Virgil Hunter -- Is He A Top 10 World-Class Trainer?

The main reason anyone speaks of Virgil Hunter is because his name is linked to Andre Ward. Even though Ward was pretty much developed & a finished product when Hunter joined Team Ward.

If Hunter is a top 10 trainer, who are the 9 trainers who rank over him? Who would be a good fit for Khan? Sugar Hill?

I wouldn't put him on top 10 that's for sure. Ward is the only fighter in his stable that is consistent because of his amateur back ground. Smart and quick on his feet with already intact defense. Virgil's other fighter was either hard headed or it's just Virgil. I didn't see any improvement on his other fighters, they were hesitant most of the time. It's like his fighters were confuse on what would they do once they start getting hit. Meaning they hesitant if they will be more defensive or offensive minded against their respective opponents. Watch the Mayfield,Amir and Berto's fight and you'll see what I mean.

Ehh he's decent, he deff knows how to motivate.

Hunter is a proven "Long Term" trainer with a record of taking a novice to the second best boxer on the planet. That is a huge achievement regardless of Ward's obvious intelligence and talent. He comes over as a long term plan guy rather than a quick fix merchant but a lot of people he is taking on are well established pros with heavily ingrained habits. In their case getting the best out of what they have may be more profitable than teaching old dogs new tricks. A lot of the fighters on his books have had their careers derailed looking to get back on track. Doing this is a tough ask partly because they are at the stages in their careers where they don't have huge amounts of time and will be thrown in with tough opponents. Angulo is an example, he did well against Lara although he lost. Hunter did a good job there and it landed him a good payday against Canelo who he was never going to beat regardless of who was training him. So despite 2 loses in real terms that was success as far as Angulo is concerned. It is difficult to look good as a trainer when your fighters are overmatched and people are just looking at the Ls and Ws. Right now Hunter is on a bad run but they say class is perminant and form tempory.The work with Ward shows that with a good student and a lot of time he can get great results. That shows me he is class long term but I have not seen any rapid turnaround work which would indicate he is a magic Mr quick Mr Fix it but do those people really exist anyway?

Like most trainers, he's suited to a certain style of fighter or just one fighter full stop.

For pro level hunter is a joke he already proved that. Ward is a smart guy with a high ring iq so I don't think it would have matter who trained him Hunter is good for the amature game, with his bs corner advice he would benifit these up and coming kids perfect.

Boxing fans are so fickle. I remember when rios lost to alvarado and nonito lost to rigondeaux and people were saying robert garcia sucks as a trainer. Hunter is a very good trainer. Pedro diaz is my favorite trainer though! Very underrated IMO.

I voted top 25, but he could well be top 10. I really don't like the advice he gives personally. He's seems more of a motivator than a trainer to me. I like trainers that give simple, easy to follow instructions and can also motivate/push a fighter when they need to, and not bull**** them. I just don't personally like his training strategies, though they obviously work for some.

Well, to be fair, the fighters he is working with (other than Ward) are not the easiest cases. I mean, how do you teach chin (Khan) or speed (Angulo)? And don't even get me started on Berto. It's easy to look great as a trainer when you work with fighters like Floyd, Manny or Mikey Garcia... But even Roach couldn't do anything about Chavez Jr., and Robert Garcia couldn't prepare Donaire to beat Rigo (and say what you will about how overrated Donaire is/was, he had the physical tools to win that fight).

I think he is overrated from what I have seen from him and his fighters. I voted top 100. He might rate much higher but I don't know much or anything about all the many trainers. I could probably only name 10 or 15 trainers at most.

he is a top 10 trainer for sure, maybe even top 5. you cant ignore what he has done with ward, people talk about him getting lucky having the chance to train someone as gifted as ward and he is. but ward is lucky to have hunter as a trainer to. you cant get as good as ward without a great teacher, all the talent in the world will mean nothing if you dont have someone who can hone it into something real. having had ward from the first day he walked into the gym you have to give hunter credit for turning him into the second best fighter on the planet. as for the losses he took with other fighters i think much of it is just taking tough fights. a lot of people say roach is a better matchmaker than he is a trainer, that might be an exaggeration but he is good at picking fights for sure. hunter on the other hand doesnt if he even tries. his fighters have very hard fights, it seems he is training them to be complete fighters who can deal with anything just like ward. problem being he hadnt had the time to teach them everything. not many trainers can beat canelo with angulo, in fact i dont think anyone can. matthysse with mike dallas either. berto struggled too, but lets keep in mind he fought that soto karass fight with one good arm. with two good arms i dont think he loses and he definitely doesnt get stopped imo. hunter is a great trainer though, he will start having more success with fighters other than ward soon.

I don't know. Angulo looked clueless against Canelo, Khan was taken to the trenches by Julio ****ing Diaz and Mayfield just lost. Berto; self explanatory. Virgil reminds me of Herbert the Pervert in the corner with his advice. http://i58.tinypic.com/6sv3aa.jpg

You sure you've watched all his fights? No, not all of them. Watching brainless fighter who thinks he's a world class brawler hitting canvas over and over again gets boring after some time.

Sure top 10, but really he is quite average.

Only one Hunter's fighter is world class and doing well. His name is Andre Ward. That other guy mentioned, Amir something,recently gets knocked down or out in his every fight. You sure you've watched all his fights?

Only one Hunter's fighter is world class and doing well. His name is Andre Ward. That other guy mentioned, Amir something,recently gets knocked down or out in his every fight.