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Emanuel Steward: “I think that Wladimir will be, by this time next year, the champion of the world”
Couple days after Wladimir’s win over Samuel Peter, we got in touch with Emanuel Steward for a quick interview to find out his thoughts about the fight, Wladimir’s performance and future plans.
Emanuel, what are your thoughts about Wladimir’s fight with Samuel Peter?
We discussed it with Wladimir, and we feel we only did seventy percent. Wladimir can do much better, but nonetheless Wladimir won the fight and we are very happy about that, but we both feel we can do much better. Overall I’m very satisfied with Wladimir’s performance. Wladimir has so much talent and in the next fight he’ll do so much better. He realized that he answered a lot of questions, but never got hit much on the chin or in face. Mostly all of the damage came from blows to back of his head and we never complained about it. That was the only time that he was having problems in the fight, when he would get hit on the back of his head.
What did you work on with Wladimir during your training camp?
The things that we worked on paid off in the fight. We worked on his jab, change directions, moving to the left and change from left to right, never going back straight to the ropes, never cover up at the ropes, and when Peter comes too close to tie him up right away. That was the biggest strategy and he had to constantly jab and jab and make sure Peter does get too close. We also worked on jab, jab and then straight right in between his gloves to his chin. But we lever landed a right hand with full power because we did not want to take the opportunity should Wladimir miss he would have been out of balance real bad. It was very smart on Wladimir’s part, he understood that and never found himself out of balance in this fight.
Emanuel, did you expect Peter to fight the way he did?
He fought much like we figured he would fight. The only different thing was that he took better punch than we expected. Wladimir boxed over 120 rounds, it paid off because Peter withstood punches better than we thought, yet Wladimir was still able to have better stamina and condition and even in the last rounds when they both were tired, Wladimir could move better and think better in the ring. So all of that extra sparring that Wladimir did, paid off in the fight.
How will this fight affect Wladimir’s future in boxing?
I think it was a very good fight for Wladimir. It answered a lot of questions. I believe that right now him and his brother have got to be considered as the one of the best heavyweight of the world at this time. I think that Wladimir will be, by this time next year, the champion of the world. He will have one, or maybe two championship belts, and he will be on his way of establishing himself as one of the best heavyweight of the recent time - last fifteen years. He will be right there next to Lennox Lewis.
What are your plans now?
What’s next for me is to get Wladimir in a position to fight for a championship title early next year.
There’s some talk about Wladimir’s fight in December…
I would like to see him fight in December. I think he needs to stay active because championship fight will not be till April. And he just shouldn’t wait - he needs to stay active.
And lastly few worlds for Klitschko fans…
I think that by the end of this year, the world will think that the number 1 and the number 2 heavyweight in the world will be Klitschko and Klitschko. It was great to work with them. And Wladimir in his training camp prepared better than anyone I have trained before. It’s going to be very difficult for anyone to beat Wladimir. If he was never hit on the back of his head, where he lost his equilibrium, he would never have been knocked down.
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