Emanuel Steward; The man, The Legacy, The Life By Robert Brown, Doghouse Boxing (Sept 30, 2012) Doghouse Boxing
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Click now to listen to the latest Edition of "On The Ropes" #180 with host Jenna Jay in its entirety! This episode features the late / great Emanuel Steward as well as new interviews with Ricky Hatton, Tyson Fury and Paulie Malignaggi. Press Play on the green icon above and enjoy! (Allow 10 to 15 seconds to buffer.)
In this article I will be discussing the impact Emanuel Steward made
on the boxing world, both as a successful trainer of multiple world
champions, HBO broadcasting analyst and as a man.
Unlike
the majority of tribute articles where the persons career gets rolled
out like a spread sheet and the writer says to you "there you go look
how successful this person was", Emanuel Stewards life reached much
deeper and had much more purpose than what he achieved in his boxing
life. I wish to explore the values he stood for as a man and why he and
other inspirational figures like him have had a profound effect on my
life.
Despite turning the Kronk Gym in Detroit into one of the
most successful and recognized stables in the world for producing
champions, a main his focus of his was getting under privileged kids off
the streets, getting them into the boxing gym and giving them some
direction in life, which up until his dying day remained on of his
proudest achievements.
For me personally I have been writing on
the sport of boxing for around 2 ½ years now and Emanuel Steward was one
of my biggest inspirations for getting involved with the sport on a
direct level. I remember before I started writing I came across Jenna
Jay’s "On The Ropes" boxing program in which Steward was a lead guest
and from memory I heard Jenna ask a question about the Klitschko
brothers which was something like “how do you feel about criticism the
Klitschko brothers are facing about the level of opposition and are
there legacy’s being damaged as a result?” . Most trainers would try and
inflate the level of opposition of their fighters and offer excuses for
the criticism, not Steward, he basically said to Jenna “well there
isn’t that much opposition out there and the only way they can enhance
there legacy’s is to keep piling up defenses and hopefully that
challenge comes at some point”.
To me that was Emanuel Steward, frank and honest.
He
was also a great motivator which was demonstrated most clearly in the
Wladimir Klitscko fight against Eddie Chambers. When Klitshko was
looking terrible for the majority of the fight and Steward was almost
verbally assaulting his fighter impressing upon him that he didn’t want
the chance of a controversial decision going against his fighter. To
those words, Klitschko responded by knocking out Chambers in the 12th
round. Of course a famous example was the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson
showdown, in which Steward could see after about 3 or 4 rounds that
Tyson had given up and had basically lost the will to win, but Steward
knew Tyson was a dangerous puncher and could land that hail Mary punch
at any time. This is when you see the famous exchange between Steward
and Lennox in the corner, with Steward aggressively berating his fighter
by beating him in the chest and saying “you’ve got a dead man in front
of you and your standing here doing this, just let that shit go, if you
don’t step it up, you’re going to get caught with some crazy shit, step
it up the man is finished”. History now recalls that Lennox knocked
Tyson out in the 8th round. That fight will always be a lasting memory
for me, but believe it or not, for me this is not the most memorable
corner work ever done by Steward, for me it was the rematch in 1989
between Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard. A fight in which a lot of
boxing insiders thought that Thomas Hearns was finished and most people
thought he had no chance against Leonard. Just like the first fight in
1981, Hearns dominated the first 5 rounds and was rocked severely in the
11th and 12th rounds. The fight looked like it was heading for a repeat
of 1981 but Hearns with his extreme courage was able to hang onto a
draw, which in my opinion was a disgraceful decision because how a
fighter can win the first 5 rounds easy plus get a knockdown in round 3
and 11 and lose the fight is beyond me.... but that discussion is for
another day.
Hearns' career was not over and he went on to
win more titles in higher weight classes which shows Stewards capacity
to rebuild careers, which he also did with Lennox Lewis after his loss
to Oliver McCall. Ironically Steward was in McCall’s corner in the first
fight and if that legacy wasn’t enough he rebuilt Wladimir Klitschko’s
career after being knocked out by Corrie Sanders.
Finally
the most important and understated part of Steward’s make up was
loyalty, which he demonstrated in recent times when Miguel Cotto asked
him to break ties with Andy Lee and give full commitment to him in his
preparations for fighting Antonio Margarito. Steward said “I can’t do
that, I have other fighters, I can’t just leave them”. That is a man of
dignity and respect, because he would have got more money with Cotto but
he chose to be loyal to his other fighters. A situation of a similar
nature happened in my own life in which a friend and colleague Jenna Jay
was thrown out of East Side Boxing because of back stabbing from a
former co-host who happened to be a friend of mine at the time. I had to
make a decision do I stay and increase my position of power with that
web site or do I stand by my principles and leave. I chose to leave and I
am very happy at DogHouse Boxing. After those unfortunate events Jenna
and my friend Stephanie Belle encouraged me to keep writing and I know
Steward wouldn’t have quit and I took a page from his book, because I
know Steward would have stayed loyal to his friends.
As well as
paying tribute to a great boxing legend I wanted to pay tribute to two
friends of mine while they are still alive to hear it and those friends
are Jenna Jay and Stephanie Belle.
Before I go, I just want to
tell you something, fill the pages of your glorious life... for the
pages will very quickly turn and when the great novel of your life is
closed, make sure you live by these three words: honor, dignity and
respect. Three words which is what Emanuel lived by and what my two
friends Jenna and Stephanie live by.
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