Was Emmanuel Stewart a weasel?

Was it not more of case, though, that Lennox had retired, Steward was available and was arguably the no1 trainer in the world? Vitali is a level-headed guy. There's a really obvious move for him to make here, imo.

 

He did an incredible job with dennis....turned the guys fighting abilitues,around at 34...and into a 3 time champ.

The first thing he had Lennox do was watch old Foreman videos.

The thread starters question,although phrased incorrectly with the weasel but is one worth answering....i think the answer is Emmanuel was a proffesional......and lets not forget he only became a "gun for hire" about 2 decades in....after the kronk had had its 1970s and 1980s heyday.....the only thing u could possibly question him for is when he started to take 40% of tommy hearns purses around 1987-90...they split up over it than made up.

 

Steward did get in trouble at HBO early on when he first started commentating on fights for using the mic as a pulpit to try to poach fighters from other trainers/managers. He would say things like "if I had him I would do this." or "I could train him to do xyz" or even more blatant comments like he would like to train this guy or whatever and he did that several times before someone, I think Mike Katz but Im not sure, wrote about it. HBO pulled Steward aside and and he stopped making those comments. Thats the only bad thing Ive ever heard about him and its not really horrible. Its sort of weasely and unethical but it doesnt rise to the level of a lot of other bad guys in boxing.

 

But we are referring to STEWARD.

 

His name is Emanuel Steward.

Want to debate that?

 

I agree. Steward had lots of integrity. He was a trainer for hire, in such demand he could pick his clients. That doesn't make him a weasel. Horrible thread.

 

A fighter who is focused on getting the best in their team will hire who is the best, a top trainer likewise wants to work with the best boxers who will listen to their advice.

Taking Lennox Lewis as example, after his defeat to McCall, who better to bring into his camp than the architect of that defeat namely Steward.

Let's not forget Steward wanted to train Lewis before his defeat so it not opportunistism by Steward, in a way it was Lewis who had to eat humble pie getting Steward on board at that time.

After a defeat you do not need cheerleaders or spouters of crap saying "you just got unlucky champ, you kick his ass easy next time", you want wise counsel and a plan to rebuild.

Steward was a proven expert trainer in the pugilistic arts and in many ways a oracle, likewise Steward saw in Lewis a student who had many boxing attributes already who would listen, learn and hone these, and of course work to rectify his deficits under his guidance.

 

I will say this because i don’t recall ever hearing Emanuel ever criticized for it:

His contracts with his fighters, at least the earlier ones that he brought up in Kronk like Hearns and Hilmer Kenty, gave him 50 percent of purses to serve as manager and trainer.

That’s a rather whopping sum.

I presume at some point that lessened (like subsequent contracts with Hearns and he certainly wasn’t getting half just to train guys like Lennox Lewis with no management responsibilities) but most would consider that exploitative today.

 

If somebody trained a weaker fighter to beat you, then you would conclude three things:

1. They were a very competent trainer.
2. They could show you how to stop somebody else doing the same thing to you.
3. Your current trainer had dropped the ball.

What would be more logical than hiring them?

 

Your whole premise is that Steward showed up and tried to recruit him.

Where does that supposition come from? How do you know it wasn’t the other way around?

 

https://www.boxing247.com/weblog/archives/139128

Becoming Head Trainer for Lennox:

Shortly after that I got a call a few months later and he had his promoter Panos Eliades call me, and he said, “Emanuel, would you consider possibly getting involved with Lennox Lewis”.

I thought it was really strange for him to call and ask me something like that, but at the same time I had had problems with the Don King camp, mainly because they were all so jealous of the fact that Oliver had gotten so close to me, and I had to do that in order to get Oliver to win this fight because Oliver was known to be a reckless street type guy. But with me he trained religiously and didn’t have any problems. So as a result they were so jealous, and Don had told us after the fight he didn’t want Oliver coming back to Detroit, and socializing with me, and this and that.

So when they called me I told them I’d meet with them and talk about this. So I met Lennox up in Ontario, where he was still living, and we trained at a little private gym on a Saturday. I liked the way we worked together, so I called up Panos and said I would definitely do it. So I started to work with Lennox from that point on, and his first fight I think was with Lionel Butler. He was a little cautious-like still and a little gun-shy, but eventually we got back on track.

Don King called me and told me, “You must have lost your mind! You’re going to give up the heavyweight champion of the world and also Julio Cesar Chavez?” who I was training at that time. He said, “You’re going to give up both of these guys? And when Mike gets out of the joint you can work with him, and he’s going to make like $20 million as soon as you gets out! You’ll have him, too”.

I said, “Nope! I’d rather go with Lennox”.

I always knew what Lennox could do, and it was like a challenge to me to see if I could develop what I always thought was there. As a result I spent a little time, and actually think my first fight was about $20,000, or I don’t know what it was. But eventually Lennox came back, and as you know he went on to become one of the top reigning and longest reigning heavyweight champions we’ve had.

 

I think he just liked to take on challenges.

You got to admit he was a good strategist.