“If he gets knocked down, the referee
is not going to give him
any breaks. He’s got to stay on his feet.” Emanuel
Steward
BY
ANDRE COURTEMANCHE
Fightnews.com
In part two of this series, Lennox Lewis and Emanuel Steward continue their frank discussion about Hasim Rahman, their own relationship and how much is left to accomplish for the multi-millionaire, multi-time world champion. It is quite apparent in talking to the long-time fistic partners that if Lewis loses this rematch, it won’t be because of strife with his trainer. Steward and Lewis were extravagant with their praise and respect for each other.
Perhaps part of a fighter’s mental health is the belief that he isn’t beatable in a fair manner. That would help explain the version of the first Rahman fight that he and Steward are sticking with. Are they kidding themselves or was the loss “just one of those things?” The second fight will surely separate truth and fiction.
It has been said that Oleg Maskaev came back too quickly
from a knockout loss and it effected him, what assurance do
you have that you’ll be the same old you in this fight?
I don’t have any assurance, but I definitely believe
that I learned from my mistakes. In the past fight, I was a
bit lackadaisical when that punch came and he was able to catch
me with a great punch. I don’t believe that will happen
again.
We’re speaking about two different fighters (Lewis and Maskaev). He hasn’t been to two Olympics, he hasn’t had the kind of pedigree that I’ve had. He shouldn’t even be compared with me.
What else is there out there for you to achieve?
Everybody wants to see the fight with Lennox Lewis and Mike
Tyson. After Rahman, I see that fight out there on the horizon,
but first I have to get by Hasim Rahman.
Do you see yourself as British or Canadian? How do you see
yourself nationally these days?
I see myself as a world champion. I represent the whole
world. I’ve got a unique background and I’ve got friends
all over the world and that’s how I look at it. I have
a British passport, but I also still consider myself Canadian
too. I grew up in Canada, so I have a lot of affiliations in
Canada. A lot of my friends live in Canada, so you can judge
for yourself.
You met with Nelson Mandela after the Rahman fight, what
did he tell you?
I admire him very much. Even after the loss, he said to
me that he’s been watching boxing for many years and he’s
been in the game for such a long time and these are the things
that happen. (He said) I could definitely come back and beat
Rahman if I’d just be more focused and make sure that punch
doesn’t catch me again. He was very (sic) forth giving
towards me and he made me feel a lot better, especially coming
off that loss.
Speaking to him and talking to him about his life really made me respect the man and admire the man tremendously.
What are the chances of you fighting Kirk Johnson in Canada
some time in the future? (Johnson is also Canadian)
I definitely do want to fight Kirk Johnson. I thought that
was going to be a great fight in the future and it’s still
a great fight out there for me. We actually put forth that request
before the Hasim Rahman fight and it was turned down. We wanted
that fight to definitely be in Canada and we thought it was
going to be a great fight for Canada. In the future that fight’s
still out there and I would definitely love to fight in Canada
somewhere.
(Emanuel Steward) That is one of the few fights that we have looked at and entertained providing that Lennox comes through good with this and fights Mike Tyson. Lennox has said that even though Tyson is the final straw as far as his career is concerned, he still would like to fight Kirk Johnson before he retires, so Kirk Johnson is very much alive in the plans of Lennox Lewis.
It has become a boxing tradition after a loss to fire your
trainer, throw water bottles, etc. You did the opposite, you
didn’t fire Emanuel; you said let’s go back to work.
How were you able to avoid that easy crutch that many fighters
have come to rely on?
It wasn’t down to my trainer’s fault or anybody’s
fault. Looking at the history of boxing, and looking at my situation,
and what happened in the fight, it was just something…you
know if you get in an accident in a car, you don’t sell
it. You fix it and go on again. That’s what I wanted to
do, just fix the problem where I felt it was wrong. I didn’t
think it was a trainer problem and I didn’t want to follow
that old mystique of ok, you lose, so you blame it on everybody
else and you fire your trainer. It was a situation where you
just fix the problem and go on. That’s what I wanted to
do.
Emanuel, were you concerned about your job with Lennox and
were you surprised at the way he handled losing?
(Emanuel Steward) With any other fighter in recent years,
I would have probably expected that because that’s the
modern, “in thing” do now. If you lose, you fire your
trainers. In some cases, you fire even more than that, but knowing
Lennox, he is very unusual in a lot of respects. He doesn’t
like to change people; he’s probably the most loyal boxer
that I’ve ever dealt with. He holds on to people even when
they’re incompetent. He just will hold on until there’s
no other way out. I think the other trainer he had prior to
me, it was extremely difficult, Pepe Correa. Lennox is just
an extremely loyal person and I never expected it (getting fired)
from him. Any other person I would have, but I never thought
that would have been a factor.
It just shows the character that Lennox has. I believe that same character will come through in this fight because he was much stronger about the whole situation than anyone in the camp. He thought about it and just said let’s go back and win the title back instead of slaving over this and crying. That’s been very encouraging to me.
