Re:Wladimir and Vitali in the media
von Krazylegs82 Posted at 2009/08/05 10:45
Exclusive Interview with Manny Steward
by Geoffrey Ciani - I recently was afforded the opportunity to have a nice chat with legendary trainer Emmanuel Steward. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: Under your tutelage, Wladimir Klitschko has made noticeable improvements inside the ring. However, in your first outing working together he lost to Lamon Brewster. What are some of the most important things you have been able to teach Wlad since that time?
Well, he lost that night, but physically he wasn’t right. At the end of the first round, he couldn’t even focus, so I will leave it at that. And that is why I have never doubted him from that loss. I did not take that loss seriously.
But basically, what I did with Wladimir was teach him basics, which is what I did with Lennox (Lewis) and most of my fighters.. As a matter of fact, what was so strange is after we had been training for about a week, he was laughing one day, and I said, “Why are you laughing?” He said, “You know what you’re teaching me? When I started boxing when I was fourteen—you’re having me do exactly what I did then. With my feet spread apart at a certain distance and moving back and forth and making sure I maintained the same distance between my feet. That’s what we had to do in the program that I was in. You’re teaching me basic stuff.” We laughed, and I said “Well, that’s what I teach—basics, which is the most important thing starting with balance.” We spent a lot of time just moving back and forth, back and forth, and improved his balance in a certain way, because that’s really the foundation of everything.
The next thing was just to work on executing his punches with the shortest distance and the least amount of movement. Then a third thing we started doing, which he didn’t do so much in the beginning, was to spar a lot. Basically, with his program, they did not do a lot of boxing. They did a lot of exercises, like gymnastics stuff and everything—and that’s what they (the Klitschkos) said their program largely consisted of. So I said, “I believe you need to spar a lot.”, because before that, the exercise routine they had involved a lot of running, they would throw a ball up against the wall the turn around, catch it, and throw it again—it was a lot of conditioning things, and not so much sparring. I said, “I want you to spar more and more and more, and you will feel more comfortable after spending more time in the ring because this is your work shop.” You almost develop a certain sense of when your back will touch the ropes, and that’s why you never saw him with his back on the ropes, if you notice, in all of his fights. Even though he’s a power guy and most power men have to go back to the ropes in order to force opponents back in or in order to set them up to the body or something—you never, never see him (or Lennox or my fighters) with their backs to the ropes.
I also showed him to clinch guys properly, how to tie them up, and how to always break from clinches with the other guy’s back to the ropes/your back to the center of the ring, those types of things. So he began to spar a lot, and he is so comfortable now. So even in the morning, instead of running, we’re going to happily spend maybe about 45 minutes of him moving and dancing and things to improve his balance and his ring conditioning where he can feel things. As we say, when you spar enough and you box enough, you develop a sixth sense or a feeling where you know what’s about to happen. You have an instinct where you sense a certain punch coming and you can move out of the way almost automatically. That’s why I made him spar a lot. The more you spar, the more relaxed you become, and the more you can see or feel what is about to happen.
But the foundation of everything—everything—with any fighter I teach, is a good solid left jab. If the jab is working good, sooner or later, it opens up holes for the other punches, because the jab starts hitting the guy and he starts blocking and trying to focus on the jab, and that’s when the right hand comes the opponent isn’t even aware of it.
Q: Klitschko has been a very dominant champion under your guidance. He does not lose too many rounds these days and many of his detractors have criticized his level of opposition. However, in the past there have been other great heavyweights who have emerged in so-called “weak divisions” who have been able to prove their greatness by remaining dominant over a long period of time. In your opinion, what must Wladimir Klitschko accomplish in order to become a genuine part of the discussion pertaining to the being amongst the best heavyweights of all time?
I think you just hit on a summary of everything there in your long, complicated question. In history it shows. With Joe Louis, it was actually the same way with the “bum of the month club” as they say, and Larry Holmes also had to deal with the same kind of thing. Most heavyweights have a situation where some super fight arises. Lennox (Lewis) was having the same problem. Riddick Bowe refused to fight him, and all of a sudden, he was able to land a fight with (Evander) Holyfield and the fight with Mike Tyson, which has been his signature fight so to say.
But as long as you can keep winning and dominating, something is going to happen somewhere through some series of strange events. That’s what he is going through right now, and I told him, this is something that many champions have gone through. Even Mike (Tyson), when Mike was in his prime, he was just knocking out so many people, and then all of a sudden you get knocked out by one of those guys where it was just supposed to be another typical fight when he lost to Buster (Douglas). But it happens all the time in boxing. I told him, all you can do is keep dominating everyone, and it’s a little frustrating sometimes in his case with me because Wladimir has become such terrific boxer.
