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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - John Scully’s name has been out there for years.
He was an in-ring professional for 13 years and challenged for two world titles, and his dubbed-in voice is recognizable as a color analyst alongside Joe Tessitore on the ESPN Classic Boxing Series.
But he’s more recently made news as the trainer – and now ex-trainer – of light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, whose drop in weight to meet super middleweight kingpin Andre Ward last September ended disastrously in the form of a 10th-round TKO loss.
The two parted company afterward and Dawson announced in January that he’d return to the camp of another 175-pound claimant, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, with whom he’d worked previously along with others including Emanuel Steward, Dan Birmingham and Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Scully said the two haven’t spoken since the night of the Ward fight.
“It's not that I hold any grudge or anything like that, and it's not that I didn't try to reach him, either,” he said. “As it stands, I just choose to do as he does and consider it like our relationship never existed.”
The trainer was not at all shy about criticizing his ex-client’s decision to take the fight at 168, rather than demanding that Ward move up to challenge him for his title at 175.
“Taking that fight at 168 and choosing to make the weight in the manner that he was made to do so was a huge mistake. There is no disputing that and he knows that,” Scully said. “Everyone saw that fight and people who know about such things certainly know that it was. If making the weight was no big deal, he'd still be fighting at that weight. But it doesn't take a genius to know that he will never ever even consider going down to the much more lucrative 168 again. That's all the proof I need.” [Click Here To Read More]
He was an in-ring professional for 13 years and challenged for two world titles, and his dubbed-in voice is recognizable as a color analyst alongside Joe Tessitore on the ESPN Classic Boxing Series.
But he’s more recently made news as the trainer – and now ex-trainer – of light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, whose drop in weight to meet super middleweight kingpin Andre Ward last September ended disastrously in the form of a 10th-round TKO loss.
The two parted company afterward and Dawson announced in January that he’d return to the camp of another 175-pound claimant, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, with whom he’d worked previously along with others including Emanuel Steward, Dan Birmingham and Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Scully said the two haven’t spoken since the night of the Ward fight.
“It's not that I hold any grudge or anything like that, and it's not that I didn't try to reach him, either,” he said. “As it stands, I just choose to do as he does and consider it like our relationship never existed.”
The trainer was not at all shy about criticizing his ex-client’s decision to take the fight at 168, rather than demanding that Ward move up to challenge him for his title at 175.
“Taking that fight at 168 and choosing to make the weight in the manner that he was made to do so was a huge mistake. There is no disputing that and he knows that,” Scully said. “Everyone saw that fight and people who know about such things certainly know that it was. If making the weight was no big deal, he'd still be fighting at that weight. But it doesn't take a genius to know that he will never ever even consider going down to the much more lucrative 168 again. That's all the proof I need.” [Click Here To Read More]
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