Emanuel Steward On Klitschko and Adamek

This is a recent video interview where Wladimir Klitsckho's trainer Emanuel Steward talks about the Krunk gym, Tomasz Adamek, and his potential fight with the Klitschko's later on this year in September.

Emanuel Steward Interview Before Klitschko Peter Bout

This is a new interview with Wladimir Klitschko's trainer Emanuel Steward before Wladimir faces Samuel Peter today to defend his WBO, IBF, IBO, and Ring heavyweight belts.

Emanuel talks about Wladimir skills how he compares to Lennox Lewis and much more.

Steward Discusses Povetkin Backing Out Of Klitschko Fight

Hall of fame trainer and trainer of current WBO,IBF,IBO, and Ring heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, Emanuel Steward had a few words on the pullout of Alexander Povetkin and a replacement fight with the next highest IBF available opponent Samuel Peter.


On Wladimir Klitschko’s recent switch in opponent from Alexander Povetkin to Sam Peter:

“Well I was kind of prepared for that. I have never believed that Povetkin was going to fight Wladimir, just not as bad as David Haye. So we were prepared and I told Wladimir to be prepared about two weeks ago that he might have to fight Sam Peter and also that they should contact him to see if he was available, because I had a feeling that this was going to happen.”




On whether he blames Teddy Atlas for Povetkin pulling out of the fight:

“Well he’s been consistent. From day one Teddy has never said that he thought his fighter was ready. If you read between the lines in all of the interviews that he did, he was always consistently just speaking in general like how you have to train a guy this way, you have to be prepared, people have to find themselves. He never did speak with any strong conviction that he felt that his fighter was ready. He feels that he needs more time. He was put in that position because the fighter was already in the mandatory position when he became involved with him. If he hadn’t been, he probably would have never pushed for him to be in that position. So he did what he thought was best and I respect it and I respect the fact that the IBF is going along with that. After two years he has shown no real desire to step up and take advantage of his position. They have decided to move on.

So everything is sorting itself out so to say, and you can’t make a guy fight that doesn’t want to fight and it’s very difficult to promote a fight when you have one guy who’s prepared and another guy who really seems sort of reluctant to participate and promote it and everything else. We have to move on to Sam Peter and I think it’s going to be an interesting fight because Sam didn’t look that great in some of his fights after the first fight with Wladimir. But his last fight, which I think was in Texas when I was down there doing the HBO broadcast, everyone said he looked fantastic just due to the fact his weight is down. Maybe with a different trainer, I think he’s working now in Big Bear and having a whole different attitude about everything. Just the fact that his weight is down you know he’s taking it more seriously. That’s one of the complaints always was his conditioning. And he is a puncher so nevertheless, we’re not going to be relaxed. The first fight had enough drama to last me a lifetime with Wladimir down three times and then in the twelfth round Sam Peter was out on his feet. So we’re not going to take the fight lightly because he is a puncher. We figure Peter to be a much more dangerous puncher than Povetkin.”

On what he believes will be the major difference in the rematch between Wladimir Klitschko and Sam Peter:

“That was the breakthrough fight for Wladimir Klitschko. That was the fight after he had been stopped twice and he had a fight with DaVarryl Williamson where he looked not that impressive. He went down in that fight even though he won a technical decision because of a cut. His brother had like given up hope on him and most of the people in his camp, and it was just he and I for the most part. That was apparent for the Sam Peter fight. It was a fight where, for the first time, he actually barred his brother from coming to a training camp. They had been training together all of their careers. It was because of the lack of confidence and the negative vibes that everyone had going into that fight.

He could have chosen an easier fight, but he ask who was the best fighter out there that could give him credibility back after being stopped by Brewster and barely getting by with DaVarryl Williamson and having been stopped by Sanders. I said “Well the most dangerous guy is Sam Peter”. So that’s what he wanted. That was the make or break fight that he said would put his career back on track or he could have picked a safe bout. So going down two times in the fight early, which they weren’t really clean knockdowns, but I looked at the expression on his face and it was like psychologically he wasn’t hurt but he was just totally confused and disappointed in himself. When he came back at the end of the round he was surprised by how cool I was, because I saw he wasn’t hurt. So I spoke to him very carefully and told him he was boxing at a distance where he could get caught with those clubbing punches and that he needed to be all the way back or if he got in too close to just tie him up and never allow him at that halfway distance where he could get clubbed. He said, “Okay” and if you watch the fight, before the bell rang for the next round after he had been down twice, he was the one in the center of the ring waiting on Sam Peter.

That was psychologically a tough fight for him. The last knockdown, I think was the tenth round, which we both consider was a true knockdown but he came back and had Sam out on his feet in the twelfth round so that was like the turning point in his entire boxing career in that fight. Since then I think he’s progressed tremendously and gone to another level to become one of the probably most respected and maybe on his way to becoming one of the top fighters in heavyweight history. Meanwhile Sam has been going back and forth and probably aside from his last fight hasn’t been that impressive. So it’s going to be interesting to see what happens because we still don’t know what the psychological affect will be on Wladimir. Whether this time he wants to go out and prove that he’s the best heavyweight, and this is a good chance for him to fight a guy who just recently fought the other heavyweight that everybody considers maybe the best which is a guy named Vitali Klitschko.

This will be a very good comparison point for the public to judge between the two heavyweight champions and the two brothers. For that reason, I think Wladimir is going to try and put on a very impressive performance and I don’t know if Sam’s going to be able to hold him off if Wladimir comes in with that attitude. Wladimir is one of the most devastating one-punch boxers in heavyweight history. He’s not the type of guy who wears you down. He can turn out the lights with one single punch. Sam Peter said he’s going to pick up where he left off, that’s what Wladimir told me—where he left off the last fight by knocking him down. I said, “Well Wladimir, you have to pick up where the fight actually finished up in the twelfth round where you almost had him out with the left hook”. It will be I think an explosive fight because of the emotions with Wladimir trying to prove something and Sam realizing this is his big shot right now. It’s going to be an interesting fight between punchers for a change.”

His thoughts on Sam Peter’s comments from earlier in the show when Peter had words for Wladimir stating, “Be ready because it’s going to be a short night”:

“I think it will but I think he’ll be on the short end of it, but that really means that he has tremendous confidence in himself now and I think that’s good.”

Steward: Haye Doesn't Have Any Guts!

Emanuel Steward, trainer of Wladimir Klitschko. was recently interviewed on "On The Ropes Boxing Radio" and talked about Cotto, Wladimir Klitschko and his future potential fights with Povetkin, and Haye, and other matters. Here's is what he said in regard to Wladimir:


On how Cotto compares to guys like Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis in terms of having the ability to bounce back from the low point in his career in order to still go on to accomplish great things:
“I would say so, but one of the things—yes is your answer—but one of the things that’s very tough for Miguel is he’s in a super, super talented division. I should say divisions, which means when you’re fighting against a super star, almost all Hall of Fame future fighters, and you’re fighting them on a consistent basis, it’s very difficult. Lennox did not have that many really super talented fighters at that time. There were good guys, but not on the level that Miguel has and he’s right there in between that 147 and 154 which is only seven pounds. So the fights that we can make with him would possibly be with Paul Williams, and maybe the Mayweathers and Pacquiao, Cintron, Angulo—I mean, there’s lots of difficult fights where it may not be that easy for him to be so dominating, but I think he’s in a great position now to be right in the mix and very respected as compared to where he’s been the last two or three years with the very tough fights that he’s had and hasn’t had a decisive victory over any of the elite fighters so to say. Just closely getting by with Clottey and Mosley, then the Margarito fight, even the Zab Judah fight was a very brutal tough fight. All of those fights were very physically tough fights that he suffered a lot of punishment in, so he’s an amazing person just to see him training the way he is with the enthusiasm looking like a young kid.”