We spend as much time talking about stuff as we actually do training. A big part of training him is conversation. After we’re done with his training, he and I will hang around and talk for another 45 minutes to an hour just discussing everything we went over in minute detail. We’ll go over things like specific angles on the jab where he could do a little better to knock his opponent off-balance. I have never had someone so detailed. I think I am very detailed, and that’s one of things everyone who trains with me says. I’m even specific about things like the length of the socks come up the legs, the way the hands are wrapped, the waist, and the gloves, and everything. I am very detailed. Lennox Lewis was the only other boxer I knew who was pretty much the same way. A major part of training Wladimir as well as training Lennox was being available to talk, because there is so much to discuss.
I told him (Wladimir) you’re going through a frustrating period in boxing, and the fact that you’re dominating and winning rounds so much that what’s going to happen in the next few months or in the next year, if he continues doing this, is he will land a super fight of some type. Maybe like if David Haye may end up knocking out (Nikolai) Valuev and then he can eventually fight him, or even if Valuev wins, then that becomes a big fight. Or it could happen from some other kind of weird situation, but that opportunity will come if you keep winning and winning. I told him, “Right now, what people are going to start doing if you keep dominating is comparing you, not to fighters of this era, but they are going to start comparing you to other champions. That’s what you’re going to find yourself fighting against.” These hypothetical situations will arise where people are saying he’s so dominant that there’s nobody around to fight him, so the next question will be, what will he have done against Lennox Lewis? What will he have done against a Joe Louis or with a Muhammad Ali? That’s going to be his next opponent, he’s going be fighting fighters from the past in imaginary situations, because of his dominance—until something comes up big.
It’s a really awkward situation because Wladimir is such an intelligent fighter that he doesn’t look that good oftentimes when he fights guys who are defensive-minded. He fights best when guys attack him. When guys just sit back and wait and wait and wait, he’s so perfect that he sometimes does not like to overextend and throw punches that will leave him out of position. He fights so technical that sometimes, like in his fight with (Sultan) Ibragimov, it can be very difficult. He received a lot of bad publicity from his bout with Ibragimov but a lot of that was because of Sultan himself. After about four rounds, Ibragimov realized that Wladimir was really fast. After the fight he said he was very surprised that Wladimir was so fast and that he could not get away from his jab. Every time he tried to go forward, Wladimir would always have made a little move before he got started which had him off balance, and then Wladimir would hit him back with a jab, so he couldn’t get any rhythm. Around the fifth or sixth round, I looked at his face, and he really gave up—he couldn’t deal with Wladimir’s jab, he couldn’t get inside, and every time Wladimir stepped towards him, he would start bending back, and even though he was about six feet, he was making his body about five foot seven. Wladimir knew that if he threw long punches he would be out of position, so he didn’t commit too much. It was just a case of the nature of the fight, because Ibragimov had decided not to fight anymore. It was unfortunate.
But when he fought a guy such as Chris Byrd, that was a different fight. Chris, unlike the first fight, had been totally convinced that by just being aggressive and applying pressure that he could wear out Wladimir, because he and Lamon Brewster are cousins and Brewster told him that. Chirs was totally convinced he can win on pressure and that’s what made Wladimir look so great in that fight. In about the third or fourth round, Wladimir got mad because even though Chris is such a good guy, he could hear guys from his camp saying, “Just keep pressuring him Chris, keep pressuring him and he’ll fall apart.” That’s what made Wladimir very upset, he was very mad because of the lack of respect, but the fact that Chris was coming in and being aggressive made it a lot easier. He fights very well when guys are applying a lot of pressure on him.
Q: Manny, I just have two more quick questions for you. First question, and you touched on this a bit earlier, what do you think of David Haye as a heavyweight and do you think he is going to beat Nikolai Valuev?
David Haye is not a true heavyweight, but _base_d on what we said earlier, the heavyweight division is not loaded with super talent right now. The fact that one of your top guys, Chambers, who may be fighting Wladimir, is only about 210 pounds, and then you look at David, who’s normally around 215-220. I think he has a good chance in the heavyweight division because of his speed and explosiveness. Heavyweights are not that fast and coordinated for the most part. I think Wladimir is probably the most coordinated guy to be both big and coordinated, which is unusual.
