Eddie Futch, Cus D’amato, Angelo
Dundee, Emanuel Steward. Four names, four trainers who gave a wealth of gifts to boxing.
When people talk about the greatest boxing trainers, memories are often
shortsighted and look to who’s on a bigger stage and who has the biggest name. Emanuel
Steward is possibly the best trainer of all time based on his credentials
alone.
How many
champions did he train? Over 40.
This alone should be enough to
convince you that he was the best but the reality is that you have to see who
he trained and how they performed. Did his fighters listen to him at all times?
Did his tutelage embed them with the necessary knowledge to get to the next
level? Did he take a broken down fighter and fix him? Did he take fighters who lost and help them avenge their defeats? All of the above can be
answered with a simple yes.
Fighters who trained under Manny
were often fiercely loyal and were better for it. He also trained fighters for
single fights where you saw the mark of a great trainer in his boxer as they
stepped into the ring. One of the best examples would have to be the second
fight between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield. In this fight, a taller,
bigger heavyweight came on the short end against Holyfield. On paper and if you
saw the other two fights, there was no way you’d give Evander a shot in hell to
beat Riddick… but there he was, sticking, moving, jabbing, being aggressive and
showing the heart that has made him one of boxing’s greats. In his corner,
spurring him on was Manny… feeling the elation of a game plan put into effect
and working even if they did get some help from above... in the Fan Man not God.
In recent fights, you saw Emanuel
in the corner of Andy Lee, who recently lost via KO to Julio César Chávez Jr.
The verdict? When you’re outweighed by 20 pounds, your punches won’t
necessarily rock the other guy. Add to that a small ring, and Andy had
everything to lose, and he did. Now if the fight would have been against a middleweight
and not a cruiserweight and the ring would have been just two feet wider,
there’s no doubt in my mind we would have seen a very different fight. Be the
case as it may be, I mention Andy Lee because he’s a kind of fighter Manny
brought out the best in and stuck by him no matter what. That’s because Emanuel
often took the role of being a father figure to most guys he trained. He spoke,
you listened and he’d work with you, you wouldn’t and he’d bust your balls. Oh,
and he never gave up on his guys… so I’m sure if Manny would be around, it
would have taken about 1 year to get Lee back into contention and winning a
championship. That’s what could have been if Manny were still with us… what he actually
did accomplish was the restoration of heavyweight boxing’s number 1 fighter.
Eight years ago, Wladmir
Klitschko suffered his second defeat by KO. This was his first fight under
Manny’s tutelage and it wasn’t a pretty sight to see Klitschko unable to get
past the 5th round in large part because he punched himself out.
After two fights, he faced Samuel Peter and after clearly dominating for
various rounds, got dropped a whopping three times, though managed to weather
the storm and win a unanimous decision… again, not the best outing. Seven years
after that shaky victory, no one has come close to beating Wladmir, including Peter who got punished int heir second fight. Every fight
since then, he’s gotten better and though some fights have been lackluster,
does it really matter when you win 90% of the rounds and knock out 10 of the 13
people you've faced? Exactly. Amidst all that was Manny, pushing for his fighter
to be better and often spurring him on to get the knockout he at times seemed
unwilling to take. That’s because Manny wasn’t a trainer who was afraid to have
his fighter pull the trigger.
His tenure with Lennox Lewis demonstrates
the value of two things… a good jab and right hand and fighting tall. Unlike
many heavyweights, who tend to crouch, Lennox Lewis fought tall. Think Riddick
Bowe, think Klitschko. These guys stand their full height and use their jab to
keep anyone away until they whack them with a right cross. Lennox was among the best who did this and the last guy to be
the undisputed heavyweight champion. I’m sure people will look to his last
fight as a sign that he was going to be beat… that’s beside the point. Even in
poor form, he did bust Vitali Klitschko bad enough to cause the fight to be
stopped. And it wasn’t a bad stoppage… honestly. And this is from a Vitali fan
who despises Lennox Lewis… But the facts remain. He’s one of three heavyweights
to avenge every loss, so technically he beat everyone he faced, he unified the
heavyweight division and he did so under the tutelage of Steward.
So how good was Manny with
heavyweights? Well if Emanuel Steward’s experience with heavyweights in
championship fights would be a boxing record, it would have been 34-2-1. That’s
not a total record… that’s championship fights.
So why was he so good? Well with
an amateur background like his, you either turn pro or pass on your knowledge
and if you think his record with heavyweights was impressive, you’re really
going to be impressed with his record as an amateur. 94 victories out of 97 fights as
an amateur bantamweight only to go on to win the Golden Gloves in his division.
He brought that knowledge and passion into his professional work and that’s why
he was able to help Tommy the Hitman Hearns earn championships in 5 weight
classes… the first fighter to ever do so and one of the best fighters of all
time, with some of the most memorable fights in boxing, including his 3 round
war with Marvin Hagler, a 14th round TKO loss to Sugar Ray Leonard, a Draw with Leonard everyone saw Tommy winning after dropping Sugar Ray in the 3rd
and 11th rounds and a knockout of Roberto Durán. When you saw Tommy
Hearns, you saw a lanky black kid from Detroit that looked like he could be blown
over by a strong gust of wind… Manny saw a champion who could knock people out
and as was the case during most of his career, Manny was right. That’s because
Steward went beyond the surface and saw deep into the core of his boxers.
I
mentioned Manny wasn’t afraid to have his fighter pull the trigger. Many a time
he would give clear concise commands of knock this mother#%$% out, and his
fighters usually obeyed with devastating consequences. That’s because Manny was
a fighter and loved a good fight. His idea of a good decision was having a
referee decide to not have to count to 10 to call a knockout. I also read that he taught
many a fighter the secret handshake of the Detroit Athletic Association, a left
hook to the body followed by a right cross to the head. He loved the sport with
passion and brought the same intensity into his fights as an amateur, his work
as a trainer, his relationship with his fighters and his work as a color
commentator.
Regarding his relationship with
his fighters, Manny was the guy who cried when Tommy Hearns got knocked out
against Leonard in their first fight. He was the guy who mentored countless
amateur kids who just wanted to box, he mentored Andy Lee to the point where
they became family. This means that apart from passion and faith, he also had a
heart… something we were able to get glimpses of in his work as a commentator.
As a fight fan, I always tended
to focus on what Manny said most out of all the color commentators I’ve seen.
Very seldom did he say something I didn’t agree with most likely because I
hadn't noticed it and when re-watching a fight would go, wow, he was
completely right. He was a fan of balance, a fan of speed, a fan of a good jab,
and a fan of going to the body. And when you saw a fight he was commenting on,
he would live the fight and soak up the entire experience, often being the most
vocal among the on air crew. This isn’t to say Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman,
George Foreman, Harold Letterman, Roy Jones or Larry Merchant don’t have anything to offer…
it’s just to say that he was the voice of reason and passion you tended to
gravitate towards to the most. He was honest, knowledgeable and kind to the
point where you couldn’t help but want to be a better person… That’s what many
of his fighters actually said… Manny inspired them to be not only better
boxers, but better people, and if that isn’t a sign of a true champion… then I
don’t know what is.
From a fan
who’s lamenting the loss of a great figure in boxing,
Cheers Manny
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