Emanuel Steward Bio

Emanuel Steward has found success with training/managing boxers at every level of the game. He has trained a large variety of fighters including former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, showboating featherweight Prince Naseem Hamed, and currently trains WBO/IBO/IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. In fact, Steward has trained over two dozen champions in his lifetime. Other big names include Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy "Hit Man" Hearns, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Leon Spinks, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and Aaron Pryor.

Emanuel Steward was born in West Virginia in 1944, and started boxing as a result of getting a pair of gloves as a gift. His father set up a lot of his early informal matches, but when his parents split he went with his mother to Detroit.

At 18 (1963) years of age he won the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions as a bantamweight, and as an amateur, he ran up a excellent record of 94-3. He soon was anxious to become a professional, but things fell through as far as finding honest management and ended up working at the Detroit Edison Company. But, due to his nature of wanting to be in the fight game, he took a job as a trainer in 1971 as head coach of the boxing program at the Kronk Recreation Center in Detroit. The very same year the Kronk team won the Detroit Golden Gloves team title. This is the time Emaneul Steward 1st started being recognized as a top notch trainer of boxing. The following year he left the gym to become a full time manager/trainer.

In 1977, he formed ESCOT (Emanuel Steward's Champions of Tomorrow) Boxing Enterprises, Inc., and entered professional boxing with a new 18 year old fighter named Tommy Hearns. Under his guidance Tommy went on to win world titles in 5 weight classes, and this is where Emanuel Steward became known as the premier trainer in boxing.

In 1984, he developed six gold medal winners for the U.S. Olympic Team, including Pernell Whitaker, Mark Breland, Terrell Biggs, Frank Tate, Jerry Page, and Steve McCrory.

At this stage of his career he has had his hand in many different areas of boxing. Although he entered the world stage at this point, he still came back and still comes back to the Kronk gym to train and work with new fighters. He even developed his own boxing glove and improved on equipment which many boxers use. He's also a favorite commentator on HBO's World Championship Boxing and HBO Pay-Per-View coverage.

Steward's reputation continues to grow and he is now on the same stage as other famous trainers such as Angelo Dundee, Ray Arcel, Gil Clancy and Eddie Futch. He has also been named 'Trainer of the Year' and/or 'Manager of the Year' several times by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and with fighters such as Wladimir Klitschko under his belt, I'm sure his reputation in the future will continue to prosper.