Rooney's guide to success !

Bernard Hopkins

Right , we all know how this guy turned out,... a right ol' boozer he is.
his body is like a beached whale,..... but his head is still intact.
heres his fundementals on boxing.

NB .... left abusive family to live in Cus d'Amato's gaff, trained Tyson for years during Tysons glory era, now bank-rupt Rooney spends his days getting locked and evading gambling debts.

"If you want to be the best you can, then you have to spar every f***ing day. None of this one day on and one day off crap. It's gotta be an all-our war EVERYDAY. To be a great fighter, you have to spar. You gotta spar every day, day in day out, week after week, 52 weeks a year. If you wanna be sharp in the ring and stay sharp at your boxing - you gotta spar. You gotta go spar til just a couple of days before the fight, man. Nothing can prepare you like sparring can, pushing weights and all that bulls*** has about as much to do with boxing as cheesecake. If your fighter gets a little cut over an eye or a bloody nose and wants the sparring session to end, you gotta say 'f*** that s***, you fight on, if you get a bloody nose on fight night then do you want me to stop that too?', what that does is teach 'em to move their head more! The average person does not know what it takes to become a great fighter, it takes discipline and repetition. It takes mental patience and gives mental pressure, but it's how you handle that - do you say 'Ah f*** it' and have a few beers instead like I did when I was fighting? Or do you dig deep for determination to stay dedicated like Mike Tyson did before he left the Catskills? You see, boxing is 80% mental and 20% physical. Anyone can get in shape, but it's what you have up there that really counts. All of Cus' fighters over-achieved with the exception of Mike, Mike was the one guy who had all the physical gifts. All the other fighters who came to Cus were those who had no physical gifts, or the ones Cus would pick out would be those who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag.. and he'd transform them over years and years of hard work and repetition. He'd turn very raw material into Golden Gloves winners, from guys who couldn't skip at all into finesse fighters. He was like a magician or something. He would sort out the mental aspect and give them the right advise and they'd be competitive over time. But this was a guy who thought more about principles than anything else, he genuinely cared about his fighters an awful lot. Cus couldn't give a rats ass about money! Money meant nothing to him, he wouldn't sacrifice his fighters health for money. He would never put his fighter in unless he knew his fighter could win, not ever, no matter who it was and even he was a real good fighter, he would never put his fighter in unless he knew that his fighter could win. He never advised pro boxing as a living, it was down to the fighter what he wanted to do. If he wanted Cus' help, Cus would give it. He wouldn't give it unless it was wanted."

"Look, man. As Cus always used to say 'If you gotta pair of fists and a beating heart then you gotta chance to beat anybody. If you have self-belief and the three D's (dedication, determination, discipline) on top of that then your more than likely to become the champ!'. The only guys who stuck it out though and stayed on the right path with the three D's were the Jose Torres' of this world and people like that, you know. It's true ya know that we are all human, none of us are made exceptional to the rest. You know, it's all in the head, boxing is like 80% mental. Yeah, I mean, every fighter has fear and doubts, but Cus always said that 'fear feeds the fuel'. And once you learn to control the fear, then the fear becomes your friend and will help you. If you let the fear take over, you freeze up and you're gonna have a problem. If you have self-confidence though, you have some real advantage there and need to make the most of it in the right way - you have a real advantage because why do most people start boxing? It's because they lack self-confidence! So if you have that aspect, you got advantages there. OK you go find someone who believes in themselves, trains their ass off every day and knows the right tactics. Now if you can find that person, I guarantee that he is a world champion - no s***! Cus never knew anybody in all his years who had the three D's, self-belief or ability to control fear, and the right tactics who wasn't a world champion. If a fighter came to Cus and started moaning that they weren't getting anywhere, Cus would always find faults in the mental aspect. There are so few that have the three D's, self-belief and right tactics, they are very, very rare. Those that do have that though, are the champs. If you have fear you need to learn how to control it, and if you can control fear then your halfway there already. It's no good training your ass off every day and thinking your gonna kick everyone's ass though if you don't know what your doing, if you don't know the right tactics.. but to be honest with you it is very simple to know what to do. You'd be suprised just how many people don't stick to simple things, and then moan that they aint getting nowhere. The s*** is as follows: 'don't drop your guard.. dont ever neglect your jab.. move your damn head.. hit the body and the head will fall.. don't throw singles, use combinations..', those are the right tactics, doesn't sound much does it? But you'd be suprised just how very, very few keep to all of those tactics. If you keep to those tactics and you got the three D's, and you know how to control your fear, your gonna be the champ!! I swear! I won't say 'it's that easy' because it's easier said than done actually keeping to all that, keeping to that is not actually easy you know.. you gotta work for it, you gotta work like ****!"
"Cus had his fighters train the same from his earliest days til his last days - it never changed. Just like the three D's never change, the three D's never advance and it's the three D's that makes champions. You don't need no special science or pushing weights or any of that bulls***. You need the three D's above anything else, that's whats most important. Then Cus can mould you on a daily basis with advise and secrets and s*** like that, Cus had instinct and wisdom so he was able to mould or could vision well. Really the training was just running 30 minutes a morning and sparring 10 rounds a day - compulsory, increasing size of heavy bag every six months and decreasing size of speed bag every six months, and on top of that maybe some bodyweight exercises such as sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, dips - but those are by no means compulsory. Another thing, Cus had a problem when fighters only approached shadowboxing as a warming-up exercise.. which was literally all of 'em! What they do is - they simply go through the motions, p**** about doing f*** all, stab at the air, before moving onto the so-called real workout on the bags. But once you are in the ring, you will be confronted by different opponents who will use different styles and techniques. If you've already seen this guy, played these situations out and predicted your reactions as you shadowboxed, that puts you one step and one punch ahead of your opponent. Think in terms of combination punching.. it's how big, heavy guys like Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson got their hands moving quick as f*** and their combinations flowing like f***.. without the resistance of a bag or the impact of hitting an opponent to affect your punches, it's shadowboxing that is the time to concentrate on the importance of throwing more than one shot at a time. Taking this approach will create a good habit of punching in combinations. It will also help you to become more fluid in your delivery and create better balance between your footwork and hand activity. Do not throw a meaningless punch, without an opponent to fend off or a bag to react to, you have the time and clear thinking to concentrate on the punches you throw. Throwing a lazy jab or a slapping right hand out doesn't help you in the ring, so do not do it in training. How many boxers do you know who approach shadowboxing as a serious workout? Probably some of the more successful boxers I'd guess.. that's if you know any at all who can actually be bothered to approach his shadowboxing seriously enough. It's no good feeling that skipping is a chore either, you gotta master it to improve your feet. You know something, Cus used to be up at 4am every morning to check his fighters feet and everything when they were going off to do roadwork.. making sure their feet were right when running and s***."

