Emanuel Steward talks about David Haye, Pacquiao-Cotto, and More!
12.11.09 - by Geoffrey Ciani - I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a very nice chat with legendary boxing trainer Emanuel Steward. We spoke about a wide variety of topics pertaining to the current boxing landscape, and here is what he had to say:
Q: Emanuel, what was your evaluation of David Haye’s performance in his victory over Nikolai Valuev?
A: I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t get to see it. I didn’t see the fight but it went pretty much like I figured. Valuev was too big for David to really mount any substantial attack with anything to devastating. Valuev is just slow and doesn’t seem to have the excitement and enthusiasm to be exact about anything that he does. He just plods and goes through the motion. And it was the type of fight that there was a champion crowned and David’s got his belt now, but it was the type of fight that I never expected to be much excitement. I think Dave would be more exciting if he fights a Klitschko, particularly Wladimir, because Wladimir out of all those guys is a little shorter at six-five and a half or six-six, and he’ll be a little more explosive.
I just never could see the fight being too much because of Valuev’s size. It was just hard for David just to even reach him up there to try and hit him with something, but I thought his speed and natural athleticism would carry him through the fight. Basically, I was talking to Phil Anselmo on the phone, he was telling me as it was going on because I was over doing my broadcast in Hartford, Connecticut. So I was at ringside and he was giving me an account as the fight was progressing..
Audio:
Q: Is a fight with David Haye something that you and Wladimir would be interested in, in the year 2010?
A: That’s the fight, that’s the only fight that I would get excited about myself, for Wladimir, because David is still a very explosive puncher, and for somebody more closer to his size, I think he has got tremendous explosive power, good coordination and reflexes, and he’s a smart fighter. I’ve watched his fights, he’s improved a lot from where he was a couple of years ago, and he is a challenge. I know when we were preparing for him it was when of the few times that I really worked with a fighter in preparation that I would have a lot of anxiety myself about him. So maybe he’s a fighter that you could never underestimate.
Q: A lot of Haye supporters and Klitschko critics point to Wladimir’s chin as evidence that David Haye has a really good chance against Wladimir. How would you respond to accusations from Wlad’s critics on that front?
A: Well first of all, I think David is a danger for anybody because he’s a good puncher, with good speed and explosiveness. With the rest of the guys Wladimir can always control them pretty much easy because they didn’t have the speed nor the size, but in David’s case he has the size over David but the speed, David can match him. You know, if David hits anybody he’s going to hurt him. I know a lot of Wladimir’s criticisms came primarily because of the Same Peter fight, but that was a fight that Wladimir had a lot of anxiety going into. He had lost, I think, two of his last four fights and nobody gave him much of a chance so I think a lot of that was due to anxiety more than anything else. And if you ever look at it, the first knockdown was in the back of the head—on his neck, really, it wasn’t on the head—and then he was trying to avoid getting hit by those clubbing punches and I told him, “If he gets close, don’t let him hit you on the back of the head”, and that’s what happened. The second one he didn’t even get hit, really. He didn’t really get hit on the chin. But I’ll tell you what, if he has an iron chin, still, it’s going to be rough with David, because David can punch.
Q: Now David Haye is a former cruiserweight who now has a portion of the heavyweight throne, and another cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek is trying to follow suit, and he just recently made his heavyweight debut with an impressive fifth round stoppage against former contender Andrew Golota. I was wondering what your thoughts are on Adamek moving up to the heavyweight division?
A: I just don’t see Adamek as a heavyweight. I always thought that David could be a heavyweight because 215-220, he can carry that. I just can’t seriously envision Adamek as being a heavyweight. I really can’t. Stopping Golota is not something that’s going to impress me at this stage of Golota’s career.
Q: Back to Wladimir quickly, when can we expect Wlad to be back inside the ring?
A: Well he’ll be in the ring in March. His left bicep which was hurt, it was actually hurt going into the fight with Chagaev. He went into the fight with the left bicep, that’s why he couldn’t throw hooks. All he could throw was straight punches. But he’s healing up very good, he’s back doing light training, and we’ve been communicating about every other day.
Q: Now changing things up a little bit, Emanuel, I wanted to get your opinions on some of the on-goings in the Super Six super middleweight tournament, and to start off I was curious what your thoughts were on Arthur Abraham’s twelfth round stoppage against a fighter you worked with in the past, Jermain Taylor?