His views on the recent news that David Haye ignored a 50-50 offer with no future options from the Klitschko Camp:
“I don’t think they will ever get that little puppy David Haye to come out from under the bed. He’s going to let his manager stay out there and lock all of the doors and protect him. I don’t think we’ll ever see David Haye fight. We may see him draw some more cartoon sketches and cut them up and do stuff like that, but I can’t understand how a guy can claim that he’s even a solid heavyweight, let alone hold a belt, and let a man talk to you the way Wladimir’s spoken about him or I’ve spoken about him. He has had no response and Wladimir is putting I think about three titles on the line plus the Ring title, and doing everything—and he still won’t even sit down and even talk about it. I personally don’t think that David Haye has any guts at all when it comes down to fighting the Klitschkos and he can’t find all these excuses about money when the man is willing to put all of his titles on the line and do a 50-50 share right down the middle with you. And it’s the only big fight out there in boxing in the heavyweight division that people want to see, and really, the biggest fight in boxing outside of Mayweather and Pacquiao. With all of that interest that he created with his mouth, never did he do anything with his fists, and still to be in that position that makes him look like a genius if he took the fight because without doing anything, just running around and bragging and hassling and bad-mouthing the Klitschkos—he has worked himself into a great position to make possibly up to, I don’t know, maybe twenty or thirty million dollars. Then to walk away from it, the only way I can look at it is he doesn’t have any guts.”


On a potential fight between Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin:
“I think that with Teddy training him, I think he will improve and he’s a good solid fighter. He has a good solid amateur apprenticeship behind him just like Wladimir, but Wladimir is just such an exceptional fighter that I just can’t see Povetkin or anyone beat Wladimir the way he’s fighting now at the top of his game. At least in Povetkin, he is a solid balanced type fighter who is technically very sound, but he just doesn’t have that extra super punch, or extra craftiness, or extra speed, or that little extra something that it would take to be a real big serious threat to Wladimir, but it would be a very interesting fight between two Gold Medal winners in the Olympics and everything. The big fight is really Haye, but Wladimir is doing what he should do. He said, ‘I’m going to stay busy, and until Haye wants to come away from under the bed, I’m going to just go out and fight whoever I have to fight’. Povetkin is a guy, he’ll fight Povetkin, it will be a very interesting fight still but I just can’t see right now anyone in the heavyweight division really beating Wladimir at this point at time. Povetkin is probably about the best solid challenge out there next to David Haye, and maybe the only challenge because David Haye I don’t think wants to get involved in any of this, anyway. So it’s a fight Wladimir has to take to stay busy and to maintain and keep his IBF title, which he considers all of his belts very precious and he’s never taken the attitude of ‘Oh I can just give up a belt’ or ‘It doesn’t mean anything, I’m bigger than the belt’. Those belts mean a lot to him, even though sometimes I question him, but he says they mean a lot to him and he wants to keep all of his belts so that’s it. I hope it takes place in September or October.”


On whether he believes we will ever see a fight between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye:
“I don’t think so, with the kind of money and the public attacks he’s undergoing and everything else, I don’t think that David Haye will ever fight Wladimir. I mean you can’t give him any more. The public has demanded the fight. You, David, created it and still after getting the kind of money—it’s not like he even came back talking about even more money. He doesn’t want to talk, period, anymore. He’s got laryngitis now, but I don’t think we’ll ever see that fight.”

Here is a video of some of the interview about Wladimir Klitschko:

Steward On Blog Talk Radio

Wladimir Klitschko's trainer Emmanuel Stewars was recently interviewed on Blog Talk Radio, and discussed many things including his fighter Wladimir and his performance in the Chamnbers fight, along with interesting potential matchups and a potential intriguing fight with David Haye. Push the play button below to hear the actual interview, or read parts of the interview below. Enjoy!

On how he rates Klitschko’s performance against Chambers

“I give him a B. It was a B. It was a good performance. It could have been better because of what his ability is compared to what he did, but it was still good. He went out and did what he was asked to do and he got the knockout. Chambers isn’t the easiest guy to fight, either. He spends his time mostly about, like 80% on the defensive mental mode—covering up, running away, hands over his head. It was very difficult to fight guys like that especially when you have a guy like Wladimir who’s a really technical, super intelligent, thinking fighter himself. So I had to do what I had to do the last two rounds to just try to push him out of his regular mode and he got really upset and all emotional and anxiety and then he went out and performed, but it was something I had to do. That’s my job as a trainer—to do what I have to do to get my fighter to get the best performance and I appreciate the fact that he did respond and he went and did what he was supposed to do..”

On his views for Klitschko in the future

“I think based on this performance here and his own conversations with me in the recent days that he realizes that he is actually too reluctant, too intelligent, too technical—that I think you’re going to see a much more aggressive fighter in Wladimir. If this man actually would just operate with close to 80%—he’s only operating with about 60%—he would be the most devastating heavyweight in the history of boxing because I’ve worked with him. Never, ever, ever have I been involved with a fighter who has so much one punch punching power. Even guys that knock somebody out—they get them hurt, they knock them down, they get them groggy—Wladimir is the only fighter I’ve ever worked with that everything can be normal like a big party—everybody is having champagne, on the floors, in the tuxedos, with the music—and the lights go off completely at one time. I mean it’s not like a gradual dimmer switch. I never saw anyone who knocked out people in a gym when they block punches and he did that about three weeks ago with a sparring partner—two weeks ago, prior to the fight. With a sparring partner he threw a left hook, the sparring partner blocked the punch and with twenty ounce gloves he was still knocked out. He has unbelievable one punch punching power and that’s why maybe he doesn’t put combinations together because he punches so effectively and with so much power with one punch, but his handicap and problem is he feints too much. He wants everything to be perfect—perfect balance, perfect this, and the last round he was a little overly aggressive, got out of position a few times, but to go three minutes with a guy with his power is like a lifetime because even if he just grazes you with a punch, you’re going to be hurt.”

On Wladimir’s punching power

“What makes him really special also is he has so much power in the late rounds. A lot of guys, great punchers like (Mike) Tyson, they were great in the early rounds but very seldom in the late rounds. Wladimir has knocked out guys like he did with Chris Byrd, and (Ray) Austin, and Eliseo Castillo—he knocked those guys out early because he threw a punch early, an early power punch. And then he’s had the power to go out after being down three times with Sam Peter and he had him out on his feet in the twelfth round of a very grueling fight with one single punch, a left hook. Then he knocked out Thompson. With Tony Thompson he ran across the ring and threw one straight right hand in the eleventh round and just walked away, and Thompson went down totally finished. Now he knocks out this guy in the twelfth round with ten or twelve seconds left with one punch. To have a fighter that has that kind of devastating one punch clean knockout power is so much stress on the opponent because you’re never safe.”

On a potential fight with Haye

“I would love to see that fight because David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko are the only two heavyweights that have explosive power—speed and one punch punching power. If they ever fight, because I don’t know if David wants the fight. He became a big name only by bragging about what he would do the Klitschkos, and drawing cartoon characters and cutting off heads and putting them on t-shirts—but he has never fought a quality heavyweight or did anything. He became a big celebrity just by talking about what he would do to a Klitschko and then he ran away from both fights. Nevertheless, he still is a very hot guy to fight as far as I’m concerned, and I still like the idea of him and Wladimir because they both have tremendous explosive punching power and speed.”

On Mosley vs Floyd Mayweather Jr

“Oh definitely. I have Mosley and Mayweather a dead even fight. The one good thing is that Shane is, first of all, to me is the first really live physical match-up fight that I think that really that Floyd has fought in about five or six years. I mean I looked at (Arturo) Gatti—I’m not trying to knock Gatti—Gatti was a good fight when he fought another brawler or another guy on his level who was exciting, but anytime he stepped up and fought class boxers he always lost because he could never deal with intelligent fighters. Oscar, you know, fights with Floyd and I cannot believe how he fought such a fight not using his talent, but nevertheless, people forget it was a split decision because Oscar was still just tall enough to use the jab in the early part and that bothered Floyd because Floyd’s defense of just rolling his shoulders and bending back is okay if you got small guys, but guys who have long enough arms to reach over and hit him he had to really fight with them and that was only a split decision. Shane matches up with him in size as a full welterweight and also Shane has good speed—maybe not as fast as Floyd but there’s not that much of a disparity. I think the intensity and the challenge that Shane brings into this fight is going to make Floyd Mayweather show his greatness or he could totally be dominated and look very inferior. He won’t be anywhere in between, he’ll go to one extreme or the other and I think that Shane may be the dark horse so to say in this whole situation because he could easily be a big threat and possibly beat Floyd and (Manny) Pacquiao. Shane is an old school fighter who fights with a lot of intensity, has speed, has shown a good chin and he’s going to be very well prepared. I just think that this is going to be maybe one of the best fights in a long time but I think this is the fight that will make Floyd Mayweather show his greatness or show his weakness—because he won’t be in between. He must fight in this fight.”

