Was Manny Steward irresponsible?

i think manny is overrated as a trainer

Manny steward IRREPLACEBLE You must not know about me You must not know about me I can have another you by tomorrow So don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable

Boxing isn't just about records. We all know that. It's also about who you beat and how you beat them. With someone like Wladimir coming in a 5 to 1 favorite, with his physical advantages, with the Heavyweight division being the mess it is and Wlad being the divisions primary hope, Klitschko needed a strong outing for his marketability, for his legacy, and for the division as a whole. Steward was absolutely right to urge him to step it up and go for the KO.

Eighteen years later people are still roasting Lou Duva for telling Meldrick Taylor that he needed a KO over Chavez when all he had to do was go the distance. ** Figure that was Lou's experience going against a King fighter. With the beating Taylor took, Lou knew it wasn't a lock for Taylor on the cards. Agreed, Manny is compromised by working for HBO, but as a trainer maybe he's also concerned with the marketablity factor. Probably he thinks Wlad could get a KO if he only let loose in a fight he dominated. Thought that Wlad should have 1 if not 2 KDs. Might have put him in a different frame of mind if thus credited. Very technical fight on the order of Spinks/Holmes 1 or Lewis/Holy 1 with Spinks and Lewis using the jab for offense and defense. I do think Sultan was wobbled when knocked into the ropes though, an uncalled KD. Consider that Wlad as well as Vitali have won approx 90% of the rounds they have contested, and what little controversy from this fight is much ado over nothing overall. Wlad should do a Ray Austin over Thompson next and then prepare for whatever the big challenge is, Peter, Maskaev, Valuev probably.

I considered that, but I think the difference was that Tyson was truly ready to be taken out and also Manny feared that he still had enough power to be dangerous if he was left around for too long. Ibragimov was also staggering like a drunk in those later rounds but Wladimir just didn't go for the kill (he did try to put him out with single shots but not with combinations). I guess he wanted to take a night off or something, but it was the wrong night to take off IMO. He may have had some flashbacks back to the first fight with Brewster where he tried to impress and exhausted himself for it but that's only speculation of course. This fight is meaningless in terms of marketability the same people who watched wladimir will continue to do so The whole fight's purpose was to show off the best heavyweight in the world to Americans who haven't been interested in the HW division since Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe. This fight would've brought him LOTS of new fans if he had destroyed Ibragimov. He will get those fans eventually if he keeps winning but this could've made a real impact on the American fans and HBO. The whole crowd booing him and Ibragimov (which was classless I admit) was NOT what Wladimir was looking for.

You NEVER tell your fighter to go for the KO when he's clearly ahead in points. The trainer is there to make you win, not to please the crowd.

Steward I believe was looking out for Wlad. With a lackluster performance like that, HBO wont be in a rush to get Wlad dates so that affects Wlads purses and exposure. Unless youre a die hard Wlad fan, anyone who saw that fight probably could care less if they ever saw Wlad fight again, which Steward didnt want to happen for Wlad's sake.

Steward went nuts at Lewis too when Lewis didn't try to KO Tyson. He knows how important the KO is to a man's career sometimes. Success in the US isn't a lost case for Wlad yet but he needs to impress in his next fight and the last time Wladimir was trying to impress the Americans, it didn't end all too well for him. I considered that, but I think the difference was that Tyson was truly ready to be taken out and also Manny feared that he still had enough power to be dangerous if he was left around for too long.

Steward was looking for his own best interest. Wlad had the fight in the bag with one hand there was no reason to urge him to go for a KO. On the other hand wlads marketability would go up and indirectly so wouldve emanuels. This fight is meaningless in terms of marketability the same people who watched wladimir will continue to do so I'll go with what Lewis said: Wlad probably showed a lot in training and wasn't showing it in the fight. Manny's "interests" is his reputation for tyring to make exciting fighters for the fans. If Wlad gets comfortable fighting the way he does now, it could hurt him in the long run when and if there is someone like a prime Holyfield out there who will take it to him for the full fight. If you are a trainer and train your fighter a certain way and he doesn't do it, what is the point of training him?

