Word: futch
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Bowe's corner is master trainer Eddie Futch. Now 83, Futch once sparred with Joe Louis. Over the past 55 years, he has trained 18 champions, six of them heavyweights, including Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes. But Bowe, Futch declares, "has the potential to be the best I've ever had." Before he can take his place in the history books, however, a great champion needs a great opponent. Louis had Schmeling. LaMotta had Robinson. Ali had Frazier. "Greatness in fighting is gained by rubbing against other great boxers," says Bert Sugar, editor-publisher of Boxing Illustrated. Right...
Rock Newman, a fast-talking assistant to boxing promoter Butch Lewis, thought Bowe was getting a bum deal. When Lewis stopped pursuing the young fighter, Newman decided to manage Bowe himself. His first priority was to recruit Eddie Futch. The legendary trainer, who had heard the "Riddick- ulous" rumors, wasn't interested in the job. At 78, he told Newman, he didn't have the time to waste. But a meeting with Bowe changed his mind. "He was big and he looked like a man," says Futch. "But he was only 20, and I realized something that the others didn...
...Futch, affectionately nicknamed "Papa Smurf" by his latest champion, was hospitalized with heart problems earlier this year but seems to have recovered and remains a stabilizing force for Bowe both inside and outside the ring. "I'm going to get me one of these, Papa Smurf," Bowe muses as he settles into a seat on the Caesars Palace jet that is flying him from his training camp in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to a promotional event in Los Angeles...