![]() In Steward's view, however, Rahman got lucky in the first fight and lacks the class to trouble his man a second time. Yet there must be some residual embarrassment, not least in Steward's mind, over the fact that, while the film's producers hired Lewis for his role when he was the king of the world, what they may have on their hands when it has its premiere in Hollywood on December 5 is a twice-beaten ex-champ. As a result we just wasted our time out there. "Then Hamed decided at the last minute that he wanted to go and stay at a beautiful house in Palm Springs, Bing Crosby's old house, which cost him $65,000 (£45,000) a month. But Lennox thought it was important for me to be with Hamed and so we moved to Nevada. We'd have trained on the east coast and flown straight down to South Africa. And we would not have been training in Las Vegas at all, except for Hamed. "Lennox trained so hard and we always take three or four days off anyway. "I don't regret the movie commitment at all," Steward said. Lewis spent three days in early April playing a walk-on role in the film, which kept him in Las Vegas at a time when his critics say he should have been in South Africa, acclimatising himself to the 6,000ft altitude at which the fight with Rahman took place. Nor is the case for Steward's defence strengthened by his role as boxing adviser to the producers of Ocean's Eleven, Steven Soderbergh's remake of the old Frank Sinatra caper movie, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. In the event of another Lewis defeat on Saturday, however, it is hard to believe that a new generation of fighters would be lining up to offer him 15% of their purses in exchange for a distillation from his vast store of tactical knowledge.Īt the moment the criticisms remain muted but there are those who look back at the events of last April and say that, while losing one champion might be down to bad luck, losing two inside a month looks like something close to dereliction of duty. Nothing, of course, can take away the achievements he racked up during his time advising Thomas Hearns, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez and Oscar de la Hoya. He has also enjoyed mixed fortunes with a sideline career as a Detroit restaurateur. Three years ago he paid $1.1m (£755,000) in settlements to the United States tax authorities, narrowly averting the confiscation of his Lincoln, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and home. At 18 he won a Golden Gloves title, finishing his amateur career with a record of 94 victories from 97 bouts as a bantamweight.Ī warm, talkative and popular man, Emanuel Steward has known setbacks, and not all of them in boxing halls, in the 30 years since he gave up his job as an electrician to work as a trainer at the Kronk gym in Detroit. Born 56 years ago in West Virginia, the son of a coal miner, he has been involved with boxing since his parents split up and his mother took the children to Detroit, where she encouraged him to practise pugilism as a way of keeping him off the streets. ![]() ![]() I've made it very known to Lennox that this will be his legacy."īut what is true for Lewis will be just as relevant to history's view of Steward. All he'll be remembered for will be the fights with this man. The Holyfield fights and the Golotas and the Tuas and the McCalls will mean nothing. He's got to win this or all his accomplishments will be pretty much washed away. "He realises that he's put himself in a position that, if he loses this fight, he retires. "All Lennox's 24 years in boxing will be condensed into this fight," Steward said the other day, during a break between training sessions at the Lewis camp in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. And he is concerned to stress the crucial importance of this fight to the reputation of a fighter he had repeatedly ranked, in terms of pure talent, on a level with Muhammad Ali. Steward is no longer associated with Hamed but he will be among the attendants when Lewis attempts to regain his WBC, IBF and IBO belts at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel this weekend.
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