https://www.si.com/vault/1997/09/15...reated-a-mecca-for-fighters-in-need-of-repair I enjoyed this part on Steward's work with McCall and Holyfield for their upsets of Lewis and Bowe: "McCall was one of King's longest shots. But Steward found, first of all, that McCall was not a bad guy. Second, the fighter known as the Atomic Bull for his straight-ahead style could box a little. "During training," Steward says, remembering when he was working McCall in Detroit in the original Kronk, "I was careful to keep him from his old haunts. I bought him a tuxedo and sent him over to my restaurant to sing. And you know, Oliver has a good voice. Not a good voice for a boxer, like Larry Holmes, but a good voice." Steward spent hours talking with McCall--talking is one of Steward's gifts--and making him feel worthwhile. He also developed McCall into more of a stick-and-move boxer for the Lewis fight, which would award the winner the WBC title. To everyone's surprise it worked, McCall scoring an electrifying second-round knockout in front of a rowdy pro-Lewis crowd in London [...] "I took Oliver with me," Steward says, recalling the highly complicated dual training regime. "I'd work with Julio, about a two-hour drive up a mountain road, come back down, train Oliver, then cook dinner for him--he didn't like the Mexican food. I had my own pots and pans at the time. Cook him his roast beef and mashed potatoes, and by the time I was done washing dishes it was 9:30. But the commitment paid off." Chavez tore Meldrick Taylor apart (Chavez and Steward later split), and McCall upended Lewis. (King's men stepped in immediately after that. "Jealousy," says Steward. "They ruined everything.") Neither fighter has been much good since, with McCall getting arrested for possession of drugs, going in and out of rehab, and breaking down in the ring in the Lewis rematch (with Steward helpless in Lewis's corner). "What was going on in McCall's life was beyond what was going on in the ring," says Steward. "All he needs is some love." Still, Steward doesn't think McCall was his greatest achievement as a gun for hire. That would have been Holyfield's 12-round decision over Bowe in their second fight, an impossible scenario for Holyfield. "Bowe, who'd beaten him already," says Steward, "was bigger, stronger and a better boxer. I didn't think there was much Evander could do. Nobody did, really. In fact, one of the things Evander's mother said before we left for training was not to let him get hurt." But Steward always thinks he can find a way. Having been around Holyfield since his amateur days, he remembered that Holyfield liked to dance and was pretty good at it too. "That's what we'll do," he told the fighter, "we'll dance." They worked on rhythm and balance. "We beat Bowe on rhythm," he says. That was the fight to which Steward first brought his cookware because one other thing he noticed about Holyfield was that he loses weight the week before a bout. Turned out that Holyfield hates the hotel food. So Steward, who fancies himself a cook (his American-fare restaurant in Detroit features a lot of his recipes), prepared a lot of Southern-style meals for Holyfield.[...] Helping somebody win a fight seems to be small work for Steward. Sticking around for the rematch is the hard part. But being a contract man, he tends to get aced out after he performs his work and his property is suddenly enhanced in value. In Holyfield's case, the fighter split with him over money. Steward says he made just $170,000 for Bowe-Holyfield II. ("The money wasn't important," he says. "We just wanted to get the championship back because nobody thought it could be done.") For Holyfield's next fight Steward wanted $300,000--not anywhere close to the normal 10% fee. He says he was offered $200,000, declined and left, although he and Holyfield remained friends.
Good story, McCall was interesting. I was around McCall and the people who managed him a few times prior to the Lewis fight and afterward. One of his management team said before the fight with Lewis that McCall would beat Lewis because he trained for that fight. He said it matter of fact. He said that if they could get one week of training from McCall before a fight he could beat anybody, if they got two weeks of training nobody could stay with him. They expected McCall to win and they were not at all surprised that it ended quick. That same guy said McCall on a basketball court was a D-1 type talent. He told another story about McCall at another guy's training camp (this was before most knew anything about McCall). The other guy is discussed on here regularly and was a top contender. He said the contender was supposed to be fighting a southpaw and had no sparring. He said McCall got in the ring with him, boxed southpaw for 10 rounds, and handled the contender even though he had not been training and had just switched to southpaw that day.
I was always interested in Steward taking McCall to the title and leaving. Was it McCall's people that pushed him out? IS there more info on this? Thats interesting about Holyfield and the hotel food, I wonder how much weight he would lose due to that
McCall agrees with Steward's version of the story, that King pushed him out: http://www.thesweetscience.com/articles-of-2009/6838-oliver-mccall-tells-it-like-he-thinks-it-was
interesting, I never ever looked into it and just assumed Steward just saw the opportunity and ditched his guy. Thanks for the link. I know it mentioned with Evander he wanted 100k more than he was supposed to get paid, what you make of that?
Sounds like they lowballed Steward because Evander got greedy and wanted to spend as little money as possible on a trainer. That's why Evander ended up with Don Turner instead (and no cut man).
