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The first thing trainer Emanuel Steward teaches a fighter is respect. Respect for his opponent. Inward respect, too.
Steward preaches balance and weight distribution. Let the other guy miss. Create space. Head up and elbows in. Create working angles. And rhythm. Always feel the rhythm.
That was the primary reason Steward played Salsa music for Miguel Cotto here while training Cotto for his WBA junior middleweight title battle against Yuri Foreman on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. Training, boxing to rhythm.
And this is what Steward did with Cotto that he has done with every fighter who has sought his counsel: He spent time with him. Alone. In groups. With Cotto's family and friends.
This 49-year trainer knows that boxing is personal.
That long before you can get into a boxer's ear in a corner in an actual fight under bright lights, you have to get into his mind, his heart, in solemn places.
"I do a lot of teaching and explaining, but most of all I am extremely honest with them and give them love that is frank,'' Steward said. "I spend a lot of time working to understand what makes them tick. Every fighter has a different button. You have to touch that spot. For Miguel, it's his wife and kids. Family. His kids, there is nothing but pure love there. Miguel never complains. When he leaves a ring, he leaves his blood.''
Cotto left too much of it, literally, in his last fight, a mauling last November in Las Vegas dispensed by Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight title loss that left many people wondering if Cotto, 29, had lost it. Lost his skill, punch and desire. In Cotto's recent fights, he has absorbed brutal blows. Enter Steward. His charge, fix it. Fix it all.
Take a guy whose last fight fewer than six months ago was at 145 pounds and artfully prepare him for battle at 154 pounds.
"This is what I am up against,'' Steward said. "He and Yuri Foreman are the same age but Miguel has been fighting longer and has been in more punishing fights. Miguel has fought most at 140 pounds and a little weight beyond that, but this is his first fight at 154 pounds. But when he was 10 years old, he weighed 160 pounds. This should, in some ways, be natural for him.
"Is he a street fighter? Am I a hired gun? Part of my reputation now is as a hired gun. I was a self-taught street fighter. I believe in basic stuff. Practical. I want fighters to fight. You see guys today being taught all of this combination pow, pow, pow, pow stuff that is supposed to look good and impressive, but that is not the real way fights are fought. I want punches thrown with power.''
Punches thrown with purpose.
He wants Cotto to fight Foreman with a mindset similar to one that has fueled Steward's life -- with common sense that is not so common.
"Most of my fighters have been very intelligent," Steward said. "Cotto is that. I want them to think and analyze in the ring. Balance. Fundamentals. Feel the rhythm.''
Bond the emotional with the physical.
Make the simple big.
Cotto said he is willing.
"Everybody gets something from Emanuel," Cotto said. "Some of the things I used to do I have left aside. Nothing necessarily new, specifically, but things from the past I have left behind for a new beginning.''
The question is once the fight unfolds, once frustration may mount, will Cotto revert to his old nasty habits, including his head down, his elbows out and crouching too low as he stalks inward?
Tommy Hearns, Steward's past signature boxing pupil, said that Cotto must listen to Steward to be successful but also must bring his own brand of deep desire into the ring against Foreman.
"Emanuel will give Cotto in that fight something that he has never had or witnessed before,'' Hearns said. "Emanuel will see things that Cotto will not see. But Cotto must want to obtain the edge in this fight. He's got to really want it. That is something you can't teach a boxer. Does Miguel want it? He'll really have it with Emanuel if he does. Very simple. Listen. Follow him. Work hard.''
Several years ago, Steward devised his own style of wrapping boxers' hands that has become common now in the sport. He likes a hot gym for training -- that helps prevent injuries, improves stamina and gives a boxer natural weight loss, he said. He instructs his boxers to eat watermelon immediately after workouts. He said it gives the boxer exactly what he needs to instantly replenish. He uses cocoa butter, not the traditional Vaseline, on his fighters' faces in their workouts and in their fights. More natural and more effective for them, he says.
The best boxers have beefy hands, Steward says. Cotto has those.
Later this month in Atlanta, Steward will conduct the first of several boxing clinics for young fighters and will present others over the next year in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Tampa, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas and London. This is a project that he has long considered but finally (he turns 66 on July 7) has created time to complete. He is excited about these clinics and says it gives him another way to enjoy and contribute to the sport that has helped to shape him, the sport he has helped to define.
But this Cotto-Foreman fight, the first in the new Yankee Stadium, offers Steward an intriguing challenge. Once again, after 39 champions produced and six Gold Glove Olympic winners, he is refining an accomplished boxer. Once again, his reputation, he says, is under fire.
"I understand,'' Steward said. "There may be similar roads I have traveled. But this is a whole different thing.''
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