Manny Steward on the Cotto split

"It's kind of surprising. Everything had been in place for me to train him," Steward told ESPN.com.

"Naturally, I thought about that," Steward told ESPN.com, when asked about losing two top fighters in such a short period of time. "But each case is an individual case. Dawson wanted to stay closer to home and that was the last thing I was going to deal with. So he got somebody else he was comfortable with. In this case, Miguel wanted to start training already and wanted me there for longer than our unusual five or six weeks together."

Steward said he had planned to go to Cotto's Orlando, Fla., training camp this weekend and that Top Rank, Cotto's promoter, had already purchased his airline ticket.

Steward said he had been in regular touch with Landman to get updates on Cotto's conditioning.

"Phil said to me, 'Give me two weeks to get his body in shape' and then I was going to come in for the regular camp of boxing training. I was going this weekend," Steward said.

Steward said he was surprised by the switch because he had already agreed to train Cotto for the fight and had received a contract from Cotto's attorney, Gabriel Peñagaricano.

Steward said the first sign there was an issue came last Wednesday when he was in New York attending a news conference promoting last Saturday's fight between middleweight Andy Lee -- Steward's fighter -- against Brian Vera, which Lee won on the Sergio Martinez-Darren Barker undercard.

Steward said Peñagaricano texted him during the news conference to tell him he had emailed the contract and needed to have it signed and returned. Steward said he told Peñagaricano that he wanted to have it reviewed by his representative and that he would "deal with it when I get home from Andy's fight on Sunday."

Steward said on Sunday he received another text from Peñagaricano saying that "it was taking too long and that we decided to move on."

"Andy Lee's fight was important and I got the feeling that they just wanted me to drop it and be in camp already," said Steward, who added he had no financial dispute with Cotto. "But you can't just drop it. It was almost like they thought I should just drop everything. They really wanted me in camp two weeks ago. But I never go in that early anyway. Even if Andy hadn't fought last week, I wouldn't have gone there two weeks ago.

"So they move on. Things happen. I don't even worry about it. I got a call from Gaby (on Monday). He called up and said, 'We want to make sure we're still friends, we may want to use you in the future.' I said, 'Fine, talk to you later buddy.' I have no hostility toward these guys."

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum disputed Steward's claim that money was not an issue.

"It was all economic as I understand it," Arum told ESPN.com. "I think Manny clicked with Miguel as a trainer and Miguel liked Emanuel as a trainer and the results were very good. But as I understand it from Gaby, it was that Emanuel was overreaching in his financial demands. If a trainer, according to the fighter, is asking for what the fighter thinks is too much money, it's the fighter's prerogative not to use that trainer. But all things being equal, Manny is the best trainer for Miguel, no question about it."

Although Steward, who still trains Lee and heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, won't be in Cotto's corner Dec. 3 -- or in Dawson's for the fight next week -- he will be ringside serving in his role as HBO's expert analyst for the pay-per-view telecasts. Had he been training the fighters, HBO would have had its "Boxing After Dark" expert commentator, Roy Jones Jr., fill in

[url]http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7059152/miguel-cotto-replaces-trainer-emanuel-steward[/url]

 

manny doesnt do long training camps with anyone not even wlad.

 

roach trains quiet a few fighters at once, nachos been doing it all his life...


just have the them do camp in the same place.