BATTLE OF THE TRAINERS

by Ron Borges

When one thinks of chaos in the corner many examples come to mind but when one thinks of a dysfunctional corner one image tends to linger ahead of the rest. It's the image of then heavyweight champion Leon Spinks lost in a cacophony of words 29 years ago after his lead trainer, George Benton, picked up his bucket after five rounds and walked out of the arena, not to be seen again until everyone got back to the hotel cocktail lounge in New Orleans.

Benton had coaxed and cajoled Spinks to the heavyweight championship seven months earlier in Las Vegas, sweet talking him into finding a way to beat Muhammad Ali. But when the rematch came, Spinks' training camp grew so fractured that Benton was only allowed to speak every other round, sharing instructions with Spinks' long-time handler Sam Solomon. When Benton finally tired of arguing over strategy with Solomon rather than imparting it to Spinks, he simply left, soon to be replaced by an agitated young man in a business suit who stuck his head under the ropes and hollered at Spinks after one round, "You're blowing the money, Leon!" The man was later identified as one of Spinks' attorneys.

Lou Duva was not working Spinks' corner that night but as a long time associate of Benton's he remembers well the toll that chaos took on Spinks, who lost the title back to Ali after performing like a guy with no idea what he was supposed to be doing. When Duva thinks of the present training situation swirling around Floyd Mayweather, Jr., he thinks of that night and about the possible chaos that may be building as Mayweather's uncle, Roger, trains him while his father and original trainer, Floyd, Sr., lurks in the background, a daily fixture in the Las Vegas gym where they are trying to find a way to defeat boxing's Golden Boy and Floyd, Sr.'s fighter of the past seven years, Oscar De La Hoya.

"It could happen again," Duva said of Spinks' confusing night in New Orleans so many years ago. "Floyd's father is a little wacky and his uncle is a good trainer but he's a knot head too so no matter what they decide before the fight you could see in the heat of battle, if De La Hoya starts to give Floyd problems, a situation develop where neither one of them adheres to whatever instructions were established beforehand. They might both try to be the hero. "You could see a scenario where the whole thing reverts to a street fight, with nobody in charge. That's what they have to find some way to avoid."

Roger Mayweather has been trying to do that by asserting his primacy in the camp. He has made clear he's the trainer, not his brother, and the fighter seems clearly behind him, having told his father he is welcome to be with him when he trains after many years of estrangement but on Fight Night his uncle is in charge.

"I never thought to pick someone else to train me," young Mayweather said. "I truly believe my uncle is the best trainer in boxing."

Mayweather's father prepared him during the first two weeks of training camp after refusing to work with De La Hoya for less than $2 million. But when Mayweather's uncle was released from prison and again available, the decision was made to stick with what had been working most of Mayweather's professional career.

"He can be there, he can be at home in a rocking chair, I don't give a bleep," Roger Mayweather said of his brother's presence around the gym. "The bottom line is this – we're going to win this fight regardless. I don't care who we have in the gym. I don't train him for his daddy. I don't train him based on who's there and who ain't there. And if he's in the corner I wouldn't give a shit, either. The bottom line is skill wins fights."

While that is certainly true the conventional wisdom is that Mayweather's father might have a unique perspective to offer on De La Hoya's strengths and weaknesses because he has prepared him for so many years. While that would seem a logical assumption, it's not one Roger Mayweather seems all that interested in pursuing and that makes some veteran trainers like Duva wonder what else could happen.

"I fought more fights than my brother had," Roger Mayweather said. "I don't need to ask his opinion on how to win because, No. 1, Floyd got there based on what I've done (as his trainer) not what …he's done. He may have set the ground plans for Floyd (when he was a young amateur), but Floyd's on pay-per-view because of me not because of his Daddy.

"What do I need to ask (him) when I know too much myself? I fought 27 world champions. What's he going to tell me? I'm the one who's doing the training so I don't worry about the disagreements that he has with me because I'm the one training the fighter.

"Why do I need to get my brother's opinion about how to beat De La Hoya when I trained Floyd to beat the last 37 (opponents)? Huh? Why would I need his father's opinion? Did Floyd beat them with him or did he beat them with me? I don't need to ask nobody's opinion."

Apparently that would include the man who's trained De La Hoya for so many years. Yet while it might seem the tension between father and brother and father and son is far from ideal, veteran trainer Teddy Atlas believes it is less likely than many are speculating to become a significant factor in the way it did for Spinks. "I think there will be no effect on Floyd," Atlas said of the trainer issue. "Floyd's been in a dysfunctional situation for so long that nothing short of a hydrogen bomb going off would effect him.

