“The reason why I say that is that he could develop his products and he was a great diamond finisher. I can say this in confidence: In my mind, Manny was the best trainer ever in boxing. I knew Manny personally, and we went back to the amateur days. of America’s award for Trainer of the Year last year, is among them. Virgil Hunter, who received the Boxing Writers Assoc. Many in the industry regard Steward, who served as an insightful commentator on HBO’s Championship Boxing series in recent years, as the greatest trainer ever. I think about the good times that we had together.” But I don’t think about those times when I saw him like that. Besides looking a little smaller and a little thinner, he looked pretty good. I had heard that he was sick, but Manny is such a fighter himself that he can put on this front. Thank God I had the chance to see him in Las Vegas at the WBC boxing convention. I was like, 20, so this was just prior to the Olympics. “Detroit took me in as a child over there. Emanuel took me into his arms and into his gym, and I think that I was there for a couple of weeks in preparation for the trials. “That was before Tommy Hearns became a professional. “One of the ways that I was able to qualify for the 1976 Olympics is that I went to the Kronk Gym in Detroit,” Leonard told ’s Lem Satterfield. Sugar Ray Leonard, who engaged in THE RING’s 1981 Fight of the Year with Hearns, worked briefly with Steward prior to making the 1976 U.S. Even the stars who did not train with Steward in the professional ranks revere the man. Steward trained too many “stars” of the sport, including Oscar De La Hoya and Naseem Hamed, to mention. Other fighters he “resurrected” include British light heavyweight Dennis Andries, who lost his WBC title to Hearns in 1987, but twice regained that belt under Steward’s training Kermit Cintron, who won the IBF welterweight title with Steward after suffering his first loss to Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, who won the WBA 154-pound belt with Steward in 2010 after losing to Manny Pacquiao. He trained Holyfield for his championship-regaining rematch with Riddick Bowe, the only fight of their trilogy that Holyfield won. Over the second half of the 2000s, Steward guided Klitschko to unified titles and THE RING championship. He also revamped the career of Klitschko after the talented Ukrainian, then the WBO beltholder, was knocked out by Lamon Brewster in 2004. He then took over training duties with Lewis, who he helped remake into the undisputed champ during the second half of the 1990s. He trained McCall, regarded as little more than a journeyman at the time, to upset then-WBC beltholder Lewis in 1994. Steward trained six heavyweight champs/titleholders: Lewis, current champ Wladimir Klitschko, Evander Holyfield, Moorer, Oliver McCall and Tony Tucker. Hall of famers Lennox Lewis, Mike McCallum, Julio Cesar Chavez and Jeff Fenech are among those fighters. However, top fighters from around the world ventured to the Kronk Gym to seek Steward’s services. He also guided other young boxers from the surrounding Midwest region to world titles, including former heavyweight champ Michael Moorer and former middleweight beltholder Gerald McClellan. He also developed Detroit natives Hilmer Kenty (his first fighter to win a world title), Jimmy Paul, Milton McCrory, Duane Thomas and Leeonzer Barber into major beltholders during the 1980s. Steward developed Hearns from a skinny child into a hall-of-fame boxer that many consider to be an all-time great. Seven of his boxers won the Detroit Golden Gloves titles in 1971, including Hearns, the first amateur boxer he turned pro (in ’77) and the star of his future stable. He quickly learned that he had a knack for interacting with people and for teaching the Sweet Science. Steward, who was born in 1944, made himself, star pupil Thomas Hearns and Detroit’s Kronk Gym, where he trained fighters for decades, into household names around the world.Ī talented amateur boxer as a youth, Steward, who won the national Golden Gloves as a bantamweight in 1963, began training kids, starting with his half-brother, James, in 1969. It’s a sad day for the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan, and, obviously, for boxing around the country and the world.” He died at about 2:46 p.m., Eastern Standard time,” said Mike Brudenell, a sports writer for the Free Press. “His sister confirmed it to the media in Detroit. The legendary Detroit native, who had been hospitalized for the digestive disease since September, was reportedly surrounded by family and loved ones at the time of his passing.
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