"As far as I'm concerned, if you're a guy who can fight, what would be the reason for taking drugs if you know how to punch right? It's in the technique, and timing is everything when you going for a knockout punch - it's all about timing. Drugs cannot improve timing, but practice can, technique can, experience can.. not drugs. Aiming for the temple, drugs don't help that. Also, I don't care what type of steroid you're taking, there's no way you can beat a guy like 'Smokin' Joe Frazier who's coming after you.. winging punches. No steroid in the world can help you handle something like that! Steroids may make you bigger, but they don't make you better. You gotta be old school and use the three D's, you gotta learn how to punch and you gotta practice like f*** instead of just sticking a needle up your ass. Just because your muscles get bigger doesn't make you a powerful puncher. A perfect example would be the fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Fernando Vargas - there's the proof in the pudding right there."

"Dehydrating s*** is how all the boxers back in the day would make the weight, but that's f***ing horses p***! If you have to starve yourself to make a weight, then you aint fighting in ya proper weight class are you? Come on, it aint no rocket science. You will be at such a disadvatage starving yourself anyway, it's obvious.. no energy and s***. Instead of having fighters dry out, Cus had them work out!"

"Cus had the greatest mind in boxing. He always predicted things that would happen and they all came true, everything came true what he predicted.. I mean, come on man.. it's scarey s*** right? Just a little example is when he had Cassius Clay spar Floyd in 1959, he said there and then that they would one day fight eachother in a heavyweight title fight. When we had Lennox Lewis over in 1984 way before the LA Olympics sparring Mike, he said there and then that those two would one day fight eachother for the heavyweight title. You know, guys would go to him for advise all the time. He was more of an advise man. Ray Robinson went to him and Cus' particular advise for him worked, Rocky Marciano went to him and Cus' particular advise for him worked, Joe Frazier went to him and Cus' particular advise for him worked, to name just a few. Every bit of advise he gave to those who came to him - worked! Ali came to him and actually admitted privately to Cus that he was worried about the Foreman fight, but Cus soon sorted him out mentally. Also, Cus told Ali: 'George doesn't respect your punch, so go out there and nail him!', if you watch the fight, you see in the first two rounds that Ali plants himself and nails Foreman hard with a straight hand - right on the button! Now that was due to some work Cus had done with him for a quick half hour. And you can see the suprise in Foreman's eyes! With 30 seconds left in the rounds, Ali would open up on Foreman. So, after every f***in' round, George is going back to his corner and they'd be telling him that Ali can't punch! That was the psychology and Cus saw that. After the rope-a-dope, Foreman was tired and he more or less gave up. I don't know if Cus gave Ali the rope-a-dope tactics though, I think he may of though.

cowzerp

Great article-thanks