Cus D Amato the greatest and smartest boxing trainer in history?

[AlexKid]

From my limited knowlege, other famous trainers have tended to be lucky to get the character that makes for a champion in their best boxer.

But Cus he makes the kid a champion, and if you break down Tysons style it is extremely clever and orgininal in design, no other trainers really created anything new in their fighters styles, it had all been done before no new inovations.

Again I have limited knowlege here but what do you think?

[Sugarj]

From my limited knowlege, other famous trainers have tended to be lucky to get the character that makes for a champion in their best boxer.

But Cus he makes the kid a champion, and if you break down Tysons style it is extremely clever and orgininal in design, no other trainers really created anything new in their fighters styles, it had all been done before no new inovations.

Again I have limited knowlege here but what do you think?

Cus D'Amato really should have had more world champions. He was certainly a terrific boxing historian, one of the best talkers in boxing, a great philosopher and most probably the finest trainer of the peek a boo style.

You can't really compare Cus head to head with the likes of Steward, Arcel, Dundee, Futch etc. Cus was rather more specialised within the boundaries of the style he favoured.

Frankly, I'd choose Cus to train me. Few fighters in history have had finer/faster combinations than Patterson or Tyson. That two of the fastest heavyweights in history came from his tuition can't be coincidence.

[Ray Corso]

The style that Cus taught had alot of variables to it and it was very demanding on a fighter! Jose Torres is the best example of the style not Tyson or Paterson! Tyson faultered as he got older because the style demanded top conditioning with flexability and once Mike was over 220lbs he lost the ability to perform it. He started standing up in front of opponents and forgot the power jab and was reduced to rushing in with wide shots!!
Jose was a smart fighter who kept his conditioning up and was a hard worker throughout his career! Floyd just ran into two monsters in Liston & Ali that had styles and size that he struggled with, everyone else did too! hahaha!!!

As to great trainers to me there Mr. Arcel & Mr. Brown, Eddie Futch is high on my list and I think Georgie Benton was terrific too!
Cus trained his style so he was abit one dimentional but when it was performed at a high level you were in a fight!
My kids at Ring One fought the Adirondak Indian kids for years in Holyoke Mass at our regionals so I'm very familar fighting against Cus's kids!!! Thats how we met and years later Tyson came along! As a J.O. fighter Tyson was as close to unbeatable as it gets!!!! Super fast, Super strong! Ray.

[SlySlickSmooth]

Two of the fastest and both gained fact as the youngest HW champion, trained by Cus.

[JAB5239]

The style that Cus taught had alot of variables to it and it was very demanding on a fighter! Jose Torres is the best example of the style not Tyson or Paterson! Tyson faultered as he got older because the style demanded top conditioning with flexability and once Mike was over 220lbs he lost the ability to perform it. He started standing up in front of opponents and forgot the power jab and was reduced to rushing in with wide shots!!
Jose was a smart fighter who kept his conditioning up and was a hard worker throughout his career! Floyd just ran into two monsters in Liston & Ali that had styles and size that he struggled with, everyone else did too! hahaha!!!

As to great trainers to me there Mr. Arcel & Mr. Brown, Eddie Futch is high on my list and I think Georgie Benton was terrific too!
Cus trained his style so he was abit one dimentional but when it was performed at a high level you were in a fight!
My kids at Ring One fought the Adirondak Indian kids for years in Holyoke Mass at our regionals so I'm very familar fighting against Cus's kids!!! Thats how we met and years later Tyson came along! As a J.O. fighter Tyson was as close to unbeatable as it gets!!!! Super fast, Super strong! Ray.

^^^this^^^

[violaandme]

I am certainly biased but for my money George Benton was well rounded but his tight circle offense/Defense was a great style and worked for many fighters He worked with the great Eddie Futch and devised Leon Spinks strategy when he beat Ali and went on to train Evander Holyfield Meldrick Taylor Mike McCallum and of course Pernell Whitaker Who Never lost a fight with benton in his corner who did not make the trip to france in Pernells lose to Jose Louis Ramerez and was gone a year before he lost to De La Hoya Just a guess but I believe he was 39-0-1 with him in the corner

[violaandme]

Biased yes that is him in my avatar pic not as a trainer of course

[kiDynamite92]

Jose was a smart fighter who kept his conditioning up and was a hard worker throughout his career! Floyd just ran into two monsters in Liston & Ali that had styles and size that he struggled with, everyone else did too! hahaha!!!

TBH him and Foreman are the two worst opponents for that style of boxing. But cus was a boxing genius, just watching some of his documentaries makes you wonder the knowledge that Tyson would have and could give to other fighters.

[ShoulderRoll]

I am certainly biased but for my money George Benton was well rounded but his tight circle offense/Defense was a great style and worked for many fighters

Can you talk a little bit more about the tight circle offense/defense? How does it work or what are it's principles and strategies?

As for the peek a boo......someone should get Teddy Atlas and/or Kevin Rooney and/or Mike Tyson to sit down and write an outline of Cus' training methods. From beginner to more advanced.

Then film an instructional dvd following that outline.

There are many young boxers that could benefit from something like that. And it would allow the D'Amato legacy to live on even after all of these Cus disciples pass away.

[Tommo1]

The peek a boo style taught to Tyson by DaMato certainly worked for him. However it did leave one open to the sides and required exceptional movement, speed and conditioning to be successful. It is regarded today by some as being an outdated style and not taught anymore but I am not so sure. It definitely worked for Tyson. I think it would work beautifully for short stocky fighters like Samuel Peter, Dereck Chisora, David Tua etc.

For a taller fighter it is definitely not as effective, it removes the range advantage. If you are big you should fight big!

Floyd Patterson is absolute proof that the style is dependant on the body type. Floyd was only a HW champion because the era he was in was so incredibly weak it allowed him to be!