{"id":400582,"date":"2011-04-26T21:58:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/26\/richardson-prepping-mosley-for-fight-of-his-life-yahoo-sports\/"},"modified":"2011-04-26T21:58:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T21:58:00","slug":"richardson-prepping-mosley-for-fight-of-his-life-yahoo-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/26\/richardson-prepping-mosley-for-fight-of-his-life-yahoo-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson prepping Mosley for fight of his life (Yahoo! Sports)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The first lesson a boxer must learn when working in a gym with Naazim Richardson is to never stop paying attention.<\/p>\n

Two of the young fighters working with Richardson at Shane Mosley\u2019s Big Bear, Calif., training compound are guilty of violating rule No. 1. Richardson sees them laughing, talking and generally goofing off and ambles in their direction. He\u2019s a big, burly bear of a man, but nothing happens in a hurry with Richardson.<\/p>\n

As he nears the two unsuspecting fighters, he grabs the end of a towel that is draped over his right shoulder and flicks his wrist, snapping the towel and unexpectedly smacking them in the face.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trainer Naazim Richardson faces one of his biggest challenges as he preps Shane Mosley for his May 7 fight with Manny Pacquiao.
(Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And that brings us to rule No. 2 when trained by Richardson: Never forget to duck.<\/p>\n

For Richardson, who for the second year in a row is training Mosley in what is shaping up to be the biggest boxing event of the year, the key is to keep things simple.<\/p>\n

Richardson was born in a hardscrabble area in North Philadelphia and was naturally drawn to the gym. He would listen for hours as great boxing minds such as George Benton, Al Fennell, Bouie Fisher and Milt Bailey would dissect fighters and share their wisdom on the game he loved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an old trainer in our gym, Al Fennell, and I bugged the hell out of him, trying to pick his brain,\u201d said Richardson, who is preparing Mosley to face world No. 1 Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight title bout on May 7 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. \u201cHe had a calmness about him. All of those guys did. They took a subtle approach and what they would say was so clear, concise. It wasn\u2019t real complicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk to trainers now, a lot of them want to complicate things because they want to make it look like they\u2019re doing rocket science. Everybody\u2019s jockeying for jobs now and so, when you talk to some of these trainers now, they try to sound like a scientist. If you hear a scientist talk about why the ocean water is the way it is, you know you can\u2019t just walk up and take his job. And so, a lot of these guys just try to take that approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is, he believes, a bid to sound impressive. What it is not, in Richardson\u2019s view, is teaching or properly coaching a fighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me laugh when I hear one of these guys say something like, \u2018Hey, you have to manipulate the center of the geographic stance,\u2019\u00a0\u201d he says, failing to suppress a chuckle. \u201cWhat he might mean is, \u2018Get closer to the guy and jab,\u2019 but he tries to say it in a way that makes him sound like something other than a boxing coach. Man, get out of here with that; you ain\u2019t no scientist. You\u2019re a boxing coach and judging by what I\u2019m hearing, a pretty sorry one at that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he doesn\u2019t have anywhere near the reputation of Pacquiao\u2019s trainer Freddie Roach, who on May 6, the night before Mosley and Pacquiao meet, will accept the Eddie Futch award as Trainer of the Year from the Boxing Writers Association of America for the fifth time overall and the fourth time in the last five years, Richardson is quietly emerging as one of the sport\u2019s leading coaches.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t have a large stable and he\u2019s not the most recognizable personality. But Richardson has built a sterling reputation with the men who count the most: other boxers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think he\u2019s the best there is,\u201d said Mosley, who has been trained by a number of the game\u2019s sharpest boxing minds. \u201cFor sure, he\u2019s the best trainer for me. We think about boxing the same way. He\u2019s into the sport of boxing and he loves it like I do. We share the same philosophy and he\u2019s a great communicator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson has worked the corner of Bernard Hopkins for years, but it wasn\u2019t until Hopkins\u2019 rematch with Jermain Taylor in 2005 that Richardson took over as the lead voice in his corner.<\/p>\n

But Hopkins, who meets Jean Pascal on May 21 in Montreal in a light heavyweight title rematch, said Richardson has long had a significant influence on him. Hopkins is preparing for his fight with Pascal in Philadelphia, while Richardson is about 3,000 miles away working with Mosley in Big Bear.<\/p>\n