A: I thought it was a real tremendous performance, and what I liked, he had never thrown a straight right hand through the center the whole night, and kept throwing the right hand more on the side of Jermain’s head and then going into the last round he threw a nice wide hook only where you can see it and then threw the right hand right and it was between the center. It wasn’t just so much the knockout but it’s the way he delivered it. I mean, clean, precision, it looked like it was well thought out. He’s a tough guy. He’s going to be a rough fight for anyone in the division.
The tournament is fantastic for boxing, in this division. There may not have been really any super excitement going on too much, particularly with the retirement of (Joe) Calzaghe, but I think this right here has put a lot of focus on that division and whoever wins it is going to be like a star in boxing. I think it’s a fantastic idea. I think (Mikkel) Kessler going down the stretch is probably going to be the favorite, but I don’t know. I see Andre Ward, his last few fights I saw tremendous improvement in him that I hadn’t noticed before. So Kessler, Ward, Abraham, all of those guys—it’s going to be very good. I’m anxious as a fan to watch all of those fights.
Q: Now you mentioned Ward and Kessler. That fight is obviously coming up very soon, what are your thoughts going into that one?
A: I think it’s a possibility that maybe the winner of that should be the favorite to win. It’s really interesting to have those two fighting each other so soon. The California crowd may be an advantage to Ward, I don’t know, especially with Kessler having fought most of his fights, except for I think Calzaghe and one other one where I think he went to Germany, he’s always been fighting for a home town type of crowd, too. It’s going to be a very, very competitive fight between two sharp, crisp fighters. I can’t pick on them, but I think it will be a good fight.
Q: There’s one more first round fight we haven’t touched on yet, and I was curious if you would share your views on Carl Froch’s victory against Andre Dirrell?
A: I saw the fight and I gave Froch the fight. Maybe Dirrell landed clean punches, but when he landed his punches he was finishing up by grabbing and not looking confident the way he should have. It’s the difference between boxing in a confident matter and the fact that he was letting Froch manhandle him. That was what I thought was the factor in the fight and even though a lot of people thought that it was a bad decision, if I would have been in Andre Dirrell’s corner I wouldn’t have complained. I thought he won the fight from clean blows but just the all around general boxing and mental and physical strength, Froch intimidated him. I thought the decision was fair but I don’t know how Froch is going to hold up with the rest of the guys. Just his mental mindset means that he’s a tough guy, because he’s going to always be up to it all the time because he has supreme confidence in himself. He may have more confidence than anyone in the entire tournament.
12.11.09 - by Geoffrey Ciani - I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a very nice chat with legendary boxing trainer Emanuel Steward. We spoke about a wide variety of topics pertaining to the current boxing landscape, and here is what he had to say:
Q: Emanuel, what was your evaluation of David Haye’s performance in his victory over Nikolai Valuev?
A: I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t get to see it. I didn’t see the fight but it went pretty much like I figured. Valuev was too big for David to really mount any substantial attack with anything to devastating. Valuev is just slow and doesn’t seem to have the excitement and enthusiasm to be exact about anything that he does. He just plods and goes through the motion. And it was the type of fight that there was a champion crowned and David’s got his belt now, but it was the type of fight that I never expected to be much excitement. I think Dave would be more exciting if he fights a Klitschko, particularly Wladimir, because Wladimir out of all those guys is a little shorter at six-five and a half or six-six, and he’ll be a little more explosive.
I just never could see the fight being too much because of Valuev’s size. It was just hard for David just to even reach him up there to try and hit him with something, but I thought his speed and natural athleticism would carry him through the fight. Basically, I was talking to Phil Anselmo on the phone, he was telling me as it was going on because I was over doing my broadcast in Hartford, Connecticut. So I was at ringside and he was giving me an account as the fight was progressing..
Audio:
Q: Is a fight with David Haye something that you and Wladimir would be interested in, in the year 2010?
A: That’s the fight, that’s the only fight that I would get excited about myself, for Wladimir, because David is still a very explosive puncher, and for somebody more closer to his size, I think he has got tremendous explosive power, good coordination and reflexes, and he’s a smart fighter. I’ve watched his fights, he’s improved a lot from where he was a couple of years ago, and he is a challenge. I know when we were preparing for him it was when of the few times that I really worked with a fighter in preparation that I would have a lot of anxiety myself about him. So maybe he’s a fighter that you could never underestimate.
Q: A lot of Haye supporters and Klitschko critics point to Wladimir’s chin as evidence that David Haye has a really good chance against Wladimir. How would you respond to accusations from Wlad’s critics on that front?