Why is it that they fire their trainers now when they lose?
(Emanuel Steward) Everything follows in patterns of different
generations and times. Years back, Ali would lose, or Ray Robinson
would lose, they’d go back up to the mountains and start
getting in shape. That was the thing to do, just to come back
and win your title back. You tightened up your ship a little
more. Joe Louis lost to Max Schmeling, I mean in a terrible
beating he took. He went back and returned and knocked Schmeling
out. Today’s trend is to fire the trainer, so a lot of
guys automatically think that way. That’s what you see
in situations particularly with guys like De La Hoya. He’s
a perfect example.
It was unfortunate when Roy Jones lost his fight to Montell Griffin, even though it was a technicality, I couldn’t believe that Roy stayed with his guy and the one that won, Montell, he changed trainers. He came in the ring and got knocked out in the first round. He got rid of Eddie Futch who had been with him his whole career.
Can you recount the way that Emanuel became your trainer,
what led you guys to end up together?
Well, I knew of Emanuel’s history from the 84 Olympics,
where he looked after the American team and even living in Canada
and being so close to Detroit, being on the Canadian team, going
down to America, going down to Detroit, and boxing in the Golden
Gloves and all those tournaments Emanuel had a lot of boxers
and they were great boxers. They had a great reputation and
he had a great reputation. I knew him from working with Hitman
Hearns and I thought he would be a great trainer. When I was
turning professional and searching for a trainer, he was my
first choice, but he wasn’t available at the time. The
fact that he became available was a blessing in disguise and
I definitely took advantage of it.
(Emanuel Steward) I’ve always been a big admirer of Lennox Lewis, but when I saw him knock out Riddick Bowe in the Olympics, I was so impressed because going back to 84, I think five of the gold medal winners had been training with me at my Kronk gym. That was Pernell Whitaker, Mark Breland, Tyrell Biggs, who ended up beating Lennox on a decision, Frank Tate and Steve McCrory. Most of the 84 Olympians were guys who had been with me. Lennox was always, to me, the perfect fighter. He had the physical strength, natural athletic talent; he stood as big as Teofilo Stevenson and when I saw him come out after Riddick Bowe after losing the first round, realizing that he could not compete with the American boxer who had so much superior skills in terms of training with Evander Holyfield and all those guys at that time. He just came out and did what he had to do and just physically overpowered Bowe. I said that is a complete fighter there.
After that I watched his professional career and when I got the opportunity to train him, I gave up the heavyweight champion of the world and I was criticized a lot for that. I gave up Oliver McCall. I had just trained Oliver to beat Lennox and that was one of the things throughout the whole training camp. I had so much respect for Lennox and it got to the point that it irritated a lot of the guys. I said I better devise a strategy to take advantage of him because he’s a better fighter than you Oliver. He(Lennox) will be beaten on that night(Sept 24 1994), but he is a better fighter.
My biggest asset at that time was the coach that he had, the trainer, who didn’t have any respect for McCall and really didn’t train Lennox properly. You adjust to your level of competition and you have to have top-notch sparring.
Do you feel the referee was right to stop the first fight?
Was Lennox knocked out?
(Emanuel Steward) I thought that referee did some extremely
fast counting. I’ve been around a lot of fights. Especially
when you realize Evander was down in his fight with Ruiz recently.
(The Rahman fight referee) He never even looked back to tell the fighter to go to the corner or whatever. The count was unbelievably fast to me and I was watching Lennox was crawling up. If I see a guy get knocked out motionless, hey, stop the fight. Lennox was hit with a tremendous shot and his head crashed right into the floor right in front of me. Knowing that the round was almost over, I said that if he can just get to his feet at eight, I could save him. We’ll get through this and come back, but the count was extremely fast and the referee just said that’s it.
Lennox got up, he was clear-headed, and he said he stopped it and he didn’t finish the count! I said yeah, he was counting extremely fast Lennox and he said man, no way!
I definitely feel that Lennox could have gone on because Lennox was very clear-headed, which I was amazed after the way his head hit the floor.
If you look at the tape, his feet were all crossed up and his feet were all under Rahman when he got hit. If he hadn’t been hit, he would have gone down anyway and they would have had to wipe his gloves off because of the way his body came off the ropes. Nevertheless, we never filed any protest. We just have to accept it and move on.
It’s frustrating for Lennox because both times he lost his championship were hasty decisions on the part of the referee. In the other one, he gets knocked down and at the count of three he’s up. The referee wipes his gloves off, even though he was a little wobbly in his legs, the referee said that’s it. When you look at some of the fights with Larry Holmes and Snipes(Webmaster: Who's that?) and a lot of great champions, they’ve been given at least a full extent. In that case, it means that Lennox cannot get knocked down. If he gets knocked down, the referee is not going to give him any breaks. He’s got to stay on his feet.