Emanuel Steward Responds To Cintron's Cotto Claims

By Michael Marley

Kermit Cintron's verbal spew, reported by Rick Reeno on BoxingScene.com , greatly irritated Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward.

I caught up with the Kronk Gym ring genius Saturday night just before he and his old friend, Houston trainer Kenny Weldon, put on a clinic for young boxers in that city.

Cintron alleges that, when it comes to him fighting fellow Puerto Rican Miguel Angel Cotto for the WBA 154-pound title on December 4, Steward is blocking like the New Orleans Saints offensive line.

Poppycock and hogwash, according to Steward.

Steward told me, that Cintron is barking up the wrong tree as to his claims that the veteran trainer advised Cotto to perhaps fight Vanes Martirosyan rather than Cintron.

Meanwhile, Cintron and Martirosyan are engaged in an X-rated back and forth duly chronicled by journalist Reeno. Both of them are talking rougher than Rick Ross and 50 Cent during a back alley crap game.

Steward says Cintron doesn't understand the Team Cotto chain of command and reiterated that he's not the baller and shotcaller.

"There's a whole lot of people who help Miguel Cotto make these decisions," the obviously ruffled Steward said.

"And I'm at the bottom of that list. I am not Miguel's manager. I am his trainer and that is it. He's got the lawyer, Gaby (Penagaricano). He's got input, of course, from promoter Bob Arum and their matchmaker, Bruce (Trampler).

"My objective is to get the best matchup we can for Miguel. I'm not someone telling Cotto who he is going to fight. I am not in that position. If it's Vanes, that's fine. If it's someone else, that's fine. All I'm going to do is do my job as the trainer and get Miguel ready for whoever the opponent is."

Cintron, who described he and Steward as being "friends," was formerly managed and trained by him.

In his hot, molten lava spiel to Reeno, Cintron said:

"You have two great fighters who are willing to fight each other, and then you have a trainer, Emanuel Steward, who used to train me and is training Cotto right now. Emanuel Steward, I'm really surprised by the way that he's handling this by not accepting me as an opponent. He trained both of us, so he knows better than not taking the fight because he knows that I'm going to knock Cotto out. At the same time, it's bullsh*t that he's doing this," Cintron told BoxingScene.com.

"Emanuel Steward, he's taking food from my kids by doing that. I'm just hoping that he grows some balls. He says that he's a good friend of mine. He should grow some balls and let the fight happen. I think he's being a piece of sh*t right there. He's stealing from me, and that's how I feel. Just let the fight happen and accept the fact that Cotto will get knocked out if the fight happens."

While Arum may not like deferring the matter, a match between Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., once penciled in for Dec. 4, has been pushed on to the 2011 fight calendar.

Arum has said it was a corporate decision at Top Rank that Chavez-Cotto going on Dec. 4 would be bumping heads with the Nov. 13 Antonio Margarito-Manny Pacquiao fight in terms of the pay-per-view TV dollars.

But skeptics think Chavez is not that keen on fighting the Boricua Bomber.

Some of those cynics also think young Chavez has no intention of reporting to trainer Freddie Roach and sparring with Manny Pacquiao in faraway Baguio. Nothing against strawberries, of course, but it's a long trip from Culiacan, Sinaloa.