On how he would train Mosley

“Well I think he’s got a very good trainer working with him now in Naseem Richardson and he will need to jab and apply a lot of pressure but not necessarily when Floyd bends back, beating all along his elbows and the ribs throwing a lot of wasted punches which Oscar did. The biggest thing that will be a problem for Floyd is the jab—pressure, jab, pressure, jab, and once you get inside, then you throw punches because Shane is just big enough where his arms are long enough and he’s tall enough where he would have a problem avoiding Shane’s punches by just rolling his shoulder and sticking his head back to the ropes. But the thing that goes for Floyd is Floyd has good hand speed but he also has good foot speed, too, and Shane is really not known for his footwork. Floyd can move around, stop on a dime, punch in and out, catlike reflexes—maybe not throw the volume of punches that Shane throws, but he’s a very, very accurate pinpoint puncher and he has ability to move and change directions a lot. A slight edge would go to Mayweather because of the foot speed and the pinpoint accurate punches, but I think that Shane will, even though Floyd may have that advantage over him in those areas, I think Shane is still fast enough and has enough intensity and anger in him that he’s still going to force Mayweather to bring him out of his comfort zone and make him really have to sit there and show his greatness, and if he does—maybe what he’s been saying is, he’s one of the greatest welterweight fighter of all time even though he won’t fight a welterweight. So this is the first time he’s really fighting a really world class welterweight fighter.”

On which fight he thinks fans would enjoy more 'Mosley vs. Pacquiao' or 'Mayweather vs.Pacquiao'

“Mosley-Pacquiao or Mayweather-Pacquiao? Mosley-Pacquiao, Mosley-Pacquiao, Mosley-Pacquiao. I mean you know that Shane is going to bring it to you, I mean that’s him. There’s no way he’s going to run from anybody or try to be technical and if things get rough he’s still going to fight. Even in his losses to basically Winky Wright, who he had no business fighting because he was physically way too big, and Vernon Forrest, which was a tall rangy type guy and I know he lost to (Miguel) Cotto but I won’t even go into this because that was a close fight—but still, there’s no way you’re going to get anything but pure explosive excitement with Pacquiao and Mosley. But the fight based on the hype, the interest, and the hunger of the fans is still Mayweather and Pacquiao, but the true, true really explosive fight that the true fight fans would look forward to would be with Shane Mosley and Pacquiao. But still, the media and the press and everybody is going to make the fight if it’s possible with Pacquiao and Mayweather because of the anticipation and the marquee value and all of the hype—but the pure, pure fight is with Shane Mosley.”

On the fight between Haye and Ruiz

“I pick David to win because everything is going in his direction now with the speed and youth, but if I was a betting person I would have it like 6:5 that’s all, or 7:5. I don’t know how odds go because I never bet on a fight but I see it as that type of fight. It’s his home town, his area, his crowd—the momentum and movement and everything is with him, but still, Ruiz is a solid fighter, he’s a real heavyweight not a super heavyweight, he has a good chin and I don’t know that David has all of the gifted movements and the great coordination like Roy Jones had to stay for twelve rounds and move and not get hit, because the biggest problem I have with him is just his chin. When he got knocked down by Monte Barrett I said, ‘Oh my God’. So that’s the situation. A lot of people believe that he is going to go out and just blow Ruiz away, and maybe he will—I wish that that would happen—but I have him a slight favorite and that’s about it.”

On a Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye fight

“Well Wladimir would knock him out within four rounds because this is one of the few guys who Wladimir has a lot of animosity I guess and anger and he would be extremely aggressive very much like he was with Chris Byrd in their second fight, but I think until it happens—the knockout or whatever, which I think will happen within four rounds—it would be a very explosive exciting fight. You got two guys who are known for explosive punching power, great speed, and both of them reputedly got weak chins so it would be a great excitement fight. But I think that Wladimir’s size and a strong left jab would be too much in addition to the fact that Wladimir has that tremendous short punching power with both the left hand and the right hand. I think that would be a little too much for David to overcome, but in the meantime, he has the ability to knockout Wladimir if he can catch him, too, because he does punch hard and he does punch fast and he does punch freely. As soon as he gets into range he will let his punches go. He doesn’t hesitate, so it’s a fight as a fan I would love to see.”

Steward Interview On Haye & Wladimir

This is a new interview with the hall of fame trainer Emanuel Steward after David Haye became the new WBA heavyweight champion with his win over Nicolai Valuev. Steward talks about Haye, about Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko, and how soon we should expect to see Wladimir back in the ring plus much more! Here's the interview:

Q: Emanuel, what was your evaluation of David Haye’s performance in his victory over Nikolai Valuev?

A: I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t get to see it. I didn’t see the fight but it went pretty much like I figured. Valuev was too big for David to really mount any substantial attack with anything to devastating. Valuev is just slow and doesn’t seem to have the excitement and enthusiasm to be exact about anything that he does. He just plods and goes through the motion. And it was the type of fight that there was a champion crowned and David’s got his belt now, but it was the type of fight that I never expected to be much excitement. I think Dave would be more exciting if he fights a Klitschko, particularly Wladimir, because Wladimir out of all those guys is a little shorter at six-five and a half or six-six, and he’ll be a little more explosive.

I just never could see the fight being too much because of Valuev’s size. It was just hard for David just to even reach him up there to try and hit him with something, but I thought his speed and natural athleticism would carry him through the fight. Basically, I was talking to Phil Anselmo on the phone, he was telling me as it was going on because I was over doing my broadcast in Hartford, Connecticut. So I was at ringside and he was giving me an account as the fight was progressing..

Q: Is a fight with David Haye something that you and Wladimir would be interested in, in the year 2010?

A: That’s the fight, that’s the only fight that I would get excited about myself, for Wladimir, because David is still a very explosive puncher, and for somebody more closer to his size, I think he has got tremendous explosive power, good coordination and reflexes, and he’s a smart fighter. I’ve watched his fights, he’s improved a lot from where he was a couple of years ago, and he is a challenge. I know when we were preparing for him it was when of the few times that I really worked with a fighter in preparation that I would have a lot of anxiety myself about him. So maybe he’s a fighter that you could never underestimate.

Q: A lot of Haye supporters and Klitschko critics point to Wladimir’s chin as evidence that David Haye has a really good chance against Wladimir. How would you respond to accusations from Wlad’s critics on that front?

A: Well first of all, I think David is a danger for anybody because he’s a good puncher, with good speed and explosiveness. With the rest of the guys Wladimir can always control them pretty much easy because they didn’t have the speed nor the size, but in David’s case he has the size over David but the speed, David can match him. You know, if David hits anybody he’s going to hurt him. I know a lot of Wladimir’s criticisms came primarily because of the Same Peter fight, but that was a fight that Wladimir had a lot of anxiety going into. He had lost, I think, two of his last four fights and nobody gave him much of a chance so I think a lot of that was due to anxiety more than anything else. And if you ever look at it, the first knockdown was in the back of the head—on his neck, really, it wasn’t on the head—and then he was trying to avoid getting hit by those clubbing punches and I told him, “If he gets close, don’t let him hit you on the back of the head”, and that’s what happened. The second one he didn’t even get hit, really. He didn’t really get hit on the chin. But I’ll tell you what, if he has an iron chin, still, it’s going to be rough with David, because David can punch.

Q: Now David Haye is a former cruiserweight who now has a portion of the heavyweight throne, and another cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek is trying to follow suit, and he just recently made his heavyweight debut with an impressive fifth round stoppage against former contender Andrew Golota. I was wondering what your thoughts are on Adamek moving up to the heavyweight division?

A: I just don’t see Adamek as a heavyweight. I always thought that David could be a heavyweight because 215-220, he can carry that. I just can’t seriously envision Adamek as being a heavyweight. I really can’t. Stopping Golota is not something that’s going to impress me at this stage of Golota’s career.

