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TAMPA, Fla. -- Emanuel Steward for more than six decades has been has been a survivor, a promoter, a fighter, a visionary and an ambassador. A Detroit icon. A global figure.
A boxing steward.
Watching him train Miguel Cotto last week here at the Fight Factory revealed poetry in a ring. It was dancing with punch and power in gloves. And, believe it, Steward, who reaches age 66 on July 7, was squarely in that ring, matching Cotto step for step and juke for juke. He's still got it _ the will, the enviable skill of how to illustrate and teach boxing proficiency.
He is in Manhattan now with Cotto prepping for more distinguished, historic boxing fair. Boxing returns on Saturday night to Yankee Stadium for the first time in 24 years when three-time-world-champion Cotto (34-2, 27 knockouts) clashes with WBA Super Welterweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, eight KOs). The old Yankee Stadium featured fights by several spectacular staples, including Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis and Gene Tunney and Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
But this is the first fight in the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in April of last year.
It is the perfect setting, the perfect moment for Steward to showcase once again his work in the sport and in a corner. He is a member of both the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has managed or trained 39 champions and six Olympic Gold Medal winners. The list of his pupils -- from Hearns to Lewis to De La Hoya to Klitschko and beyond -- is striking. He has worked fights in 23 countries. He made Kronk Boxing in Detroit renown. He has drawn an array of fresh admirers in recent years with his TV commentary on HBO Boxing coverage.
"Just being in New York again with a boxer and what this means being in Yankee Stadium, it's just beginning to hit me,'' said Steward, who has trained fighters professionally for the last 49 years. "I'm used to crowds, to the attention, to super fights. The venues all blend. But I am realizing this is a whole different thing.
"You have Miguel, who has a tremendous Puerto Rican following in New York, and you have Yuri Foreman, who is Jewish and has a strong following there. You are talking about two great New York ethnicities who are going to bring great energy. And when I walked through the stadium a few weeks ago for the first time, I could feel the historic business model the Yankees franchise is and the energy in New York that, simply the place brings. This Yuri Foreman, no one knows how good a fighter he is. I tell Miguel he is in for the fight of his life.''
And everyone watching Steward work another corner, work a fighter in prime view again is in for a treat.
That is what Angelo Dundee, 88, Ali's former trainer and a 52-year-carrer boxing aficionado, says.
"Emanuel and I have been friends since he came to South Philly years ago and we drank red wine that my dad made,'' Dundee said. "We have worked against each other in the ring, corner to corner, more times than I can count. We still talk about boxing like two college kids talk about their courses. He knows fighters. He knows talent and how to work it. He is a tremendous pro. A class act. He talks our language. There is a warm twist to him. Everybody loves Emanuel. He is honest. Sincere. He is all those things that don't cost you nothing.''
Steward was 94-3 as an amateur boxer and won the 1963 National Golden Gloves bantamweight title (118 pounds) in Chicago when he was 18. Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis says Steward's in-ring boxing experience complements his tutoring.
"Emanuel provided a different style of training for me and was a guy who could break it down to you in a great way,'' Lewis said. "He is a trainer of champions. He sees what you need and sharpens you up. He loves to work with kids in and out of the ring. He spends time with them. He gives them places to stay. He cooks them meals. I admire him for that.
"Does the fighter make the trainer or does the trainer make the fighter? With Emanuel, it's sharing on both sides. His contribution to the sport of boxing is ordained. I wish we had 10 of him for boxing because a lot of people need him.''
Steward trained Oliver McCall when McCall beat Lewis in 1994 for the WBC heavyweight title. Steward trained Lewis when Lewis beat McCall for the same title in 1997.
Larry Merchant, a Steward HBO Boxing colleague, said that "encapsulates'' Steward's career.
