Boxing is a sport not renowned for its compassion. But by retiring a battered and virtually blind Joe Frazier in the closing stages of his third titanic showdown with Muhammad Ali on October 1st, 1975, Eddie Futch, the legendary fight trainer who died on October 10th aged 90, set an unforgettable and moving example of a cornerman unafraid to put the well-being of his fighter first.
The fight - "The Thrilla in Manila" - not only proved one of the most thrilling ever, but also one of the most brutal. Eddie Futch, who had watched Frazier give his all over 14 punishing rounds, refused to send him out for the final round. "Sit down, son, it's all over," he told Frazier quietly. "But no one will ever forget what you did here today."
Although Frazier's eyes were swollen shut and he was coughing blood, Eddie Futch still found himself having to defend his intervention against criticism from those who felt the challenger had deserved the opportunity to mount a last-ditch assault on Ali over the final three minutes.
"I thought: 'Joe's a good father and I want him to see his kids grow up'," said Eddie Futch. "I'm not a timekeeper, I'm a handler of fighters." Ali later observed that the gruelling contest had been "the closest thing to death".
Eddie Futch, whose thoughtful demeanour and masterful knowledge led to him being dubbed "the professor of pugilism", was born in Mississippi, and took up boxing at an early age. Having moved to Detroit, he duly became a Golden Gloves lightweight champion, although the detection of a heart murmur prevented him from turning professional.
Eddie Futch sparred with Joe Louis when both were amateurs in the early 1930s, the future heavyweight champion reckoning that if he could lay a glove on the quicksilver Eddie Futch, he was fast enough to hit any heavyweight.
It was the beginning of a long apprenticeship, as Eddie Futch was rising 50 by the time Don Jordan, a Los Angeles welterweight, became the first of his fighters to win a world title, in 1958.
Eddie Futch went on to train 20 world champions, including five world heavyweight title-holders: Frazier, Larry Holmes, Trevor Berbick, Michael Spinks and Riddick Bowe.
His other fighters included light-heavyweights Bob Foster and Montell Griffin, light-middleweight Mike McCallum, lightweight Alexis Arguello, and welterweight Marlon Starling. When the latter turned testily on Eddie Futch in the gym, he is said to have replied: "Marlon, I've taught you all you know, but I haven't taught you all I know."
Eddie Futch's long association with Frazier fixed him a permanent place in boxing history. The first showdown with Ali, at New York's Madison Square Garden on March 8th, 1971, was dubbed "The Fight of the Century", and saw a relentless Frazier outpoint Ali after flooring him with a monstrous left hook in the 15th and final round.
"Joe was a machine of destruction that night," recalled Eddie Futch, who had spotted flaws in Ali's armoury that other leading heavyweights had not.
The following year, Ali suffered an unexpected setback when outpointed by Ken Norton, another Eddie Futch-trained opponent, after suffering a broken jaw in the second round. Having beaten Norton in a rematch, Ali then met Frazier for the second time at Madison Square Garden, on January 28th, 1974. This time, Ali won clearly; he was again ahead on all three judges' scorecards at the time Eddie Futch retired Frazier in Manila 21 months later.
Occasionally, even the astute Eddie Futch could get it wrong. In 1977, he steered Duane Bobick, a big-punching, much-touted great white hope, to the brink of a world title fight with Holmes, only to watch his protege knocked cold inside a minute by a supposedly washed-up Norton, in a painfully one-sided final eliminator. "I thought it was a fight Bobick could win," a perplexed Eddie Futch admitted ruefully, "and Norton wasn't a big puncher, except with the uppercut."
Eddie Futch continued training until 1998. One of the last heavyweights he trained as the talented but undisciplined Riddick Bowe, the world champion from 1992-93, whose rapid decline possibly helped persuade Eddie Futch that the time had come to retire.
Eddie Futch is survived by his wife, Eva.
Eddie Futch: born 1911; died, October 2001