THE TALE OF TWO TRAINERS

When Ricky Hatton ditched his longtime coach for Floyd Mayweather Sr., he was practicing a common move in today's boxing world. But after a fighter has had 30 or 40 fights, does he really gain that much from switching trainers?

by Bill Dettloff

Such is the culture of big-time contemporary boxing that it's rare for a fighter and his trainer to traverse an entire career together. Relatively few pairings last from beginning to end. There's too much at stake, too much money to be made at the top levels of this business to let sentiment and personal history get in the way of the real wealth that can be scored at the end of the pay-per-view rainbow.

You can't blame these guys. Suffer a bad loss in a very big fight, and you potentially watch millions of dollars walk out the door. By nature and necessity a prizefighter is rarely good at accepting blame for a loss. Besides that, he needs to mitigate the damage done to his reputation so that the fans and suits will give him another date.

So what does he do? He dumps his trainer. He hires another one. The new guy, he tells everyone, is an expert. The guy who replaces him will be, too.

The question is, outside of the public relations benefit, can the new guy really exert any influence?

"That trainer can have a great influence," said Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Muhammad is the head trainer of top light heavyweight Chad Dawson and one of the most respected trainers in the sport.

"Especially for a guy like Floyd. I don't call Floyd a trainer; Floyd is a teacher. I see Floyd in the gym every day, and I see the paces he puts his guys through and he shows his guys why they do what they do. So he's not a trainer, he's a teacher."

Hatton, of course, had spent his entire career under the watchful if bloodshot eyes of scruffy Billy Graham, a charming British rascal who delighted viewers of HBO's Mayweather-Hatton 24/7 series in 2007 by demonstrating the myriad and improbable ways in which he could bend and otherwise manipulate his rubbery, oft-broken fingers.

But over the last couple of years, according to Hatton, Graham's various medical problems and desire for time away from the gym caused one fighter after another to move elsewhere, and finally so too did Hatton after a sluggish performance against shopworn Juan Lazcano in May 2008.

In his only ring appearance since the switch, Hatton looked like a much improved fighter, beating slick Paulie Malignaggi last November. Say what you will about Hatton's decision to hire the father and former trainer of the only man to have beaten him; given Hatton's defensive deficiencies, Mayweather would seem the perfect fit.

"Hatton's only lost once," said Mustafa Muhammad. "But there's going to come a time when you need to know more. He has to know more. I got nothing against Hatton's former trainer, but Floyd brings a lot to the table. Floyd is a great defensive trainer, whereas Hatton was prone to getting hit a lot. And now in the gym, Hatton's not getting hit a lot. That shows you that what Floyd is showing him is working."

On the other hand, a coach in any sport will tell you that old habits are hard to break, especially bad old habits; that's why you try learn to do things the right way from the start. And there's always the chance that no matter what the new guy brings to the game, the athlete will revert to form when the pressure is on.

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, told The Ring magazine's David Mayo that he doesn't expect that Mayweather will improve Hatton all that much.

"He can try to make Hatton a better boxer, I think, but I certainly believe Hatton is a bit stuck in his ways. When he gets hit he's going to revert back to what he does naturally. Maybe he'll improve his boxing ability a little bit -- or try to -- but I just don't think it's possible to change somebody this late in his career, in such a short time."

Though you can question his objectivity, Roach's observation is sound.

"That can happen sometimes," allowed veteran West coast trainer Joe Goossen. "But usually you've got enough time to at least somehow solidify that new style. And if the new stuff isn't working, switching back might be advised."

Goossen has taken on several established, world class fighters later in their careers, such as Shane Mosley, Terry Norris, and, perhaps most notably, the late Diego Corrales. He believes firmly that not only can old dogs learn new tricks, sometimes they must.

"Ricky Hatton pretty much said it himself: When you've been with a guy since you're 17 years old, things can go stale and you can teach him as much as you can teach him," Goossen said. "Now sometimes you need to get a new voice, a new face because you know that there's nothing else you guys are going to be able to squeeze out of each other. I've been there. There comes a point when you feel there just isn't anything else you can impart to the guy."

On the subject of burnout, Goossen offered the example of his long and successful work with the Ruelas brothers, Rafael And Gabe.

"I was there with Gabriel and Rafael who I had from the time they were 11 and 12 years old. By the time they were 27, 28 that's a lot of years. I really wanted them to retire, they really wanted to continue, and I told them if you guys want to continue, I just don't know what else I can do for you at this point. They decided to continue and got themselves new trainers. And was it successful? No. But that's not always the case. A lot of the time it works out."

Mosley's late-career switch to trainer Nazim Richardson is a good example of it working out -- and not just because Richardson was the one who called attention to the foreign substance in Antonio Margarito's hand wraps. It is universally agreed that Mosley looked better against Margarito than he had in years.

You could argue Margarito's style was made for Mosley. You could wonder if missing the loaded wraps dulled Margarito's offense. Or maybe Mosley's just-announced split from wife/manager Jin Mosley steeled him. Here's what's not debatable: Richardson was in Mosley's corner. Jack Mosley, who had trained Mosley almost exclusively over Mosley's 30-year amateur and pro career, was not.

"After so many years it wears thin after a while, it gets boring or stale seeing the same face and doing the same things," Goossen said. "And if you're young enough and vibrant enough you don't want to say, 'Well, I'll just finish it out with this guy.' You say, 'I know I've got more in me, and I know someone else could bring out a different side of me.' That's what happened with Ricky Hatton. He wanted a different side of him brought out, and I think Mayweather's going to bring that."

Goossen, like many others, thinks Pacquiao will be too much for Hatton even if Mayweather can sharpen Hatton up. But that's beside the point. This is big time boxing. There's pay-per-view gold at the end of the rainbow. You can't get it alone and if you have to have someone help you, it might as well be an expert.