Q: Back to Wladimir quickly, when can we expect Wlad to be back inside the ring?

A: Well he’ll be in the ring in March. His left bicep which was hurt, it was actually hurt going into the fight with Chagaev. He went into the fight with the left bicep, that’s why he couldn’t throw hooks. All he could throw was straight punches. But he’s healing up very good, he’s back doing light training, and we’ve been communicating about every other day.

Q: Now changing things up a little bit, Emanuel, I wanted to get your opinions on some of the on-goings in the Super Six super middleweight tournament, and to start off I was curious what your thoughts were on Arthur Abraham’s twelfth round stoppage against a fighter you worked with in the past, Jermain Taylor?

A: I thought it was a real tremendous performance, and what I liked, he had never thrown a straight right hand through the center the whole night, and kept throwing the right hand more on the side of Jermain’s head and then going into the last round he threw a nice wide hook only where you can see it and then threw the right hand right and it was between the center. It wasn’t just so much the knockout but it’s the way he delivered it. I mean, clean, precision, it looked like it was well thought out. He’s a tough guy. He’s going to be a rough fight for anyone in the division.

The tournament is fantastic for boxing, in this division. There may not have been really any super excitement going on too much, particularly with the retirement of (Joe) Calzaghe, but I think this right here has put a lot of focus on that division and whoever wins it is going to be like a star in boxing. I think it’s a fantastic idea. I think (Mikkel) Kessler going down the stretch is probably going to be the favorite, but I don’t know. I see Andre Ward, his last few fights I saw tremendous improvement in him that I hadn’t noticed before. So Kessler, Ward, Abraham, all of those guys—it’s going to be very good. I’m anxious as a fan to watch all of those fights.

Q: Now you mentioned Ward and Kessler. That fight is obviously coming up very soon, what are your thoughts going into that one?

A: I think it’s a possibility that maybe the winner of that should be the favorite to win. It’s really interesting to have those two fighting each other so soon. The California crowd may be an advantage to Ward, I don’t know, especially with Kessler having fought most of his fights, except for I think Calzaghe and one other one where I think he went to Germany, he’s always been fighting for a home town type of crowd, too. It’s going to be a very, very competitive fight between two sharp, crisp fighters. I can’t pick on them, but I think it will be a good fight.

Q: There’s one more first round fight we haven’t touched on yet, and I was curious if you would share your views on Carl Froch’s victory against Andre Dirrell?

A: I saw the fight and I gave Froch the fight. Maybe Dirrell landed clean punches, but when he landed his punches he was finishing up by grabbing and not looking confident the way he should have. It’s the difference between boxing in a confident matter and the fact that he was letting Froch manhandle him. That was what I thought was the factor in the fight and even though a lot of people thought that it was a bad decision, if I would have been in Andre Dirrell’s corner I wouldn’t have complained. I thought he won the fight from clean blows but just the all around general boxing and mental and physical strength, Froch intimidated him. I thought the decision was fair but I don’t know how Froch is going to hold up with the rest of the guys. Just his mental mindset means that he’s a tough guy, because he’s going to always be up to it all the time because he has supreme confidence in himself. He may have more confidence than anyone in the entire tournament.

Q: Changing things up again here again Emanuel, we have the big mega fight coming up this weekend between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto and I was wondering if you could share some of your thoughts on that fight?

A: Well I’m not going to pick a winner, but I think the way that most fans feel so strongly for Manny Pacquiao is because he looked so super sensational in his last three fights and the fact that Cotto just struggled in his last two fights, and he took and he took a pretty bad pounding in both fights with (Antonio) Margarito and with (Joshua) Clottey. So he took a lot of punishment, but I think the fact that Miguel is going to be, maybe in solid natural body weight, ten pounds bigger and he won’t make the mistake that Oscar made of trying to come in so super light to dispel the myth that he’s beating up and taking advantage of a smaller guy. I think he’ll come in at 155 to 157 and that just means it’s just going to be a much, much tougher fight.

I think one thing for sure it’s a guaranteed exciting fight, because of just the mental make-up. It’s not one of the guys that’s going to say well I’m just going to win it by boxing. I don’t think that’s going to be the case. Even though both guys can box well, I just think the mindset of both guys is too explosive, and with Manny you got to deal with that explosive power that he has from all kinds of quick angles and turns and pivots. And he’s got pinpoint accuracy and pinpoint eyes where he can see opportunities open up in the middle of the exchanges that most normal fighters can’t see, but Cotto is a little bit bigger with natural strength, so I just think it’s going to be a good fight.

Q: Do you believe the rumors that Margarito may have, in some way, ruined Cotto? Do you buy into that?

A: Not necessarily. He did give him a tremendous beating and he did it all in the last half of the fight. He took a lot of punches himself but it was nowhere near as devastating as the ones that he landed. You really can’t tell because coming back with Clottey, Joshua Clottey is a hard fight for anybody at any time. I mean he’s a very, very difficult opponent. It’s unfortunate. Cotto has had two of those like back-to-back with a real physical big, tough guy who took all of his punishment and just grinded him down and then to come back with one of these strong type defensive guys. He got busted up pretty bad in both fights. On the same hand, Manny was just sliding through looking like twenty million dollars in all of his last three fights, really, when you go back to that David Diaz fight. It’s a fight that he took a lot of punishment, and I don’t think he’s been damaged that bad, still. That’s my opinion.

Q: With Manny Pacquiao, in his last two fights against Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, we still don’t really know whether or not Manny Pacquiao can handle a power shot from a full-fledged welterweight, or even a junior welterweight, but there’s a pretty good chance we’re going to find out when he faces Cotto, and I’m curious how you think he will withstand such power?

A: Well I’m just like you, I think he’ll be okay. I personally think he will be. It’s very interesting that they talked about the great fights with Marquez and him, but they were both small guys, and regardless of what they weight on the scales the day before the fight I just think natural size and natural strength that there’s about ten pounds difference in the weight between those two. Going down the stretch if it ends in decision then weight could be a difference. You have a good point. He may not be able to take Cotto’s punches. Cotto is a good puncher, but also, if you’re dealing with adversity, Cotto has shown that he can deal with adversity on probably about six occasions that I can think of—five at least, in the way that he’s been hurt, staggered, cut badly. I don’t know if Manny can deal with it. I know he got that cut with Marquez in one of them where he just totally freaked out for about three rounds. A lot of the intangibles may give Cotto a better shot, but still, it’s going to be hard for him to overcome that tremendous speed and pinpoint punching power of Manny Pacquiao.

Q: Now one fighter who’s going to be interested in the outcome of this fight will no doubt be Floyd Mayweather, Jr. He just had his recent comeback against Juan Manuel Marquez, and I was curious of your assessment of his performance coming off of the layoff?

A: I thought his performance was good. It’s just he’s a bigger guy, and he was smart, too. He didn’t lose a lot of excessive weight. He just said, “Hey, I’m 146. I’m feeling good and strong, I’m down as light as I want to be and I’m not going any lighter than that.” So he just said, “Pay them the money difference and I’ll keep my full strength”. He fought a good fight. I thought he looked very strong, very fast, and when a guy is smaller than another guy like Marquez was and Mayweather usually, he makes up for it by being faster like Mike Tyson used to do with those big heavyweights, but when the bigger guy is also the faster guy it’s very difficult for a smaller guy to do anything.

Q: Do you think that Floyd will wind up taking on the winner of this fight?

A: I think he will. I think that regardless of what the problems may be between people involved, I think it will all be sorted out because it’s the most demanded fight I have heard of in a long time. It’s not a fight that you have to promote ourselves to the public, it’s the public themselves want the fight, just like they wanted (Tommy) Hearns and (Sugar Ray) Leonard before they had their first fight. So the public makes some fights, and when they do that, they are tremendously successful. So I think whatever the difference is, the parties involved will all get it sorted out and the fight will take place, I think.

Q: Where do you think Shane Mosley fits into this picture? He’s obviously expressed interest about wanting to fight Pacquiao, or Mayweather, or a rematch with Cotto. Do you think he’s going to be stuck on the outside looking in?