"What was it that the NFL coach Bum Phillips said about Don Shula? He can take hisn's and beat your'sns and he can take yours'ns and beat hisn's? That's Emanuel,'' Merchant said. "His ability to visualize and exploit and tap into the old boxing world of Detroit, to train and maneuver through the upper echelon of boxing commerce is marvelous. All of the talent he nurtured in Detroit was a big deal, led by Tommy Hearns. He created and then re-created a culture of boxing that excited people in Detroit and then redeveloped and reworked guys like Wladimir Klitschko. He hasn't had all success -- some fighters can't be fixed. But he has a wide portfolio and a pretty impressive body of work.
"Emanuel knows the marketing, selling, hustling of boxing and how to protect and promote his fights and fighters. A fight can last an hour but you can talk about it for a month. Emmanuel is a pro at that.''
Hearns calls this Steward's "gift of gab.''
"That can take you a long way,'' Hearns said. "Me and Emanuel, we developed more like a father-son relationship for so long. We learned so much from each other. He gave me everything he had. And I gave him everything I had. We gave a lot to boxing.
"It was a craft between us that was so hard for anyone to come along and map and put into words. We were two men that formed a bond that was as close as two men could possibly create. We put our best out there.''
Hearns was the story, said former longtime Steward top assistant Prentiss Byrd, but Steward was how Hearns became the story. And despite his "gift of gab,'' Steward always remembers "what he said on yesterday,'' Byrd said.
"He took kids out of their backyards at 13- and 14-years-old and made them world champions,'' said Byrd, who worked with Steward from 1978 through 2001 and currently leads amateurs for the Los Angeles-based All-American Heavyweight Academy owned by TV producer Michael King. "All of the other great trainers were hand-fed. Emanuel raised all of his kids. And then he took the bar higher with fighters who turned to him to recapture their glory. Think of Tiger Woods in golf or Michael Jordan in basketball and Emanuel's contribution to boxing compared to theirs' in their sport is 10 times greater. He is the best that ever did it.''
None of this is lost on Cotto.
When Steward speaks, he listens.
"I chose him,'' Cotto said. "He chose me. He brings a lot. His knowledge. His hard work. I think he can help me recover that part of my history. The best part.''
A boxing steward.
Watching him train Miguel Cotto last week here at the Fight Factory revealed poetry in a ring. It was dancing with punch and power in gloves. And, believe it, Steward, who reaches age 66 on July 7, was squarely in that ring, matching Cotto step for step and juke for juke. He's still got it _ the will, the enviable skill of how to illustrate and teach boxing proficiency.
He is in Manhattan now with Cotto prepping for more distinguished, historic boxing fair. Boxing returns on Saturday night to Yankee Stadium for the first time in 24 years when three-time-world-champion Cotto (34-2, 27 knockouts) clashes with WBA Super Welterweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-0, eight KOs). The old Yankee Stadium featured fights by several spectacular staples, including Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis and Gene Tunney and Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
But this is the first fight in the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in April of last year.
It is the perfect setting, the perfect moment for Steward to showcase once again his work in the sport and in a corner. He is a member of both the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has managed or trained 39 champions and six Olympic Gold Medal winners. The list of his pupils -- from Hearns to Lewis to De La Hoya to Klitschko and beyond -- is striking. He has worked fights in 23 countries. He made Kronk Boxing in Detroit renown. He has drawn an array of fresh admirers in recent years with his TV commentary on HBO Boxing coverage.
"Just being in New York again with a boxer and what this means being in Yankee Stadium, it's just beginning to hit me,'' said Steward, who has trained fighters professionally for the last 49 years. "I'm used to crowds, to the attention, to super fights. The venues all blend. But I am realizing this is a whole different thing.
"You have Miguel, who has a tremendous Puerto Rican following in New York, and you have Yuri Foreman, who is Jewish and has a strong following there. You are talking about two great New York ethnicities who are going to bring great energy. And when I walked through the stadium a few weeks ago for the first time, I could feel the historic business model the Yankees franchise is and the energy in New York that, simply the place brings. This Yuri Foreman, no one knows how good a fighter he is. I tell Miguel he is in for the fight of his life.''