This is why I give him a very good chance at beating Valuev. Last fight I saw with Valuev, I thought he lost to Evander. He showed that he could not handle speed or movement. For whatever reason, and I can’t put my hands on it, he is a very big oversized guy who seemingly, to me, has aged about another five years in the last year. I don’t understand it, but for whatever reason I now see a total lack of ability to move and do things, and I think David Haye’s handlers saw that. David has good speed as well as power, so if Evander can give him a hard time, moving and boxing at his age, I think David Haye has a very good chance to win the WBA heavyweight championship of the world. I would actually, in my eyes, even favor him.
Q: Now Manny, I don’t mean to put you on the spot with this last question, but I have to ask: Prime for prime, how do you think a match-up between Wladimir Klitschko and Lennox Lewis would have gone down?
(laughs)To me, that’s the most talked about match out there. That, and a match between Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko, are the most talked about. A lot of people don’t want to say it, but those are the two biggest questions in heavyweight boxing for probably the last ten years. It’s true, and I will give you the honest truth.
To me, having been involved throughout my career with three signature fighters—which I’m very fortunate, because not too many people have that—and those were Tommy Hearns, and Lennox and Wladimir. And I would say, knowing both of those guys, I could tell you the strong points of each and you’ll have to decide who will win, because I really don’t know.
Lennox was the type of a guy that, he was considerably a much stronger man then people realized. I did have the privilege of training guys who had fought him. I trained Shannon Briggs, and the first thing he told me was, “I was just amazed at how physically strong Lennox was. I mean, when you punch him he blocks punches like he’s a big tree trunk.” He’s physically strong, and people don’t realize that. I also trained Henry Akinwande, and he told me the same thing. He said, “Lennox’s strength is what you don’t see or realize until you’re in the ring with him and he’s an extremely strong man.” Lennox, I thought, had a pretty good jab and a right hand, but his biggest advantage was that Lennox was a very physical guy, and when he had to, he could resort to being extremely physical and do what he had to do win. If he had to, he would rough you up.
I remember in the fight with Riddick Bowe in the Olympics. He realized that he had lost in the 1984 Olympics and he waited four years, and he was losing again. He actually lost the first round, and he just came storming out in that second round and just crushed Bowe. He just overpowered him. That’s one of the things about Lennox is that he could find a way to win when he had to. Then he also had the fight with Vitali. After he came back after the third or fourth round, I said, “We’re losing the fight. You’re used to being the tall guy, backing up and being out of range, but this guy is so awkward he’s hitting you with punches that you don’t see coming.” I said, “We got to go to the streets. When you jab, don’t just snap the jab—push all the way through so you can push him off balance. Throw the left hook, and if you miss with the hook, bang him to the shoulders. Just start doggin’ him now.” And Lennox was the type of guy who would look at you and say, “Okay.” We also had to do that in the (Ray) Mercer fight. Going into the last two rounds, I said the same type of thing, and Lennox was able to do a variety of things. He could become very physical when he had to and he had a variety of punches, too. He developed a good uppercut, which we used a lot, especially with guys like Vitali and Michael Grant.
Wladimir didn’t possess all those things. Some guys, they just have one or two things that they can do so well. Like Ali, for example, would just basically move and throw a one-two. He didn’t throw punches to the body, and he didn’t throw the left hook to the body, but he did things so well that just those one or two things could offset everything else. Wladimir has balance that is unlike anybody I have ever seen. His balance and positioning is great. The man is six foot six, but he has the ability to move in-and-out, in-and-out, keep his balance, and he throws straight simple punches very effectively.
Even guys who have fought him, like Chris Byrd. He said, “After the first time I lost to Wladimir I thought it was because he was bigger than me. He was bigger physically and just threw me around. After the second time we fought, I think he could have weighed 210 pounds and he would have beaten me because I could not see his punches, particularly his right hand.” He said, “He was hitting me with the jab, and his jab was so accurate that every time I tried to get set, he moved back and broke my rhythm and even though I was watching his right hand, ya know, when I got knocked down the first time, I asked my dad what he hit me with and he said ‘the right hand’. And I said but I was watching the right hand, and he never threw it.” That’s how accurate he is with his punches. Byrd couldn’t see the punches. Even though he was watching, he still never saw them when they came.
Just _base_d on his physical size, he’s about 240 pounds, six foot six and the ability to move in and out, punch accurately, and develop good stamina and the ability to think—against Lennox? Honestly, myself, I don’t know. I really don’t know. That’s a fight that as a fan, I would have loved to have seen. It would have been a very interesting fight.