"Sure the potential is there for it to all fly south on them because the potential for chaos in Floyd's corner is there but Roger has made it clear in his statements that he's the chief second. He's made it very public that he's in charge and so he assumes he is but in this business you can assume something and find out you're very, very wrong because these guys run by emotion.

"What will balance that is that Floyd's a confident, competent, calm fighter himself. He's been in so many scenarios of confusion and chaos that whatever goes on between his father and his uncle shouldn't affect him. Boxing is the most selfish sport. Floyd understands that and he embraces that. He'll be prepared to take care of his own business. The trainer is important but in the end, he'll depend on himself."

More than that, in the opinion of former light heavyweight champion and well respected Las Vegas trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, what he has seen in the gym where Mayweather has been training is far from the conflicts so many in boxing are talking about.

"I've been at a lot of their workouts and Roger and the father seem to be getting along," Muhammad said. "The father knows Roger is the boss. I haven't seen any friction. I have seen Floyd giving them some advice though, which is good. I think it's a huge advantage for them that Floyd, Sr. knows De La Hoya so well. I think that will really worry Oscar.

"He's fighting a Mayweather and a Mayweather was his trainer. That has to be on a fighter's mind. Forget all that they don't get along bullshit. Floyd, Sr. has told his son everything he knows about Oscar."

That fact, Atlas agrees, will weigh on De La Hoya as the fight nears, making his training situation an issue of its own. Atlas was a finalist for the job that eventually went to veteran trainer Freddie Roach after Mayweather and De La Hoya split, and so he spent much time studying boxing's Golden Boy. What he concluded was that De La Hoya, who has worked under at least six different trainers during his career, is more of a thinking man than young Mayweather outside the ring and thus could be more readily effected not so much by the absence of Mayweather's father in his corner but by his shadowy presence on the periphery of his opponent's.

"Eddie's right," Atlas concurred. "Oscar might be affected by Floyd, Sr. being with his opponent after being with him for so long. He might think he's bringing his son a specific fight plan based on things he knows about him that only a trainer would know. Things he has trouble doing. Things that make him uncomfortable in the ring. Things he always tries to do. Little things that can help a smart opponent, which Mayweather is.

"Oscar's not as secure as Floyd in that area. He's been through a lot of trainers and I think he's sensitive to that. He depends more on his corner than Floyd does and Mayweather was a guy he'd been with a long time. I'm not sure, by the end, if he was buying into everything he was being told by him but he didn't want to make another change unless he had to, which he did. That could be on his mind.

"Freddie is a great trainer but De La Hoya has to trust him and accept what he's telling him in a hurry. It's difficult to build that kind of trust in a few months. At the end of the day he'll depend on his own instincts too but he has a peripheral insecurity so he could be influenced more by the people around him, or not around him, than Floyd will be because Floyd makes it clear he's not compliant with what other people say or want."

Roach has said from the outset that his job is primarily to get De La Hoya physically ready and to develop a fight plan the two of them are comfortable with. He is not there to tinker with his style or to try and change long established patterns that have made De La Hoya a six-time world champion and the biggest box office star in the sport.

Freddie Roach's job, then, is to complete the difficult task Atlas described – to convince his fighter that he has a plan that will work and that nothing his former trainer can tell his son will derail it if it is followed.

"I was a little leery about it at first because he was a little bit older and very successful and I thought maybe his work ethic might not be as good as it is but it's been great," Roach said of De La Hoya. "Everything I ask him to do, he does. "In this fight I'm going to ask him to be a little more physical, to use his size and strength, but he also has great boxing ability. It's not like he's just a pure puncher. The biggest thing is not to try and change somebody because when the bell rings they always fight their style. So the thing is, we're just improving on some moves and pretty much working on the strategy of the fight more than anything. Working on how to handle this particular opponent."

Roach believes it will be the plan the two sides come up with, and the fighters' ability to execute it, that will carry the day. De La Hoya must find a way to negate Mayweather's speed while Mayweather, the naturally smaller man, must counter De La Hoya's size and strength advantages. The fighter who does that, and the trainer who comes up with a plan that allows him to, will carry the day.

"Who has the better game plan, I think that will be the winner of this fight," Roach concedes. "From the first day I told Oscar if I tell him to do something he's not comfortable with to let me know because we can communicate here. If he's not comfortable with something I tell him, he's not going to do it. So if he talks to me, which we do a lot, we'll figure out another way to go about it.

"I have a completely different style than Floyd does. I'm much more offensive minded. I think that's what it's going to take to win this fight - a more offensive fighter. A more physical fighter."

A fighter, Freddie Roach and Oscar De La Hoya hope, unknown even to Floyd Mayweather, Sr.