A: I think so. Well he is that way. In fact, I don’t think he’s had a fight in nearly a year. He’s watching everybody, and he had his best performance in his career with Margarito and still has been unsuccessful in landing a fight with Pacquiao or with Mayweather, and probably even a rematch with Cotto, which he’s wanted. I know that’s got to be very frustrating for him, and it’s going to be a job for him to be mentally up for his fight with Andre Berto which is a very, very dangerous fight for him. In some ways he’s looking at almost a miniature of himself, a guy with fast hands, very explosive, and he could possibly lose if he doesn’t stay focused in this fight. It’s not an easy fight and with him so frustrated with not being able to land one of those other three fights that he wanted, he may get a little relaxed in his focus and intensity and he could lose. But he is definitely the guy on the outside, the guy that’s really probably, I would say ‘suffering’ more than anyone in terms of not being able to make the money or get the recognition that he deserves by being in a big super fight like this.

Q: I recently had a chance to speak with Bernard Hopkins, and this is another thing I’d like to get your opinion on, and it looks like if they both win their upcoming fights in December we might finally get the long-awaited rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., and I was wondering what your thoughts were about that?

A: It will be an interesting fight. I’m not sure when you have two great technical fighters, very smart—I was present at their first fight when they fought in Washington, DC, and Roy won the fight but no one did any significant damage to the other and we could have the same thing here, because both guys are still crafty fighters. It’s a fight that will be an intriguing fight. I’m not completely sure about how exciting it’s going to be, but it will be very interesting, in particular, with Roy still seemingly having his fast hands that he always had. Bernard sometimes has had problems with speed, but this will be very interesting to see how this happens, but Bernard has never brutally knocked out like Roy has, either. But it’s a very compelling fight that I’m very curious to see who’s going to win. I just want to see the match-up between the two smart fighters.

Q: What were your thoughts on Chad Dawson’s performance against Glen Johnson in the rematch this past weekend?

A: I thought Chad Dawson fought a very good fight. It was just, unfortunately for him, he’s fighting these “nobody’s going to knock nobody out” type fights with these veteran guys, you know, Johnson, Tarver, and after the fight he said he would like to fight Bernard and I said, “Oh my God”. But these are guys that nobody is going to knock out, and you’re going to only look so good. These are guys you’re not going to knock out, you’re not going to hit them with three or four clean shots in a row any of these veteran guys. It’s the type of fight that’s not going to create a lot of excitement, but I think he’s improved. I thought he looked a lot more seasoned in this fight here. He placed his punches, he knows what he’s doing—it’s just unfortunate that you don’t have any young fighters that’s hot at the same time. But if he keeps his championships, keeps busy and all of those things, he’s still probably going to get in there with one super fight, whether he goes up or someone else from that super middleweight tournament comes up to fight him. But I was impressed with his fight even though it was not one that was great for the public to watch.

Q: My last question for you Emanuel, do you have anything else you would like to say to all your fans out there and all the fans at East Side Boxing?

A: No, nothing in particular. You know, it’s my favorite website. I like to watch it and keep up with boxing. Tell the fans to keep on supporting, and all of us keep to hoping we can create some kind of new exciting fights for 2010, because right now, we don’t have too much coming up after Pacquiao and Cotto which usually, there’s always one or two fights coming up on the horizon. That you, you know, you say “Well, I want to see this” or “this is a dream heavyweight fight” or “this is a dream fight”. We don’t have anything for one of the few times in boxing, but there will always be somebody that comes up and creates some excitement sooner or later.

Q: Emanuel, I wanted to thank you again very much for the interview. It’s always a pleasure to speak with you.

A: Okay, it’s my pleasure, too. You know, I just hope the Pacquiao and Cotto fight lives up to expectations. It would be great for boxing.

Q: I do, too. I’m very excited about it. I can’t wait to see that one.

A: You know, the thing about it, too, though, both guys have great boxing ability. That’s what people keep forgetting. Miguel, when he’s had to, he can get on his toes and box beautiful, and I saw him do that. So it could start off being a technical fight and then somewhere along the way a brawl will break out and Manny’s very dangerous when you get into those exchanges because he’s got those pinpoint precision punches and he can punch and get in and out and just has great instincts for a fighter. And so Miguel is going to have to try to get him to the ropes and start trying to break him down with the heavier-handed shots and, I don’t know. If he gets hit right on the chin I don’t know if Manny can take it. There’s a difference between hitting guys that can absorb blows because they’re bigger then it is smaller guys, and also getting hit by those big guys when you’re not used to that.

But they tell me that he’s been looking great in the gym, so that’s important, meaning Manny. Also, it’s a fight where he’s fighting a welterweight but it’s not a big welterweight. Most of Miguel’s career has been in the junior welterweight (division), and also, he’s not a real tall guy like six-one or something, like Tommy Hearns or those guys were, and even Ray Leonard was five-ten, so he’s fighting a guy who’s pretty much near his size in terms of height so he’s not fighting a really big welterweight.

But it’s going to be a very interesting fight because both guys can box, punch, mix it up a little bit, and both guys are shown to be warriors. It’s going to be interesting, especially if someone gets cut or gets in serious trouble to see how they survive, because both guys are pretty good finishers once they have a guy hurt. If Cotto does get hurt, it won’t be like it was when he got away with Clottey because Clottey just shut down. If Miguel gets hurt in this fight he’s going to be in big trouble with Pacquiao, and also with Manny, because Manny’s not a guy that knows how to clinch and survive. Manny will fight you. If anybody gets hurt, it’s going to be interesting to see if they could survive.



This interview was done by Ciani @ : Source

Tags: emanuel steward interview, interviews, Wladimir Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko Opponents, Klitschko Blog, klitschkoblog.com

Steward Interview

This is a new interview from the hall-of-fame trainer Manny Steward who talks about his training regimen with current IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, his favorite boxing moments, and event hints at who he think would have won between Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis(whom he trained as well).


Q: Under your tutelage, Wladimir Klitschko has made noticeable improvements inside the ring. However, in your first outing working together he lost to Lamon Brewster. What are some of the most important things you have been able to teach Wlad since that time?

Well, he lost that night, but physically he wasn’t right. At the end of the first round, he couldn’t even focus, so I will leave it at that. And that is why I have never doubted him from that loss. I did not take that loss seriously.

But basically, what I did with Wladimir was teach him basics, which is what I did with Lennox (Lewis) and most of my fighters.. As a matter of fact, what was so strange is after we had been training for about a week, he was laughing one day, and I said, “Why are you laughing?” He said, “You know what you’re teaching me? When I started boxing when I was fourteen—you’re having me do exactly what I did then. With my feet spread apart at a certain distance and moving back and forth and making sure I maintained the same distance between my feet. That’s what we had to do in the program that I was in. You’re teaching me basic stuff.” We laughed, and I said “Well, that’s what I teach—basics, which is the most important thing starting with balance.” We spent a lot of time just moving back and forth, back and forth, and improved his balance in a certain way, because that’s really the foundation of everything.

The next thing was just to work on executing his punches with the shortest distance and the least amount of movement. Then a third thing we started doing, which he didn’t do so much in the beginning, was to spar a lot. Basically, with his program, they did not do a lot of boxing. They did a lot of exercises, like gymnastics stuff and everything—and that’s what they (the Klitschkos) said their program largely consisted of. So I said, “I believe you need to spar a lot.”, because before that, the exercise routine they had involved a lot of running, they would throw a ball up against the wall the turn around, catch it, and throw it again—it was a lot of conditioning things, and not so much sparring. I said, “I want you to spar more and more and more, and you will feel more comfortable after spending more time in the ring because this is your work shop.” You almost develop a certain sense of when your back will touch the ropes, and that’s why you never saw him with his back on the ropes, if you notice, in all of his fights. Even though he’s a power guy and most power men have to go back to the ropes in order to force opponents back in or in order to set them up to the body or something—you never, never see him (or Lennox or my fighters) with their backs to the ropes.

