Lennox Lewis' improvement under Emanuel Steward tutelage

The McCall fight was proof about Lewis`s bad balance as was the Bruno fight, Lewis would have thrown far more 1-2`s view Frank had Steward been his trainer in `93.

 

Appointing Emmanuel Steward was the wake up moment for Lewis. He had always been the boss in training before and surrounded himself largely with yes men. If he was to achieve his potential, he needed to change up completely and that meant accepting that Steward's word was law.
Manny removed all of Lennox's slack amateur habits and turned him into a proper professional.

 

Excellent summary. One area in which I look at things differently was Steward making him more patient. In some situations like vs Tua, yes. But in general Manny tried to get Lewis to use his advantages in offence - to be more aggressive and dictate the action - rather than use his strength to keep fighters at bay. He was screaming at Lennox to close the show against Tyson, for example.

But yeah, I totally agree on this point: The tie-up between Steward and Lewis was the difference between him being merely a great fighter as opposed to the ATG he is now so rightly labelled. The transformation was profound.

 

If the KO by McCall in 1994 was due to Lewis having bad balance which Steward fixed when he became his trainer then explain how Rahman was able to KO him in an almost identicall fashion years later in 2001 when Steward was training him?

 

Some lessons for Wilder. He still has time to get rid of useless team and to have some real tough professionals in his corner

 

Wilder is 35. His time is done.

 

That was a complete mental lapse where he completely lacked respect for Rahmans skills.. In the HW division why would you bounce of the ropes in that manner after throwing a punch.. Emmanuel didn’t really change his style he more so forced him to be discipline and avoid these lapses similar to how Wlad fought Haye and AJ fought Ruiz 2..

 

This, he should have started learning how to box in early teens.

 

Emannuel Steward (Rest in Peace) did to Lewis exactly what he did to Wladimir. He made both of them make perfect use out of their physical advantages in the best way they possibly could. Additionally, he transformed them into patient, calculating and highly intelligent fighters. Definitely the greatest trainer of all-time.

 

Emanuel was an excellent trainer because you could actually see the changes in already developed fighters, and they were for the better.

 

I wouldn't call Steward the best trainer of all-time. Steward's gift was in teaching taller fighters to use their reach advantage, mainly the jab.
Who did Steward train that he transformed that wasn't tall with a reach advantage.

Steward did good work with Lewis and Klitchko, but I don't believe he was ever satisfied with either of them, you could sense when he spoke to each of them in-between rounds that he was frustrated with them in that they didn't have the confidence to let their hands go in high profile fights against the better opposition where Steward would have liked to have been credited for and have his fighter make a statement in a big fight.
I feel for Steward in that sense, his three most high profile pupils, Hearns, Lewis, and Klitchko each had substandard championship chins and only his first pupil Tommy Hearns wasn't reluctant despite his chin to put himself in a gear where he could use his size, reach, and power to score scintillating knockouts against anyone, no matter how dangerous the foe.

 

He also made a bit of a mess trying to "orthodox" Naseem Hamed a bit more. Not dissing him, one of the all time great trainers. But I agree he was particularly good with a certain type of fighter.