And everyone watching Steward work another corner, work a fighter in prime view again is in for a treat.
That is what Angelo Dundee, 88, Ali's former trainer and a 52-year-carrer boxing aficionado, says.
"Emanuel and I have been friends since he came to South Philly years ago and we drank red wine that my dad made,'' Dundee said. "We have worked against each other in the ring, corner to corner, more times than I can count. We still talk about boxing like two college kids talk about their courses. He knows fighters. He knows talent and how to work it. He is a tremendous pro. A class act. He talks our language. There is a warm twist to him. Everybody loves Emanuel. He is honest. Sincere. He is all those things that don't cost you nothing.''
Steward was 94-3 as an amateur boxer and won the 1963 National Golden Gloves bantamweight title (118 pounds) in Chicago when he was 18. Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis says Steward's in-ring boxing experience complements his tutoring.
"Emanuel provided a different style of training for me and was a guy who could break it down to you in a great way,'' Lewis said. "He is a trainer of champions. He sees what you need and sharpens you up. He loves to work with kids in and out of the ring. He spends time with them. He gives them places to stay. He cooks them meals. I admire him for that.
"Does the fighter make the trainer or does the trainer make the fighter? With Emanuel, it's sharing on both sides. His contribution to the sport of boxing is ordained. I wish we had 10 of him for boxing because a lot of people need him.''
Steward trained Oliver McCall when McCall beat Lewis in 1994 for the WBC heavyweight title. Steward trained Lewis when Lewis beat McCall for the same title in 1997.
Larry Merchant, a Steward HBO Boxing colleague, said that "encapsulates'' Steward's career.
"What was it that the NFL coach Bum Phillips said about Don Shula? He can take hisn's and beat your'sns and he can take yours'ns and beat hisn's? That's Emanuel,'' Merchant said. "His ability to visualize and exploit and tap into the old boxing world of Detroit, to train and maneuver through the upper echelon of boxing commerce is marvelous. All of the talent he nurtured in Detroit was a big deal, led by Tommy Hearns. He created and then re-created a culture of boxing that excited people in Detroit and then redeveloped and reworked guys like Wladimir Klitschko. He hasn't had all success -- some fighters can't be fixed. But he has a wide portfolio and a pretty impressive body of work.
"Emanuel knows the marketing, selling, hustling of boxing and how to protect and promote his fights and fighters. A fight can last an hour but you can talk about it for a month. Emmanuel is a pro at that.''
Hearns calls this Steward's "gift of gab.''
"That can take you a long way,'' Hearns said. "Me and Emanuel, we developed more like a father-son relationship for so long. We learned so much from each other. He gave me everything he had. And I gave him everything I had. We gave a lot to boxing.
"It was a craft between us that was so hard for anyone to come along and map and put into words. We were two men that formed a bond that was as close as two men could possibly create. We put our best out there.''
Hearns was the story, said former longtime Steward top assistant Prentiss Byrd, but Steward was how Hearns became the story. And despite his "gift of gab,'' Steward always remembers "what he said on yesterday,'' Byrd said.
"He took kids out of their backyards at 13- and 14-years-old and made them world champions,'' said Byrd, who worked with Steward from 1978 through 2001 and currently leads amateurs for the Los Angeles-based All-American Heavyweight Academy owned by TV producer Michael King. "All of the other great trainers were hand-fed. Emanuel raised all of his kids. And then he took the bar higher with fighters who turned to him to recapture their glory. Think of Tiger Woods in golf or Michael Jordan in basketball and Emanuel's contribution to boxing compared to theirs' in their sport is 10 times greater. He is the best that ever did it.''
None of this is lost on Cotto.
When Steward speaks, he listens.
"I chose him,'' Cotto said. "He chose me. He brings a lot. His knowledge. His hard work. I think he can help me recover that part of my history. The best part.''
http://boxing.fanhouse.com/2010/06/0...-ring-general/
Really nice piece on Steward.
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