I also showed him to clinch guys properly, how to tie them up, and how to always break from clinches with the other guy’s back to the ropes/your back to the center of the ring, those types of things. So he began to spar a lot, and he is so comfortable now. So even in the morning, instead of running, we’re going to happily spend maybe about 45 minutes of him moving and dancing and things to improve his balance and his ring conditioning where he can feel things. As we say, when you spar enough and you box enough, you develop a sixth sense or a feeling where you know what’s about to happen. You have an instinct where you sense a certain punch coming and you can move out of the way almost automatically. That’s why I made him spar a lot. The more you spar, the more relaxed you become, and the more you can see or feel what is about to happen.

But the foundation of everything—everything—with any fighter I teach, is a good solid left jab. If the jab is working good, sooner or later, it opens up holes for the other punches, because the jab starts hitting the guy and he starts blocking and trying to focus on the jab, and that’s when the right hand comes the opponent isn’t even aware of it.

Q: Klitschko has been a very dominant champion under your guidance. He does not lose too many rounds these days and many of his detractors have criticized his level of opposition. However, in the past there have been other great heavyweights who have emerged in so-called “weak divisions” who have been able to prove their greatness by remaining dominant over a long period of time. In your opinion, what must Wladimir Klitschko accomplish in order to become a genuine part of the discussion pertaining to the being amongst the best heavyweights of all time?

I think you just hit on a summary of everything there in your long, complicated question. In history it shows. With Joe Louis, it was actually the same way with the “bum of the month club” as they say, and Larry Holmes also had to deal with the same kind of thing. Most heavyweights have a situation where some super fight arises. Lennox (Lewis) was having the same problem. Riddick Bowe refused to fight him, and all of a sudden, he was able to land a fight with (Evander) Holyfield and the fight with Mike Tyson, which has been his signature fight so to say.

But as long as you can keep winning and dominating, something is going to happen somewhere through some series of strange events. That’s what he is going through right now, and I told him, this is something that many champions have gone through. Even Mike (Tyson), when Mike was in his prime, he was just knocking out so many people, and then all of a sudden you get knocked out by one of those guys where it was just supposed to be another typical fight when he lost to Buster (Douglas). But it happens all the time in boxing. I told him, all you can do is keep dominating everyone, and it’s a little frustrating sometimes in his case with me because Wladimir has become such terrific boxer.

We spend as much time talking about stuff as we actually do training. A big part of training him is conversation. After we’re done with his training, he and I will hang around and talk for another 45 minutes to an hour just discussing everything we went over in minute detail. We’ll go over things like specific angles on the jab where he could do a little better to knock his opponent off-balance. I have never had someone so detailed. I think I am very detailed, and that’s one of things everyone who trains with me says. I’m even specific about things like the length of the socks come up the legs, the way the hands are wrapped, the waist, and the gloves, and everything. I am very detailed. Lennox Lewis was the only other boxer I knew who was pretty much the same way. A major part of training Wladimir as well as training Lennox was being available to talk, because there is so much to discuss.

I told him (Wladimir) you’re going through a frustrating period in boxing, and the fact that you’re dominating and winning rounds so much that what’s going to happen in the next few months or in the next year, if he continues doing this, is he will land a super fight of some type. Maybe like if David Haye may end up knocking out (Nikolai) Valuev and then he can eventually fight him, or even if Valuev wins, then that becomes a big fight. Or it could happen from some other kind of weird situation, but that opportunity will come if you keep winning and winning. I told him, “Right now, what people are going to start doing if you keep dominating is comparing you, not to fighters of this era, but they are going to start comparing you to other champions. That’s what you’re going to find yourself fighting against.” These hypothetical situations will arise where people are saying he’s so dominant that there’s nobody around to fight him, so the next question will be, what will he have done against Lennox Lewis? What will he have done against a Joe Louis or with a Muhammad Ali? That’s going to be his next opponent, he’s going be fighting fighters from the past in imaginary situations, because of his dominance—until something comes up big.

It’s a really awkward situation because Wladimir is such an intelligent fighter that he doesn’t look that good oftentimes when he fights guys who are defensive-minded. He fights best when guys attack him. When guys just sit back and wait and wait and wait, he’s so perfect that he sometimes does not like to overextend and throw punches that will leave him out of position. He fights so technical that sometimes, like in his fight with (Sultan) Ibragimov, it can be very difficult. He received a lot of bad publicity from his bout with Ibragimov but a lot of that was because of Sultan himself. After about four rounds, Ibragimov realized that Wladimir was really fast. After the fight he said he was very surprised that Wladimir was so fast and that he could not get away from his jab. Every time he tried to go forward, Wladimir would always have made a little move before he got started which had him off balance, and then Wladimir would hit him back with a jab, so he couldn’t get any rhythm. Around the fifth or sixth round, I looked at his face, and he really gave up—he couldn’t deal with Wladimir’s jab, he couldn’t get inside, and every time Wladimir stepped towards him, he would start bending back, and even though he was about six feet, he was making his body about five foot seven. Wladimir knew that if he threw long punches he would be out of position, so he didn’t commit too much. It was just a case of the nature of the fight, because Ibragimov had decided not to fight anymore. It was unfortunate.

But when he fought a guy such as Chris Byrd, that was a different fight. Chris, unlike the first fight, had been totally convinced that by just being aggressive and applying pressure that he could wear out Wladimir, because he and Lamon Brewster are cousins and Brewster told him that. Chirs was totally convinced he can win on pressure and that’s what made Wladimir look so great in that fight. In about the third or fourth round, Wladimir got mad because even though Chris is such a good guy, he could hear guys from his camp saying, “Just keep pressuring him Chris, keep pressuring him and he’ll fall apart.” That’s what made Wladimir very upset, he was very mad because of the lack of respect, but the fact that Chris was coming in and being aggressive made it a lot easier. He fights very well when guys are applying a lot of pressure on him.

Q: You’ve trained a lot of great fighters over the years. What was your proudest moment as a trainer throughout your long and illustrious career?

One of them was Holyfield beating Riddick Bowe. I worked with him only in that one fight. Oliver McCall knocking out Lennox Lewis was another. And Hilmer Kenty was my first world champion, which was a very big surprise. And as far as the Thomas Hearns victories, there were many.

The reason I said when we beat Riddick Bowe, is because when I trained him (Holyfield) for the fight, I told him, “This is going to be tough on you as a fighter. Bowe is bigger than you, younger than you, he has a beautiful left jab on the outside—you got to box him.” And even though Bowe was a big guy, he was a vicious fighter on the inside. He knew how to throw beautiful uppercuts, and he was also more active. In every area he (Bowe) was superior. Evander, when he was not in training, he was only about 204 pounds. In fact, he and I wore the same size pants, I was a 34 inch waist and he was a 34. But Evander convinced me to do this, and I thought this would be one of my roughest fights ever, because Evander was inferior in every way. So I trained him for a style of beating Bowe with speed and rhythm, punching and moving, in and out, in and out, to neutralize all of his (Bowe’s) other advantages and never staying in too long. The fact that Holyfield didn’t like to spar, contrary to what people think (he sparred a total of 36 rounds), meant I had to work on the pads with him and try to simulate Bowe for a lot of rounds each day. I was totally worn down, as I was training a lot myself, but we trained for victory and got it.

Then naturally, training Oliver McCall (against Lennox) when Don King sent him to me, and no one figured he could win. At the time, the knock on Lennox Lewis was he was all about the right hand and we could take advantage of that. So I practiced with him over and over and over again on beating Lennox to the punch and keeping him from throwing his right hand. It worked perfect.

Another one was the second fight with Alexis Arguello and Arron Pryor, when Pryor asked me to train him. He was afraid going into the rematch with Arguello because Panama Lewis had been arrested and put in jail at the time, and he was the guy who trained him for the first fight, and even though he never admitted it in so many words, he told me that they were basically getting by with some kind of things that were not legal. So I said, “Well, I will show you how to beat Alexis, but we will beat him by using technique and then you won’t be hit by all those big punches. You know, you’re not going to come to me at the end of the round and where I’ll have something to give you in the drink. We’re going beat him by using different types of techniques.” In two and a half weeks of training, I was able to get him to the fight where it didn’t get that much notice, but he came in totally different with a haircut and a nice white outfit instead of that regular stuff. So I spent a lot of time with him, not just training, but also mentally and psychologically because I knew him well from the amateurs. I was right here in Michigan, so I used to catch him around a lot. So he knew that I knew his style, and he could box pretty good even though he was only five foot six. That was one of proudest moments I had, too, and I thought he fought a great fight without having to resort to any other things just by using his technique and boxing skills.

