So I read Max Baer's biography and an I ran into an interesting anecdote. Bear was preparing to fight Louis, and Ray Arcel was asked to train him for the bout. Arcel refused, because the camp was set up in woods, which in his opinion was a huge mistake. The idea was that Baer, as a fun-loving guy, was supposed to concentrate solely on boxing far away from everything. According to Arcel however, if a guy loves to joke and hang around with people, then that's how he should train as well. In the woods Baer couldn't think about anything but Louis, and build up his fear. In this instance nothing would have changed the result, but I found this to be an interesting thought. Maybe today too, the environment that matches the needs of a particular fighter is more important than just training as hard as possible
Arcel's Point is Valid, but in the Case of Baer, Bringing an "Entourage" to Camp Would've Alleviated the Isolation of the Woods... "Entourages" are Usually FROWNED Upon and Yes, Often Consist of Yes Men and Hanger On's...But There's Also "Entourages" Consisting of People that Keep the Fighter GROUNDED or In Tune w/HIMSELF... The SPARRING and TRAINING Aspect of Camp Needs to Be BUSINESS Minded, But When That Days Workout is Over, a Fighter NEEDS to Unwind...Can't Be TENSE and ANGRY Every Single Day for a 6 or 8 Week Camp... If a Fighter Likes to HUNT, FISH, Play BOARD Games, CARD Games or Trade Verbal Barbs w/Friends, THAT Needs to Remain Consistent Even in Camp... REED
It’s an interesting take on it. I guess it just depends on the fighter. Marciano, for instance, who was known to screw anything that moved, wouldn’t even see his wife during training, let alone fuck her. Hagler called camp “going to jail” and would train at Cape Cod, being pretty isolated. Mayweather on the other hand, would train in Vegas, with all his entourage of yes men doing little chores for him. I think Pacquiao is similar in that regard.
Yes, Pacquiao Brings Half of the Philippines w/Him to Train/Fight in America... In Terms of Personality, What You SEE Is What You GET from Manny...He's the SAME Fun Loving, Easy to Laugh, Boyish Grinning Dude Whether ON Camera or OFF...As Such, he LIKES Having Large Numbers of People Around Him... Isolation Would Literally Be PUNISHMENT for a Guy like Pacquiao... REED
Like has already been said it depends on the fighter. Guys like Mayweather and Pacquiao as examples work hard regardless of the environment they are in. For the most part they seem to be able to handle the potential distractions, and it even might have a positive effect. I'm no psychologist but perhaps being around certain surroundings and people act as reminders of why they do what they do reinforcing a commitment. For others the availability of creature comforts erodes their focus little by little even if it's at first imperceptible. A more structured disciplined environment would certainly be an advantage. Either way it comes down to the individual, particularly in the long run. Wilfred Benitez wasn't going to be the GOAT if he was placed in the Himalayas for 8 weeks every camp but people want that to be true.
the ones i get a kick out of is stuff that is not boxing related. The funniest I think of right now is Jon Brown before fighting Shane Mosely. I remember his coach saying "we dropped him off on an island and he had to SURVIVE for a MONTH, he KILLED animals, ate bugs, slept by the fire.." They framed it as if Brown was just way way too tough and too much of a hard guy for Shane to whup him. Of course the fight came and Shane BRUTALIZED him and stopped him. surviving on an island and eating bugs is not slipping punches and improving your craft. it's like when Bryant Brannon fought Roy and they talked about how he had been shot before, then Lamp or Merchant said something to the tune of "he might have survived those bullets but not the BOMBS from Roy Jones Jr."
Also for Vasilly Jirov when he was fighting James Toney. Lampley was talking about how his trainer would do all these things to toughen him up, drop him off in a lake and make him swim back to land. Then Steward says “that doesn’t train you to take a perfect left hook to the jaw”
REED's Pretty Sure They Mentioned Brown Cliff Diving as Well as the Other Things You Noted... And Yeah, Brannon was the Champ of Some Prison and Still Had Bullets Floating Around in his Body... REED
Obviously not to that extreme, but it's like when companies force people into things like "team building exercises" (for a half day) that are supposed to teach you something. Spoiler alert: They don't.
The only bonding me and the staff at my work have done involved a Christmas do and a shit ton of booze.
I've seen my staff once since March, and that was for a virtual company party via Zoom. Covid isn't all bad, I fuckin hate humans.
Yeah that was what Lampley said during the Toney fight. This is what Jirov said about his training Best I Faced: Vassiliy Jirov - The Ring “In the gym we have a long hallway on the first floor,” said Jirov, estimating the length to be around 100 meters. “It was a very big building. I was standing at the end of the hallway with the German shepherd dog five-feet behind me. “They would let the dog go as I started to run. At the end of the hallway was a door and if I make it through the door before the dog attacked me, the door would be closed behind me. If not, I had to fight off the dog. I have a rope in my hand so I could put it in the dog’s mouth so it would not bite me too much.” Amazingly, the coach wanted to use a leopard but settled on the lesser of two evils because they didn’t have one. Apachinsky had different ideas on how to build endurance. He liked to take his fighters out to the middle of a lake and let them swim five or six miles back to shore. “It took me three or four hours to swim,” Jirov recalled. “One of the boxers said he wanted to be a champion like me. My coach said, ‘OK’ and took him to the lake with me and dropped us in the lake and said, ‘swim’. “He swam okay (at first) and then said, ‘I’m drowning and tired. I can’t do anymore!’ My coach said, ‘Nope, you want to be like Vassiliy, you have to finish swimming’ and left in the boat. I had to swim back with him to make sure he didn’t drown. When we got back to the shore, he started cussing and said he would never be back. He left and I never saw him again.”
