![]() ![]() “If there is one abiding theme in the gym, it’s the withering work in the ring. Everything was secondary to lacing up the gloves and boxing.įor instance, in one past interview, Manny stated the following, If you trained under Manny Steward, you were going to spend a lot of time inside the ring. One of the biggest changes he made to Klitschko when he began training him was to get him boxing more. ![]() ![]() He acted like he was just another guy in the gym.Īs for Steward’s approach to training, he was a huge advocate of getting fighters to spend more time boxing. You would have never guessed that this man was known around the world. He was obviously extremely knowledgeable, but there wasn’t even the slightest sign of ego. It was a tremendous opportunity that I will never forget. The brief video below highlights these qualities, as well as his endless devotion to the sport (amateur boxing in particular).īack in 2008, I was fortunate to be in training camp with Emanuel Steward for a few weeks while Wladimir Klitschko prepared for his bout with Sultan Ibragimov. Yet, no matter how much recognition Steward gained, he remained as humble and down to earth as anyone you will ever meet. More recently, Steward was known for his tremendous work with heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko. His small Kronk gym became home to numerous world champions. It is where Steward first gained fame through his work with Thomas Hearns. Manny Steward was known by many as the Godfather of Detroit boxing. Before passing away in 2012, Manny Steward developed several amateur and professional champions. To no surprise, one of the trainers involved in that bout was the legendary Emanuel Steward. That 1976 National Golden Gloves championship match is one of the best amateur fights you’ll ever see. Within that article, I shared a classic amateur bout between Thomas Hearns and Aaron Pryor. * For breaking news, follow us on find us on Facebook.A few weeks ago, I wrote an entry that emphasized the importance of amateur boxing (see here). Steward was a figurehead of the sport for almost 50 years, and as former heavyweight king Lewis aptly summarised: “This has been a tragic year for the boxing world, and in Manny we’ve truly lost one of its crown jewels.” Yet with boxing having already lost Joe Frazier and Angelo Dundee in the past 12 months, it seems time is catching up with some of the faces of its golden era. Steward’s illness was a quick one and there is comfort in his sister’s words that he wasn’t in pain in his final hours. He was one of boxing’s good guys and, forgetting the elite for a moment, just think of the many thousands of lives he changed for the better by opening the doors of his gyms to troubled young people. ![]() That was a passion for boxing Steward never lost and was something that helped make him such a fantastic ambassador for a sport that is never without its detractors. In that role he endeared himself to a whole new generation of fight fans.įew who heard it could forget his commentary on the first war between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward, particularly the ferocious ninth round where Steward was out of his seat, exhilaration propelling his sentences as he proclaimed it ‘the round of the century’. Steward’s roll call reads like a who’s who of modern greats and in 1997 he was rewarded with a place alongside many of them as an inductee to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.īy then he was about to begin lending his unsurpassable knowledge to American broadcaster HBO, calling fights with that unmistakable soothing tone from ringside. Both coming off the back of devastating losses – Lewis to Oliver McCall and Klitschko to Corrie Sanders – Steward remodelled their styles and took both men to greater heights. Particularly the last two, and biggest men on that list, owe him a debt of gratitude. Wilfred Benitez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Evander Holyfield, Gerald McClellan, James Toney, Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko are just some of the others who benefited from Steward’s wisdom. ![]()
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