of Tyson's life, one can't help but feel that he would have been better off in his personal life had D'Amato lived longer. 

Honorable Mentions

Although this is not a ranking, technically there shouldn't be any honorable mentions. But, I felt compelled to explain why I didn't include a few boxer/trainer duos.

Muhammad Ali/Angelo Dundee: These two are probably the most famous pair in boxing. Dundee and Ali went together like peanut butter and jelly. But Ali would have been the greatest regardless.

Bernard Hopkins/Bouie Fisher: If these two hadn't had such an acrimonious split, and if Hopkins hadn't had such great success with Nazim Richardson they would have been included.

 Floyd Mayweather, Jr./Roger Mayweather: What they've done together is amazing, but Mayweather's success is just as much a product of what Floyd Mayweather, Sr. instilled in him as a kid.

Arturo Gatti/Buddy McGirt: McGirt helped Gatti achieve an absolute renaissance in the later stages of his career. They would have been included if there had been more sustained success. 

Wladimir Klitschko/Emanuel Steward: Steward's effect on Klitschko has been profound. However, you could put Lennox Lewis's name instead of Klitschko, and the same would be true. In fact, you could put a number of names there and that would be true.

When you reclaim more than a few champions the reclamation loses some of its sheen.