But those are some of my proudest moments that I have had. It’s usually about winning fights when you are not expected to win, especially. I have been very fortunate to be training on the top level since 1980, and it’s almost 2010 now, which means almost 30 years of being on the top level in big fights. I’m still with the heavyweight champion of the world, but I’ve been very, very blessed, though.

Q: It’s interesting you mention it, because I just recently saw that Pryor-Arguello rematch on ESPN Classic.

Very smart fight. You know, the first fight was a vicious fight with him going head-to-head, flying back and running to get that bottle and all of that. The rematch, he was totally dressed differently—but nobody noticed a lot of these different things, though. If you noticed, he was slipping, picking punches, and he knocked Arguello down in the first round, and that’s when Arguello said he knew he couldn’t beat him, because he was a different fighter in this fight. Very smart fight, and that was something where no one expected him to fight that type of a fight. He was used to just throwing a lot of punches and wearing someone out, and I told him, “We’re not going to do that this time.”

You know, the one thing I’ve learned in training with any fighter I worked with is that you don’t try to make drastic changes with him—you can’t do that. I will try to work with him in his own style and make slight adjustments, because something had to be working to get him to where he was already if he was a top fighter. If a guy’s coming in and trying to change these fighters completely, it’s a big mistake. If you have a fighter who’s been successful, you don’t try to come in and change everything about him. I see a lot of guys doing that, but if a guy has a certain style, it may not be the way that I would train my fighters, but his style is his style, and Hearns is a good example.

I still had him being a busy fighter, but just a little bit more defensive and a little bit more slipping and moving, and a little more upper body movement. When a guy comes in and tries to make drastic changes I think is stupid. Wladimir is still a lot like he was, I just refined him, and with Lennox Lewis the same thing. I even trained Alexis Arguello for a couple of fights, and Alexis was a phenomenal puncher with tremendous follow-through. He wasn’t that good on his feet making pivots or whatever, but he was one of the most patient fighters with very good defense and tremendous follow-through power. You cannot take in a fighter and completely change him. Holyfield was the same way when I had him, he still put those beautiful combinations together but I just had him pick up a little more in-and-out movement, and that’s enough. Chavez, when I trained him, I never tried anything drastic. I had him box a little bit more and I was very amazed by his boxing ability. So I asked him one day, “How come you never box like this when you fight?” He did it with a couple of guys, but he said, “Look at who I’m fighting. Camacho and Medric Taylor—these guys are so fast that I have to be aggressive, but I can box when I have to.” And in training him, I was able to pick up a lot of good training techniques from him.

I learn from the fighters, too. Whenever I work with any fighter I’ll have my suggestion, and we’ll sit down and discuss it. I will discuss it and with a lot of these guys, they have been successful before. Like with Chavez, he never really had a real trainer, and I was amazed by this. He was basically a self-trained fighter. So when training him, I helped him become a little more accurate with his punches and improved the balance a little bit where his weight wasn’t so much forward all the time. Other than that, I didn’t want to make any drastic changes because he had already had over 90 something fights, he was a great fighter, and he had only lost that one fight. So whatever I did, I trained him within that same style, and that’s been one of things that’s helped me in so many different situations.

Q: Changing things up a bit Manny, I’m curious, what is your opinion on the upcoming mega bout between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto?

On the fight between Miguel Cotto and Pacquiao, I still think that Cotto is physically a very strong fighter, but I think he should not fight with his defense being the way it has been before. A lot of people are maybe underestimating the physical size of Cotto. What’s been so amazing about Pacquiao that I love so much from the first time I saw him about five years ago, he’s been fighting top notch everything. He’s never dodged anyone and he is what we call a “true pure born fighter”. He has the instincts of a fighter, the balance, the timing, the stamina—everything—and it’s just natural. He’s a fighter! If anyone was ever born to be a fighter, it would be a guy like him or (Roberto) Duran, but he’s better because he has great rhythm, and his defense and timing are a lot better than people think. When you really watch him, he’s got good in-and-out motion where you really can’t time him, but he’s been in there against a lot of good fighters: Morales, Barrera, we can go on and on and on. He’s never dodged anyone.

I think he is still a natural 130-135 pound fighter. That’s his real true weight. The fights are being made now because a lot of the marquee fighters that are attractive—dream fights—are what he wants to make. But he is still a junior lightweight to lightweight fighting guys who are, in this case with Miguel, a true welterweight. So the real natural weight and strength, regardless of what they weigh on those scales, is still a ten to twelve pound difference. That will be negated, though, if Miguel does not fight the right fight because a good big man always beats a good little man, and I believe that, but if the big guy gets hit a lot and doesn’t take advantage of being able to block punches and to move the little guy into a position where you can hurt him, he will have problems.

So right now, I would say everyone is so intrigued over Pacquiao, and thinks that he wins big, but I just don’t see it that way. I think that Miguel is going to have to improve his defense, in particular. His defense right up the middle—he has absolutely no defense for that, because his gloves are so wide, and fighters can punch right between his gloves. If he improves that and boxes, because he has really good boxing ability and a lot of people don’t realize that—as an amateur, and even in certain fights when he’s had to as a professional, he can box. So if he boxes and keeps his defense a little bit tighter, and if he starts banging those hard left hooks to the body on the smaller guy, this fight could be a very, very interesting fight.

It could be a tough fight for Manny, because Manny is not really a welterweight. This is why Freddie Roach, his trainer, has been very concerned. Even though he beat an Oscar, who physically wasn’t where he should have been that night—but still, that’s not Pacquiao’s fault. Manny was trained to be prepared and whatever the opponent’s shortcomings were, that’s on the opponents, not him. But Freddie knows that Manny is really not a true welterweight, and that’s why he’s trying to at least get some kind of equilibrium in those fights by making the opponents come down in weight as close to Manny as they can for balance. I think that Manny is unbelievably solid and consistent with his performances, and he has been consistent for five years and they were all in top notch fights.

Miguel has been a little inconsistent and has been in some rough fights. In the last fight with (Joshua) Clottey, I don’t criticize him the way some of the other people did because Clottey is a fighter I would not want any fighter to fight. He would have been a rough fight for Sugar Ray Leonard, for Tommy Hearns, and for any other welterweights in history. He’s that type of a guy with very tight defense, very strong, very good stamina, and the biggest advantage that you have when you fight him is that the last two rounds, oftentimes, he doesn’t punch. He’s relaxed, and when he does punch, he’s effective. For myself, I think I slightly may have had him (Clottey) ahead on rounds, but if I was a judge, I probably would have been more inclined to give it to Cotto because he won the last two rounds of the fight. I think that corner of Clottey didn’t tell him that he lost the first round. They won the first round, but regardless, because of the knock down it was a two point difference. The inexperience of them not telling him that and his tendency to just cover up caused him to lose. The point is, I respect anyone who fights Clottey. Clottey is a tough, tough guy.

Based on Miguel having such a tough fight there and Manny looking like a million dollars knocking out Ricky Hatton and Oscar, that’s why the odds are totally going out of proportion and I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. I see it as almost a toss-up fight, myself.

Q: Manny, I just have two more quick questions for you. First question, and you touched on this a bit earlier, what do you think of David Haye as a heavyweight and do you think he is going to beat Nikolai Valuev?

David Haye is not a true heavyweight, but based on what we said earlier, the heavyweight division is not loaded with super talent right now. The fact that one of your top guys, Chambers, who may be fighting Wladimir, is only about 210 pounds, and then you look at David, who’s normally around 215-220. I think he has a good chance in the heavyweight division because of his speed and explosiveness. Heavyweights are not that fast and coordinated for the most part. I think Wladimir is probably the most coordinated guy to be both big and coordinated, which is unusual.

This is why I give him a very good chance at beating Valuev. Last fight I saw with Valuev, I thought he lost to Evander. He showed that he could not handle speed or movement. For whatever reason, and I can’t put my hands on it, he is a very big oversized guy who seemingly, to me, has aged about another five years in the last year. I don’t understand it, but for whatever reason I now see a total lack of ability to move and do things, and I think David Haye’s handlers saw that. David has good speed as well as power, so if Evander can give him a hard time, moving and boxing at his age, I think David Haye has a very good chance to win the WBA heavyweight championship of the world. I would actually, in my eyes, even favor him.