Hopkins, though, trusts Richardson so thoroughly that he\u2019s comfortable with the arrangement. Richardson loves to break down tape and watch for hours looking for a weakness his fighter can exploit.<\/p>\n

And it is Richardson\u2019s unique ability to devise a game plan and then make adjustments during a fight that appeals to boxing purists.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaazim is a teacher of the sport of boxing, but in my opinion, he\u2019s a strategist 1,000 times more than a teacher,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cHe can take a tape and dissect a fight and break it down better than anyone. He\u2019ll pick up on something and then he\u2019ll show it to me and say, \u2018Hey \u2018Ex,\u2019 you see this? He does this every time when the guy throws this punch, so you have to do this.\u2019 He just comes up with these plans and time and time again, he comes up with the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson, like his mentors, is exceedingly calm in the corner and rarely raises his voice. He has only a few seconds to deliver a message or make a correction and he rarely, if ever, wastes it with histrionics.<\/p>\n

He gets to the point quickly and delivers his message in a clear, concise manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust him, because I know he knows what he\u2019s talking about,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cFor instance, I stand tall sometimes, because I\u2019m looking at my work. We call it in boxing admiring your work. You throw a good punch, but you get hit with a wild punch because you did what? You stood tall and admired your punch and looked to see if the guy was going to fall. Naazim stays on me to this day about that. The last time, I got hit with a couple of those shots I never should have been hit with. I should have been under those shots. When Naazim tells me that, I react. I don\u2019t go, \u2018What the hell are you trying to tell me? Do you know who I am? I\u2019m Bernard Hopkins.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I trust him because I know he\u2019s giving me the right info. He has a track record and credibility with me. If you don\u2019t listen to him, you know what? You\u2019re going to pay the price somewhere down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very few, though, have the discipline that Mosley and Hopkins have. And few can withstand Richardson\u2019s demanding ways. He is the boss and there is never any question about it.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t expanded his empire like many trainers do after they have some success, because his demeanor scares some fighters off.<\/p>\n

J. Russell Peltz, a Hall of Famer who has promoted fights in Philadelphia for more than 40 years, never got to know Richardson particularly well.<\/p>\n

Several times, Peltz attempted to hire Richardson to train a fighter he promoted, but it never worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe raised his sons like he was a Marine drill sergeant and he was always very strict with everything he did,\u201d Peltz said. \u201cI thought he could help some of my fighters out, but there was always opposition from the camps, because they\u2019d say he was too strict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson is strict because, he says, you never know when you\u2019re going to wind up in the ring against someone like Pacquiao. Richardson trained Mosley last year when Mosley was trounced by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and knows he\u2019s facing an equally dangerous opponent on May 7.<\/p>\n

Mayweather was hurt badly in the second round, but it was Mosley\u2019s only success in the fight. Richardson calls Mayweather \u201cthe most talented athlete of this era,\u201d but said it is Pacquiao who is it\u2019s best fighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayweather talks like Pacquiao fights,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cBelieve me, we understand that Pacquiao is a problem. He\u2019s got a crazy amount of energy. You know, I could tell you all these things that Pacquiao has and praise him to the sky, but it\u2019s easier if I tell you this: The only attribute in boxing Manny Pacquiao doesn\u2019t have is height and range. Everything else, man, he\u2019s got it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got great ring generalship. He\u2019s got movement, speed, power, one-punch power, combination punching. He has everything except height and range.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it sounds like Richardson is about to concede, however, guess again. He\u2019s up into the middle of the night breaking down Pacquiao\u2019s tapes and he\u2019s convinced that Mosley will be able to exploit his weaknesses and shock the world.<\/p>\n

It all sounds great, except that Richardson doesn\u2019t like the idea of shocking the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no shock when a man with the pedigree, the ability, the dedication and the intelligence of a Shane Mosley beats anyone,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cI agree that Pacquiao is a problem. He\u2019s a special guy. We respect him tremendously. But you know what? We\u2019re going to show up and we believe we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rule No. 3 with Richardson: Never give up hope because, if there is a way, he\u2019ll find it.<\/p>\n

\u201cShane Mosley is a live dog in this fight,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cPacquiao is great and he\u2019s at the top of his game, but there isn\u2019t a guy out there without flaws. And if he has one, Naazim will find it and figure out a way for Shane to take advantage of it. Putting Naazim and Shane together, man, that makes a very dangerous pairing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Read the article:
\nRichardson prepping Mosley for fight of his life (Yahoo! Sports)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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