Worst Corner Advice?

[Discipulus]

What's the worst corner advice you've ever heard given to a fighter mid-fight? Of course, it doesn't have to be the worst imaginable, but I'm sure we've all heard advice in the corners during fights and scratched our heads at the strange and, sometimes, downright stupid things coaches tell their fighters when they don't know how to fix the problem. For example, Kelly Pavlik's corner in the B-hop fight. All they told him to do was "double up the jab." Over and over, despite the fact that he was getting countered right and left and had no defense to speak of. "Pump the jab."

But that's not mine. I'll give you the instance that prompted me to make this thread. Spoilers if you didn't catch UFC 155, but JDS lost, and very badly. The worst thing was, his corner kept telling him to keep his hands up. That was literally their only advice in terms of how to stop Cain from hitting him. Cigano's style literally never involve hands held constantly high. Why on earth would he suddenly need his hands up in the middle of the fight? And would that really help him at all? No, of course. They were also asking for the uppercut, which is gonna be awful hard to throw with the hands held up. And they were asking for takedown defense, which definitely suffers from high hands as well.

They didn't give Junior any advice about using his jab, or changing levels, or moving around, or hitting the body, or keeping Cain out of his space. I wonder, does he have a quality boxing coach? Because if he doesn't, imagine how badass he'd be with one. If he does as well as he does with his hands and that's the kind of boxing advice he's being given, then the man is a veritable prodigy.

Anyway, that's my rant. What are your examples?

 

[brianbrazil]

I'm pretty sure his boxing coach helped him achieve the HW belt, i'd have to say hes a pretty damn good. Does he have well rounded knowledge of MMA like for instance Greg Jackson? No. He needed a game plan, not just boxing tips.

 

[spaghettilegs]

Probably when BJ was getting outclassed by Edgar.

Someone in his corner was telling BJ they didn't give a fuck about Frankie's speed.

 

[KounterPunch]

Lou Duva to Meldrick Taylor.

 

[Buddy Revell]

John Ruiz whole corner vs. Roy Jones jr. (20sec.-2:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo-lyRlL0P0

I especially like the mix of english AND spanish, just incase john temporarily lost fluency in one or the other.

 

[jclaudevandamme]

90% of the instructions from brazilian cornermen are either "you are great", specially when the fighter is losing badly, or "go go go", specially when the fighter is losing. First one is used in the rest time, the second in the round.

 

[SideofKO]

This was some years ago at an MMA event that I happened to be working that evening as a coach/cutman. There was a fight that involved more of a garage learned MT stylist, that is to say his knowledge of MT was predicated on JCVD's holiness in the movie kickboxer. Then there was a college wrestler in the other corner who appeared to just rely on his wrestling.

Well I could hear JCVD Jr.'s corner telling him to throw the body kick. If I could hear it, I'm the sure the wrestler could here it and he did. He caught the kick, took the guy down and beat the shit out of him for the entire round. But JCVD Jr. was tough and pulled through. In between rounds, I heard his corner tell him over and over again to fire off that body kick and every round the wrestler would catch his poorly set up watered down kick and beat the living shit out of him.

The wrestler was quite obviously not a banana tree.

 

[Deleted member 407839]

The worst ever has got to be that one dude who was cornering the white american guy in "Choke," the documentary about Rickson Gracie.

He was saying stuff like, "your opponent's a no-good, fat piece of crap who doesn't know how to strike," and "you go out there and whoop his ass, you hear me?"

BJ's corner against Frankie was horrible, too: "Knock this little ********** the fuck out. You got me?"

 

[SideofKO]

And the funny thing about that scenario really wasn't even their advice itself rather their justification for it. You could hear his corner screaming, "He isn't expecting it, throw the body kick!" I could even hear them in between rounds saying that he wasn't expecting it this time I guess as if to say, "surely he doesn't think you're this stupid to do what hasn't been working this entire fight, let's use that!"

 

[NAKMUAY18]

In JDS's cornerman's defence, he could have meant when he was getting pressed up against the fence. He was gassing hard so his chance of using light footwork was out, then Cain was pressuring his back up against the cage for most of the fight so his feet were out of position to slip. I'd like to think he meant get your hands up when you're on fence, but I'm speculating.
I find the cheerleading and the 3 voices at once the worst cornering.
"Go get some", "you can do it", and "Show him your a warrior" mean jack shit. If there is nothing constructive ie, "he's raising his chin on flurrys", or "he's bringing his jab back low", shut the fuck up and let the fighter think about it himself.
The other is when you get two or three coachs all screaming advice at the same time and jumping from topic to topic, especially with lower level fighters. You see fighters nodding, "yep, yep, yep" but they haven't taken a word of it in pasts their adrenaline. That's the reason I tell my coach to make me repeat what he said back to him.

 

[Kozbot]

I hate when its going into round 3 and the fighter clearly needs a KO and the corner does not make that clear to him

 

[Protectandserve]

I was a big fan of Timmy's corner having to explain to him what round he was in during the Randy fight.

 

[Cyclone Mike]

I was in a fight throwing straight punches and I was getting countered by hooks. I asked my coach what I can do about it and he said "it's real close."

 

[Sinister]

Antonio Tarver vs. Bernard Hopkins, round 12:

Tarver is getting his ass whipped. He needs a KO to win, and Buddy McGirt tells him to use his jab, stick and move. His 175lb LINEAL Championship was on the line, why the fuck would he need to stick and move when there's no way in Hell he's winning a decision?

I'm pretty sure his boxing coach helped him achieve the HW belt, i'd have to say hes a pretty damn good. Does he have well rounded knowledge of MMA like for instance Greg Jackson? No. He needed a game plan, not just boxing tips.

Wait a minute? Are you arguing that the advice he got was good?

 

[Discipulus]

Antonio Tarver vs. Bernard Hopkins, round 12:

Tarver is getting his ass whipped. He needs a KO to win, and Buddy McGirt tells him to use his jab, stick and move. His 175lb LINEAL Championship was on the line, why the fuck would he need to stick and move when there's no way in Hell he's winning a decision?



Wait a minute? Are you arguing that the advice he got was good?

That might actually be the B-hop fight I was thinking of, not Kelly Pavlik.

Edit: Though I do clearly recall Pavlik's coaches giving terrible advice. Similar to JDS' corner's advice, it was not based on his skills as a fighter, nor was it based on the circumstances at hand. Just the kind of rote nonsense you hear from second-rate commentators, i.e. "Hands up", "use the jab/double up the jab", "go get 'im! grrr!"

 

[2om30]

Just scrap!

 

[bubkusjones]

Don't want to speak ill of the dead, but Shawn Thompkins telling Chris Horodecki to take Donald Cerrone down was pretty dumb. Didn't he get subbed within a minute of the takedown?

 

[gatorade23]

aaa

 

[DoctorTaco]

any time the corner says between rounds "you won that one" or, "you're winning this fight!" when even my wife can tell the guy is getting the crap kicked out of him

 

[Pearse Shields]

I'm fortunate that my trainer is honest when cornering- he tells us what we need to do, and lets us know if we're losing.