Q: Now Manny, I don’t mean to put you on the spot with this last question, but I have to ask: Prime for prime, how do you think a match-up between Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis would have gone down?

(laughs)To me, that’s the most talked about match out there. That, and a match between Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko, are the most talked about. A lot of people don’t want to say it, but those are the two biggest questions in heavyweight boxing for probably the last ten years. It’s true, and I will give you the honest truth.

To me, having been involved throughout my career with three signature fighters—which I’m very fortunate, because not too many people have that—and those were Tommy Hearns, and Lennox and Wladimir. And I would say, knowing both of those guys, I could tell you the strong points of each and you’ll have to decide who will win, because I really don’t know.

Lennox was the type of a guy that, he was considerably a much stronger man then people realized. I did have the privilege of training guys who had fought him. I trained Shannon Briggs, and the first thing he told me was, “I was just amazed at how physically strong Lennox was. I mean, when you punch him he blocks punches like he’s a big tree trunk.” He’s physically strong, and people don’t realize that. I also trained Henry Akinwande, and he told me the same thing. He said, “Lennox’s strength is what you don’t see or realize until you’re in the ring with him and he’s an extremely strong man.” Lennox, I thought, had a pretty good jab and a right hand, but his biggest advantage was that Lennox was a very physical guy, and when he had to, he could resort to being extremely physical and do what he had to do win. If he had to, he would rough you up.

I remember in the fight with Riddick Bowe in the Olympics. He realized that he had lost in the 1984 Olympics and he waited four years, and he was losing again. He actually lost the first round, and he just came storming out in that second round and just crushed Bowe. He just overpowered him. That’s one of the things about Lennox is that he could find a way to win when he had to. Then he also had the fight with Vitali. After he came back after the third or fourth round, I said, “We’re losing the fight. You’re used to being the tall guy, backing up and being out of range, but this guy is so awkward he’s hitting you with punches that you don’t see coming.” I said, “We got to go to the streets. When you jab, don’t just snap the jab—push all the way through so you can push him off balance. Throw the left hook, and if you miss with the hook, bang him to the shoulders. Just start doggin’ him now.” And Lennox was the type of guy who would look at you and say, “Okay.” We also had to do that in the (Ray) Mercer fight. Going into the last two rounds, I said the same type of thing, and Lennox was able to do a variety of things. He could become very physical when he had to and he had a variety of punches, too. He developed a good uppercut, which we used a lot, especially with guys like Vitali and Michael Grant.

Wladimir didn’t possess all those things. Some guys, they just have one or two things that they can do so well. Like Ali, for example, would just basically move and throw a one-two. He didn’t throw punches to the body, and he didn’t throw the left hook to the body, but he did things so well that just those one or two things could offset everything else. Wladimir has balance that is unlike anybody I have ever seen. His balance and positioning is great. The man is six foot six, but he has the ability to move in-and-out, in-and-out, keep his balance, and he throws straight simple punches very effectively.

Even guys who have fought him, like Chris Byrd. He said, “After the first time I lost to Wladimir I thought it was because he was bigger than me. He was bigger physically and just threw me around. After the second time we fought, I think he could have weighed 210 pounds and he would have beaten me because I could not see his punches, particularly his right hand.” He said, “He was hitting me with the jab, and his jab was so accurate that every time I tried to get set, he moved back and broke my rhythm and even though I was watching his right hand, ya know, when I got knocked down the first time, I asked my dad what he hit me with and he said ‘the right hand’. And I said but I was watching the right hand, and he never threw it.” That’s how accurate he is with his punches. Byrd couldn’t see the punches. Even though he was watching, he still never saw them when they came.

Just based on his physical size, he’s about 240 pounds, six foot six and the ability to move in and out, punch accurately, and develop good stamina and the ability to think—against Lennox? Honestly, myself, I don’t know. I really don’t know. That’s a fight that as a fan, I would have loved to have seen. It would have been a very interesting fight.

Q: Thank you, Manny. Now do you have anything else you would like to say to all of your fans out at East Side Boxing?

Well first off, I think that’s an unbelievable website and I have it programmed in everything.

But I would like to say this: A lot of people are saying that this boxing thing is dead and that it’s not the same, and that’s not true. It’s not the same, but it’s changing. It’s like so many things, like the evolution of music and everything else. I think boxing is healthy, but different. We have to realize it’s a new generation with different styles and different everything. I think the reason boxing is healthy is because we’re making so many dream matches. We don’t have any one superstar fighter who is so dominant, and the reason for that, is because the fighters are stepping up and fighting tough quality fights against each other and that didn’t used to happen.

A dominant guy like Mike Tyson was with guys who pretty much had control of all the same promotions. Now, we have all these dream fights where the networks have gotten together and promoters have put their differences aside and they’re working on sharing their profits, or whatever, and not worried about their main meal ticket. We have so many good competitive fights. Not that we have that one big super fight, but you have much more competitive fights. With guys fighting much more competitive fights, the more competitive fights you make, the chances of you having some losses on your record increases, and that’s what’s happening now. That’s what made Oscar such a big star. Oscar fought lot of the big name fights, and even though he may have lost most of them, he still fought the big fights. The Trinidad fight, the Ike Quartey fight, the Bernard Hopkins, and that’s what made him such a popular guy who reached super-stardom, because he always fought the big fights. He did make a lot of money, but he was still willing to take those risks.

The general public is now more aware of the names of everyday fighters. You mention Pacquiao, you mention Barrera, you mention Shane Mosley, and all of these fighters, Bernard Hopkins, people know these names. It’s not that it’s one or two stars like it used to be with guys like Hagler and Hearns, but the public knows so many of the fighters now. And the fights are, say what they want, unbelievable sellouts. Boxing has become so popular now that as soon as a fight is announced, tickets almost sell out right away. There were plane loads of people coming in when I went to do the Ricky Hatton and Pacquiao fight where people were coming from all over for this big event. Sometimes I’ve had some fights out there in Vegas and LA where there was not even a European fighter and planes were jam-packed with British people. We have gotten so used to going to the big fights and the big events for all of us, that we save our money, we book these tours, and we got our favorite restaurants, and boxing all these crowds are selling out or breaking all kinds of records.

We have to look at that and say, maybe there’s a big disparity between the top level and the bottom level, but the top level is where these dream fights are being made like Pacquiao and Mayweather. I mean that event, if it happens, is going to break all the records. The fact that champions are so international now is another thing. The fact that we (Americans) used to dominate everything, especially in the heavyweight division, and now you look at some of the champions you got out there and you have Nikolai Valuev, and the Klitschkos, and the Ibragimovs, and the Chagaevs….

It’s changing, and a lot of us don’t accept that, but the world is becoming more international. At one time, not having an American heavyweight champion was unheard of, but it’s happening, and maybe we don’t have the champion s that we want here—like when Joe Calzaghe came over here and beat Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones and guys like Ricky Hatton coming over here and dominating. That’s part of the change that’s coming. People are flocking from all over the world to see boxing and they’re breaking records. When Klitschko fought over in Germany, even when they changed the opponent from David Haye, a lot of British people wanted to see David but they still wanted to see a good fight. They still had about 61,000 people there.

Another thing coming up is the super middleweight tournament, and I’m so damn excited about it that if I’m not working some days, I may even fly in to go see the fights. It’s different now, but it’s a world energy that’s getting involved. If enough dream fights keep getting made, even like the Mayweather-Marquez fight is starting to pick up a little bit of buzz now, and like I said, Cotto and Pacquiao, too. These are fights that if you see these fighters fight, win or lose, they are exciting fights. These are dream fights that the public wants, and you get sellout crowds all over. So we’re going into a different era, and nobody is going to be undefeated or invincible because they are making better fights. I think boxing is healthy and is just making a big transition right now.


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Tags: interviews, emanuel steward, emanuel steward interview, Klitschko Blog

Emanuel Steward Interview after the Wladimir Klitschko Sultan Ibragimov Title Fight February 23, 2008