Manny Steward says UK misses Hatton and Calzaghe

by yours truly


Manny Steward has been there, worn the t-shirt, took it off and put it back on again more times than we care to count or imagine. A hall of fame trainer who has worked with everyone from Hearns to Lewis via a guy called Naz. In this exclusive interview the 67-year old gives his assessment on the modern day fighter, training techniques, the fighters he misses and of course Thomas Hearns.


What are your hopes for the sport this year?

MS: I’m hoping that this year we can find a new superstar fighter. The same guys are all getting older and are all in there thirties now and I’m looking for some of these young fighters to come up and be a pay-per-view product. From your side of the pond there are not really any guys that I see emerging as one. Tyson Fury, maybe and maybe the kid from Sheffield, Kell Brook.

I thought Amir Khan would be the one but his last fight was a defeat and one that was surrounded in controversy but I hope he can get back on track this year. If Amir goes to welterweight he’ll be a match for anyone but maybe not Floyd. But there’s no Ricky Hatton who’s coming over and exciting us.

Over here, take a guy like Saul Alvarez and all the other guys like him. They fight, they get a decision and don’t get hurt and everybody’s satisfied.

So when you speak about fighters basically playing it safe is that something that makes you angry?

MS: It makes me mad because you see all these fighters working on the pads doing the pop-pop-pop-pop-pop thing and there’s nobody actually coming in who’s a big puncher. I would never do any work like that with a fighter where a combination exceeds five punches. Nobody’s punching with the power that they should. You look at guys like Froch and all these guys and the skill levels have went down. I guess we gotta come up with some new pay-per-view guys

Is there anything that actually excites you about boxing this year?

MS: I’m working with a kid called Tony Harrison, a junior middleweight, who does excite me. I don’t really train many guys these days. Andy Lee, of course, who I think will go on to be a world champion and a great, great middleweight.

Other than that I’ll be looking to watch Cotto, Pacquiao, Marquez all those guys but again they’re all getting older. I will be looking to see how Kell Brook does, a kid that has skills but has punching power too. But right now I just think we have too many fighters that play it safe.


So when do you think fighters began to play it safe?

MS: Hard to say. I didn’t like the way boxing went last year. There wasn’t enough excitement brought to the sport. In fact me and my nephew would watch a soccer match, switch channels and watch a fight and probably go back to watching the end of the soccer match. Boxing isn’t doing enough to generate the excitement which you’re getting in other sports.

What fighters do you miss from the sport?


MS: Joe Calzaghe. He was phenomenal He had speed, timing, accuracy and power. Ricky Hatton, he was just pure excitement. Lennox Lewis, another boxer but also a heavy hitter.

The styles of the fighters now are slow. There’s no balance, no jab, they view a combination as a one-two and they go back to being safe then if they do throw more shots there’s no body weight behind them. A guy like Nassem Hamed, he may have showboated but he had a nice style to watch and also had very explosive power.

What keeps you interested in the sport?

MS: I’m starting up boxing clinics all across the board where I not only pass on all my experiences but I teach the fundamentals. Some trainers these days think they hold the pads and their fighter does that pop-pop-pop thing but there isn’t actually anyone to teach them balance. I’m trying to teach how to throw 3-4 punch combinations with your body weight behind them. No-one teaches that, no-one wants to make the time to do that. They just throw fighters some gloves and teach them to slap each other. The basic fundamentals have to be taught. And hopefully a kid can come through and we can find ourselves a superstar.


Did you always know Thomas Hearns was going to be a superstar?

MS: You cannot tell from the beginning who is going to be a superstar and who is not. Anyone who says otherwise is a f*****g liar. Tommy would come to the gym and he was committed. There were tests that other kids wouldn’t pass that Tommy would. He was a very quiet kid but a very determined one. There were other superstar kids who would just associate themselves with people that would bring them down. Before long it was Tommy who was winning everything. Inside you have to have something else that makes you a champion. He had it.

I’ve worked with guys like Ray Leonard, Chavez, Lewis but I can say that Tommy was the most talented guy I ever worked with. And it may seem easy for me to say this but my favourite fighter was Thomas Hearns. And that was because when you saw Thomas fight you were going to see a great display of skills and big, explosive punching power and you also knew that in any condition he was going to try to give you his best performance even at the risk of losing. That’s what made him stand out from all the rest.

He was always concerned about his team mates. When he was due to fight Roberto Duran, I was wrapping his hands and he could see his team-mate Jimmy Paul was fighting and he was losing the fight against a guy called Alvin “Too Sweet” Hayes. Tommy could see what was going on and he told me to get out there because Jimmy needed me. I stopped wrapping his hands, went out, and talked to Jimmy in the 5th round I think. I told him what to do, he did it and in the next round he knocked the guy out. I came back and Tommy said “that’s the difference between you and the other guys in the corners out there.” He was more concerned about Jimmy losing his fight than he was about himself.”