MORE THAN JUST A COACH?

"ARE you ready for the fire? We are firemen.”

I've missed Teddy Atlas. The motormouth American, most known for his punditry with ESPN in the States, made his return to the corner to coach countryman Tim Bradley to victory over Brandon Rios last Saturday.

After a few years away from training, Atlas, who once coached Mike Tyson, was his old vociferous self and provided Bradley with some unusual yet frank advice.

But his 60-second firefighter analogy worked as Bradley stopped Californian punchbag Rios in the ninth.

Atlas’ coaching comeback gained a lot of media attention on a weekend that actually overshadowed a fight between two world class fighters.

Trainers this side of the Atlantic also played their part in the build-up pantomime. Joe Gallagher and Oliver Harrison traded verbals in the lead-up to Callum Smith’s (coached by Gallagher) one round demolition of Rocky Fielding.

Coaches are supposed to be the men in the background but often they like the spotlight just as much as the fighters.

This week's shenanigans got me thinking about some of the great coaches in boxing and what makes them the best of the best.

The first names that spring to mind when it comes to coaching have to be the grizzled Americans like Angelo Dundee (Ali’s trainer), Ray Arcel, Eddie Futch and Cus D’Amato.

Great trainers have the ability to shape and educate their fighters as human beings as well as boxers. They don't let their fighter get hurt when it’s hopeless (see Ali-Holmes).

Rarely is there a perfect marriage between trainer and boxer but some have shone for a myriad of reasons. Carl Froch and Rob McCracken, Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach, Juan Manuel Marquez and Nacho Beristain are but a few.

Many relationships though are fraught but respect still remains for what they achieved together.

The aforementioned Gallagher gets a lot of stick from fans for his outspoken views and occasionally braggadocios manner.

But Gallagher is a winner, a fighter, he doesn't know how to lose and he's currently building one of the most decorated stables of fighters in the country.

Success breeds success, good coaching can turn an average fighter into a great one.

Unfortunately on the flip side, ineffective training can have tragic consequences like the rotten corner work given to Gerald McClellan against Nigel Benn.

Many believe if McClellan’s former coach Emmanuel Steward was in charge that night he would not have taken the punishment he did.

The state of coaching in the UK right now is excellent. Adam Booth, Peter Fury, Shane McGuigan and Tony Sims are rated amongst the best in the country.

Great trainers are a combination of three things: a physical coach, a strategist and a friend.

Fierce loyalty should go both ways. Just look at some of the fighters who split from the trainer that got them to the big time, they're often never the same again.