Steward was looking for his own best interest. Wlad had the fight in the bag with one hand there was no reason to urge him to go for a KO. On the other hand wlads marketability would go up and indirectly so wouldve emanuels. This fight is meaningless in terms of marketability the same people who watched wladimir will continue to do so

I will have to watch the fight again, but I thought I heard Manny say "I'm not yelling at him" (in response to someone I suspect saying "don't yell at Wlad"). If true, Wlad is sensitive. Lennox took that shit and responded even though it came with a "WTF" look in response. Manny even told Lewis to step it up or you will lose (against Holy) even though Lennox thought he was ahead. Lewis stepped up and Manny proved right with the judges b.s.

I cannot remember another time when in the final round the trainer of the boxer that is waaaaaaaaaay ahead on the scorecards is telling his fighter that he has to go for the knockout. Crazy. With that being said, I understand why he did it - he knew the crowd and the fans at home were very disappointed with the fight and the only way to silence the critics is to win by KO, or at least knock Sultan down. Boxing isn't just about winning, it's about entertainment and Manny knows this. It's a little risky but I think by the 12th round you can tell if the other fighter has anything left and clearly Sultan wasn't hurting Wlad at all. If the fight was more competitive I'm sure Manny wouldn't have done the same thing. ......I feel pretty much the same way and I definitely have mixed feelings about it. At first I didn't like it, but I know where Manny was coming from. I just didn't want Wlad to force the action to the point where he looked like the desperate fighter and ended up getting caught.

Steward went nuts at Lewis too when Lewis didn't try to KO Tyson. He knows how important the KO is to a man's career sometimes. Success in the US isn't a lost case for Wlad yet but he needs to impress in his next fight and the last time Wladimir was trying to impress the Americans, it didn't end all too well for him.

Boxing competes with many sports in today's world, especially MMA, not to mention the short attention span of young kids so Manny was telling it like it is: FIGHT, go for the KO since this is entertainment and the fans pay your bills and can stop if they find you a bore. People come to see the Big KO. They love Power. If you don't have that, you better have something else, like young Ali did. Young Ali was the boxing version of Mikhail Baryshnikov (in terms of physical ability/beauty) with the music being what he spit...or so I hear.

Considering how bad the division is?? Hell Yea! It's obvious Wlad doesn't care about boosting the division's credibility. So what's the point of fighting?

Did you see this place after the fight? That's why.

Ibragimov was not a threat at that point of the fight. Steward's plan was to start with the jab, let Wladimir feel Ibragimov out and then put more pressure on to get the KO. Wladimir couldn't do that. To Wladimir's credit, he did put more pressure on during the later rounds but throwing more combinations could've done it. He only threw jabs and the occasional right hand. The whole fight was meant to be a show for the Americans to see just how good Wladimir is. This did not leave a good impression because Wladimir didn't show his full potential. Disappointing.

Ok, but did Sultan at any time during that fight look like he was ready to go? He didn't look like he was wobbling or on shaky legs to me. To me, you finish off a fighter when he shows that he is ready to go. You never try to force a KO win, at least not when you are dominating and have no chance of losing the decision. I thought he hurt Ibragimov once when Ibragimov got knocked back into the ropes and held right after in the 9th round. I believe in this instance trying to force a KO win would have been OK for him because by the 12th, Ibragimov really couldn't do anything to hurt Klitschko, if Klitschko had opened up a little more he could have knocked him out by the 9th. There's a point where dominance ends and becomes hesitant, Klitschko became hesitant and that's not good for his future marketability, which is very important, not just for himself but for the sport itself, 14,000+ people showed up for this fight, it proves people still care about the division, and half of them probably won't show up for another Klitschko fight.

My question is, was Steward looking out for the best interests of his fighter, or his employer (HBO). Thought I answered your question... His employer and his own credibility.

There's a lot of pressure on people like Steward to deliver an entertaining spectacle. I don't think he genuinely thought his man needed the KO. My question is, was Steward looking out for the best interests of his fighter, or his employer (HBO).