Poor Corner Tactics

What examples are there of really poor tactical advice from corners, causing a fighter to lose a fight? The one that springs to mind for me is De la Hoya being told to get on his bike for the final few rounds against Tito, and Taylor being told that he needed a big last round against Chavez. What Others?

A really good thread. I wish I'd seen enough fights and had a good enough memory to contribute.

Anything that Jack Loew told Kelly Pavlik....

Taylor was losing on one of the cards.......Duva thought a King production in a latino-ish state like Vegas the fight could be close...

I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed more as it's a fascinating topic.

Also related to trainers is at what point does it become the correct choice to switch?

Many fighters get criticised for leaving a trainer and blaming all their problems on the previous guy (what up Amir!), but when watching domestic matchups I've often thought, has the fighter actually outgrown the trainer so the talent level is unbalanced to the degree where it holds the fighter back.

There must be countless occasions where potential has been unfulfilled purely down to loyaltly and/or not having the right money and connections to move.

I remember in the build up to Pacquiao vs Cotto that Roach said the best thing in Manny's favour was Cotto's trainer.

More of a local example would be DeGale and I know many of the guys here have wanted to see him switch trainers.

I've often been surprised that Dundee gets so much praise for the Leonard-Hearns fight...

Sure he said you're" blowin it"...But he let him fight the wrong fight for 4/5 of the match..

I can't think of specific examples that would weigh significantly in a debate, but I would say the late Tyson fights had some clueless trainers giving him advice, against Lewis he was being told what I consider to be wrong instructions, because he was moving his head trying to get inside and he was getting peppered - it would have been much better for Tyson to rely on Lewis coming TO him, I think for the first 2 rounds at least, they needed to see what Lewis was planning to do, as he would have trained for Tyson coming at him, throwing wild rights - what they didn't tell him was to stand his ground and counter jab - Lewis had a jackhammer of a jab, but if he was missing it, coming forward with it, Tyson had quite the jab on him too.

Personal opinion i guess.

You're right having friends like Jay Bright in the corner was a complete joke....

However Givens insisting on the dropping of Rooney hurt Tyson more than anything...

Walked forward in a straight line after he went....

Good for catching a bus but even better for catching a slap...

I rewatched some Tyson matches with a freidn the other day to show him that the Tyson that Lewis beat wasn't the Tyson of old (he's like Gordy and thinks Lewis was #1 ATG) and it was frightening to see the decline over time - the way in the early 80's he was a mirror of Joe Frazier, incredible head movement, not standing still long enough to get caught, confusing his opponent into throwing wild shots and catching them over the top - it stopped because people started expecting raw power and started covering up rather than taking the fight to him, losing the fight before they'd thrown a punch - I think it maybe created a thought process in Tyson that he didn't need the head movement.

Very true.......Tyson is often underrated because some wallies think Lewis beat a good one.....

Prison.......Holy and Rooney's absence hurt Tyson more than Lewis did...

Genuinely remember Katsidis's coach Smith telling him he "needs to hit him"

:/

When Eubank fought Collins I remember at one stage he was asking his corner for his advice. He was saying Collins wont stop coming at me, hes been coming forward all night, what do I do?. His trainer just said I know but didnt give him any advice on what to do.

Kesslers corner against Calzaghe cost him in my opinion. All they did was tell him to go forward and throw more punches. He was doing a decent job countering early on and it was a close fight but he tried to match Calzaghe punch for punch through the middle rounds and just burnt himself out a bit as Calzaghe had the best stamina the division has ever seen. Poor advice.

i always thought enzo was a great guy to have in joes corner, not afraid to tell him when to push it (hopkins), gave technical instructions and made a lot of sense.