Eddie Futch

Eddie Futch
Data
Birth Name	Eddie Futch
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	August 9, 1911
place of birth	Hillsboro , Mississippi
Date of death	October 10, 2001
Place of death	Las Vegas , Nevada
style	Left delivery

Eddie Futch (born August 9, 1911 in Hillsboro , Mississippi , † October 10, 2001 in Las Vegas , Nevada ) was an American boxing coach. In the course of his career he worked with 22 world champions in various weight classes . Among them are 4 of the 5 fighters who managed to defeat Muhammad Ali : Joe Frazier , Ken Norton , Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick . In 1994 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for his success as a trainer .

Early years and active career

When he was eight years old, Futch moved with his family to Detroit , Michigan, to the so-called Black Bottom Section , a largely African-American district of the city. He played basketball very successfully until he was 17. He even considered a professional career, but all his plans were thwarted by the American economic crisis, the Great Depression . He was forced to end his basketball career early and earn money to support his family.

At around 18 years of age, he started active boxing himself relatively late. The first successes quickly emerged and he won the Detroit Athletic Association Lightweight Championship in 1932 and the Detroit Golden Gloves tournament a year later . During his time in Detroit he trained in the same studio as world heavyweight champion Joe Louis . In preparation for agile and agile opponents, he was happy to challenge Futch, who is 70 pounds lighter, to sparring. Before the planned move to the professional camp, Futch was diagnosed with a heart defect, so he had to end his active career with a fight record of 37-0-3.

Joe Frazier's coach

Futch soon turned to coaching. His first great fighter was Jimmy Edgar , who, under Futch's direction, was able to draw a draw with Jake LaMotta in 1946 . 1958 won his protégé Don Jordan the world championship title in "welterweight". However, Futch only entered the big stage in 1966 when he joined "Camp Frazier " as an assistant to Yancey Durham .

In 1971 he was instrumental in developing the strategy that helped Frazier to win points over Ali in the first part of the "Ali-Frazier Trilogy". Futch had studied Ali's style for hours in video analysis and had identified a technical weakness in his left uppercut . According to Futch, Ali did not hit this straight away, but with an upbeat movement so that his cover opened. He instructed Frazier to respond to Ali's uppercut with a left hook in order to take advantage of Ali's neglected cover. Frazier implemented this perfectly in lap 15, when he knocked Ali down with a school-style left hook and thus secured the unanimous victory on points.

After Durham's death in 1973, Futch took over the training and was now solely responsible for Frazier.

1975 saw the legendary third clash between Ali and Frazier, better known to many as Thrilla in Manila . Futch warned Frazier of Ali's mind games ( rope-a-dope , repeated brackets), with the help of which Ali won the so-called Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman by knockout in round 8 the year before . His warnings bore fruit, so that a brutal battle of wear and tear developed between the two exceptional fighters. This came to a head in such a way that Futch was forced to take his protégé out of the fight before the final 15th round. The right half of his face was completely swollen, so that Futch thought he was no longer fit to fight. Frazier wanted to keep fighting, but Futch reassured him with the words: "sit down son, no one will forget what you did here today" in German: "Sit down, son. Nobody will forget what you did here today. "

After Frazier's abandonment, Ali collapsed, so Frazier did not consider his coach's decision to be the right one. Futch was confronted with this episode again and again until the end of his life, but he never regretted it as he had seen Frazier's health endangered due to the restricted vision.

More Achievements

Another notable success and testimony to his strategic skills was the point victory of his fighter Ken Norton over the 5-1 favorite Ali in March 1973.

As in the run-up to the Thrilla in Manila, Futch was a technical peculiarity at Ali. The fact that Ali moved his right hand laterally away from the jaw when hitting the leading hand should Norton take advantage of and challenge Ali to a "Jabduell". Nobody had ever engaged in such an exchange of blows between the leading hand and him, as Ali was considered an extremely fast and hard jabber. Ali was surprised by this, so that Norton was able to record some clear actions, including a broken jaw.

His top 10 fighters

For an article with Sports Illustrated , Futch compiled a list of his 10 best protégés during his long career as a coach.

1. Joe Frazier (Heavyweight) - "The greatest heart of all, he fought from bell to bell. Every trainer should have one Joe Frazier in his life." - ("The greatest fighter heart of all. He fought from the beginning of the round to the end. I wish every coach a Joe Frazier in his life.")
2. Michael Spinks (cruiserweight) - "Unorthodox, but he could adapt perfectly to any opponent." - ("Unorthodox but he could adapt perfectly to every opponent")
3. Mike McCallum (Middleweight) - "A thinking fighter who tears you up downstairs, then pulls your teeth." - ("A fighter with a head who pulls you down and then pulls your teeth")
4. Larry Holmes (heavyweight) - "He learned from his mistakes, and he was always in great condition." - ("He learned from his mistakes and he was always in shape")
5. Alexis Argüello (lightweight) - "All the tools in the world. You could put him on course, and he stayed on it." - ("He had everything. Once you showed him the way, he kept it")
6. Don Jordan (welterweight) - "My first champ, in 1958, he was an excellent boxer who never reached his potential." - ("My first world champion 1958. He was an excellent boxer who never reached his full potential")
7. Hedgemon Lewis (welterweight) - "A boxing master. When he sparred, other fighters would come to watch." - ("A master of fistfighting. When he was sparring, other boxers would come to watch him")
8. Maurice Blocker (Middleweight) - "Tall and skinny, he doesn't look the part, but he finds a way." - ("Tall and very slim. He doesn't look like it but he finds a way.")
9. Marlon Starling (welterweight) - "He moves so well, and when he's on, he controls everything in the ring." - ("He moves so well. When he's in a good mood, he controls everything in the ring")
10. Bob Foster (cruiserweight) - "Such range and strength. He could move and box, but, my, what a punch." - ("What a range and strength. He knew how to move and how to box. And, my God, what a punch he had")

Awards (selection)

• 1975: Chosen Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America
• 1982: Long and Meritorious Service
• 1991, 1992: The Ring named Trainer of the Year
• 1994: Induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame , Los Angeles
• 1997: best coach of the last 75 years 1997 named by The Ring

resignation

• In 1998, Futch retired from boxing at the age of 79.
• In 1999 he was a member of the five-person committee to determine the best boxer of the past century. Contrary to all expectations, he did not vote for his former companion Joe Louis, but for his long-term competitor Muhammad Ali.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Eddie Futch on answers.com
2. ↑ Gerald Eskenazi: Eddie Futch, Who Trained Fighters His Way, Dies at 90 in: The New York Times, October 12, 2001.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Eddie Futch on boxrec.com
4. ↑ ^{a b} Thriller in Manila . BBC Films. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
5. ↑ Making A List ( memento of March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on sportsillustrated.cnn.com