A: Well first of all, I think David is a danger for anybody because he’s a good puncher, with good speed and explosiveness. With the rest of the guys Wladimir can always control them pretty much easy because they didn’t have the speed nor the size, but in David’s case he has the size over David but the speed, David can match him. You know, if David hits anybody he’s going to hurt him. I know a lot of Wladimir’s criticisms came primarily because of the Same Peter fight, but that was a fight that Wladimir had a lot of anxiety going into. He had lost, I think, two of his last four fights and nobody gave him much of a chance so I think a lot of that was due to anxiety more than anything else. And if you ever look at it, the first knockdown was in the back of the head—on his neck, really, it wasn’t on the head—and then he was trying to avoid getting hit by those clubbing punches and I told him, “If he gets close, don’t let him hit you on the back of the head”, and that’s what happened. The second one he didn’t even get hit, really. He didn’t really get hit on the chin. But I’ll tell you what, if he has an iron chin, still, it’s going to be rough with David, because David can punch.
Q: Now David Haye is a former cruiserweight who now has a portion of the heavyweight throne, and another cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek is trying to follow suit, and he just recently made his heavyweight debut with an impressive fifth round stoppage against former contender Andrew Golota. I was wondering what your thoughts are on Adamek moving up to the heavyweight division?
A: I just don’t see Adamek as a heavyweight. I always thought that David could be a heavyweight because 215-220, he can carry that. I just can’t seriously envision Adamek as being a heavyweight. I really can’t. Stopping Golota is not something that’s going to impress me at this stage of Golota’s career.
Q: Back to Wladimir quickly, when can we expect Wlad to be back inside the ring?
A: Well he’ll be in the ring in March. His left bicep which was hurt, it was actually hurt going into the fight with Chagaev. He went into the fight with the left bicep, that’s why he couldn’t throw hooks. All he could throw was straight punches. But he’s healing up very good, he’s back doing light training, and we’ve been communicating about every other day.
Q: Now changing things up a little bit, Emanuel, I wanted to get your opinions on some of the on-goings in the Super Six super middleweight tournament, and to start off I was curious what your thoughts were on Arthur Abraham’s twelfth round stoppage against a fighter you worked with in the past, Jermain Taylor?
A: I thought it was a real tremendous performance, and what I liked, he had never thrown a straight right hand through the center the whole night, and kept throwing the right hand more on the side of Jermain’s head and then going into the last round he threw a nice wide hook only where you can see it and then threw the right hand right and it was between the center. It wasn’t just so much the knockout but it’s the way he delivered it. I mean, clean, precision, it looked like it was well thought out. He’s a tough guy. He’s going to be a rough fight for anyone in the division.
The tournament is fantastic for boxing, in this division. There may not have been really any super excitement going on too much, particularly with the retirement of (Joe) Calzaghe, but I think this right here has put a lot of focus on that division and whoever wins it is going to be like a star in boxing. I think it’s a fantastic idea. I think (Mikkel) Kessler going down the stretch is probably going to be the favorite, but I don’t know. I see Andre Ward, his last few fights I saw tremendous improvement in him that I hadn’t noticed before. So Kessler, Ward, Abraham, all of those guys—it’s going to be very good. I’m anxious as a fan to watch all of those fights.
Q: Now you mentioned Ward and Kessler. That fight is obviously coming up very soon, what are your thoughts going into that one?
A: I think it’s a possibility that maybe the winner of that should be the favorite to win. It’s really interesting to have those two fighting each other so soon. The California crowd may be an advantage to Ward, I don’t know, especially with Kessler having fought most of his fights, except for I think Calzaghe and one other one where I think he went to Germany, he’s always been fighting for a home town type of crowd, too. It’s going to be a very, very competitive fight between two sharp, crisp fighters. I can’t pick on them, but I think it will be a good fight.
Q: There’s one more first round fight we haven’t touched on yet, and I was curious if you would share your views on Carl Froch’s victory against Andre Dirrell?
A: I saw the fight and I gave Froch the fight. Maybe Dirrell landed clean punches, but when he landed his punches he was finishing up by grabbing and not looking confident the way he should have. It’s the difference between boxing in a confident matter and the fact that he was letting Froch manhandle him. That was what I thought was the factor in the fight and even though a lot of people thought that it was a bad decision, if I would have been in Andre Dirrell’s corner I wouldn’t have complained. I thought he won the fight from clean blows but just the all around general boxing and mental and physical strength, Froch intimidated him. I thought the decision was fair but I don’t know how Froch is going to hold up with the rest of the guys. Just his mental mindset means that he’s a tough guy, because he’s going to always be up to it all the time because he has supreme confidence in himself. He may have more confidence than anyone in the entire tournament.
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