![]() * For breaking news, follow us on find us on Facebook. 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. Steward trained some of the most successful boxers in the history of the sport, including Thomas Hearns, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar de la Hoya, Evander Holyfield and Wladimir Klitschko. ![]() 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. “‘You will know who I am then.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. “I told him, ‘You know what, Chad? After the fight, Google me,”’ Stevenson remembers with a laugh. Prior to the fight, Dawson taunted Stevenson by mocking his relatively low profile at the time, telling Stevenson that he had to Google his name to find out who he was. It proved to be a fateful jab. ![]() He would heed Steward’s words and, in fact, KO both former champs, beginning with Dawson in 2013. You’ll knock them out,’” Stevenson recalls. ![]() “Before Emanuel passed away, he said, ‘If you have a chance to fight Chad Dawson or Tavoris Cloud, take the fight. Steward also urged Stevenson, who was campaigning at 168 pounds at the time, to move up in weight and challenge some of the big names in the 175-pound division. In the three years since Stevenson first visited Kronk, only one opponent has gone the distance with him as he’s become one of the sport’s most electrifying knockout artists. “He told me, ‘You have tremendous power, but first we’re going to train you on your balance.’” “It started with my balance,” recalls Stevenson, one of the last fighters Steward worked with. Steward, though, saw Stevenson for what he was: a raw talent long on ability, short on technique.įor Steward, it was all about getting Stevenson’s fists and feet in sync with one another. ![]() Stevenson’s representatives had been to Los Angeles and met with numerous well-known trainers, none of whom wanted to work with their fighter. When Stevenson first came to Steward’s Detroit-based Kronk Gym in 2012, he had little name recognition outside of his native Canada. “He always told me ‘knockouts sell,’” recalls the 175-pound champion, who will defend his title against Sakio Bika in Quebec City on April 4. Adonis Stevenson developed into a 175-pound world champion under the tutelage of Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward. ![]()
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