![]() Hill recalls what it was like being in the corner with Emanuel Steward, what attributes make a good trainer, and how his career as a police officer on the streets of Detroit helped prepare him to be a better corner man. ![]() Steward was a father figure to Hill and taught him nearly everything he knows about boxing. 25, 2012 the famous Kronk Gym in Detroit was shut down and now Stewards nephew, Sugar Hill is planning to rebuild the famous gym sometime this year. Hill, a former Detroit Police officer, remembers going to the gym with Emanuel as early as 4 or 5 years old. A Storied Cornerman Emanuel Steward’s expertise and strategic acumen made him one of the most sought-after cornermen in the world of boxing. After Emanuel Steward passed away on Oct. 25, 2012 the famous Kronk Gym in Detroit was shut down and now Steward's nephew, Sugar Hill is planning to rebuild the famous gym sometime this year. The late, great Emanuel Steward would have turned 71 on July 7 in 2015. It says a whole lot about the man that he didn't have one enemy in a sport where making enemies can be easier than making a fight.Īfter Emanuel Steward passed away on Oct. Steward was also the lead analyst for HBO Boxing but he never forgot about his humble beginnings and he would often give money out of his own pocket to down and out fighters. He also helped guide the sport in a positive direction in the post Muhammad Ali era and Kronk Gym, which Emanuel owned, was where Emanuel Steward turned many fighters into world champions. Some of the more notable fighters Steward has trained include Wladimir Klitschko, Lennox Lewis, and Tommy Hearns. Steward was an inductee of the International Hall of Fame, the World Boxing Hall of Fame, and has trained 41 world champions throughout his career. Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward was celebrated by boxing royalty and the Queen of Soul at a star-studded memorial service Tuesday in the Motor City. I do accept some responsibility.(CBS) Too often the sport of boxing caters to the loudest member of the group, promoting fighters who are obsessed with themselves despite the fact that their achievements in and out of the ring leave something to be desired.Įmanuel Steward was not one of those people. Emanuel Steward works mitts with heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko, the final world champion of his legendary training career. “I had a great cheerleader in my corner, but not much of a trainer. The gym fascinated him - the fighters in headgear, the. “I was making a lot of mistakes and I wasn’t being told about it,” Lewis later said. Steward brought with him the urge to box, and by the time he was 12 he had found his way to the Brewster Gym, where Joe Louis got his start. When one such left was thrown in the second round and Lewis’ chin was unprotected, McCall threw and landed a powerful right, knocking the champion to the canvas at Wembley Arena so heavily that after Lewis returned to his feet following a count of six the referee Jose Guadalupe Garcia rightly rescued him.Īlready frustrated with the methods of his then-trainer Pepe Correa, the previously undefeated Lewis, after also considering the decorated Angelo Dundee, recruited none other than Steward to be Correa’s successor and oversee the rebuild required to make him the world’s leading heavyweight. Recognising Lewis remained reliant on his natural talent – since impressing in stopping Donovan 'Razor' Ruddock in two rounds he had laboured to victories over Tony Tucker, Bruno and Phil Jackson – Steward had prepared McCall to counter what he perceived to be Lewis’ lazy left hand. In McCall’s corner that night, however, working his 94th world title fight was Steward, as effective a motivator as he was technically and tactically aware. So heavily favoured was Lewis, then the WBC heavyweight champion, the night of 24 September 1994 that not only had McCall been installed as a 5/1 underdog – even amid an awareness of his success as a sparring partner for Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno – but that an agreement existed for Lewis to fight his great rival Riddick Bowe the following March, after which it was hoped that the winner would meet the imprisoned Tyson. With Lewis, as the trainer of his then-opponent Oliver McCall, Steward had even proved the inspiration behind the significant upset victory that ultimately proved Lewis’ making. If with Hearns, one of the revered Four Kings, he masterminded the evolution of a once unremarkable puncher into one of the most devastating in history, in the similarly great Lewis and Klitschko he rescued and rebuilt the careers of two heavyweight champions whose futures were under threat. 6 They joined forces after Steward masterminded Oliver McCall's, right, victory over Lewis Credit: Getty Images - Getty
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