The late, great Emanuel Steward, for many THE finest boxing trainer of the 1980s, 1990s and the 2000s, will have a street named after him later this month – Former super-featherweight contender and world title challenger Harold “The Shadow” Knight, who, along with Steward, worked with heavyweight great Lennox Lewis for well over a decade, speaks about the street unveiling here.
Knight, who lost just one fight as a pro – to the recently departed Rocky Lockridge (look up Shadow’s story, you will find it very interesting and inspiring) – also gives us his take on how special Lennox was, as well as speaking on the upcoming return fight between Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua:
Q: The great Emmanuel Steward will have a street named after him in Detroit?
Harold Knight: “Yes sir. We’re all going to try and make it [to the unveiling; on August 18th, at Jefferson and East Larned]. Tommy [Hearns] and myself and others, we’ll all be there all being well.”
Q: Steward was of course a superb trainer. In your opinion, how would he be advising Anthony Joshua right now? Steward guided Lennox Lewis to two revenge wins? Can Joshua do what Lewis did and put right his wrong against Ruiz?
H.K: “In my opinion, Joshua should take a tune-up fight first, maybe even two. But that’s just my opinion. If he loses to Ruiz again it will be a long road back to the top. With Lennox, we had to wait and fight again before the return with Oliver McCall. And in that time, McCall self-destructed. You know, the same could happen to Ruiz, if they wait and hone Joshua’s skills. With the [Hasim] Rahman rematch, that was different – we had to go straight to the rematch. But you saw what happened. Lennox is cut from a different cloth. He is a great ambassador for boxing right now, and forever!”
Q: What big fights have you been at just recently?
H.K: “I was at the Kownacki-Arreola fight this past Saturday. With Lennox. I’m going to try my best to be at the Ruiz-Joshua rematch. I hear it will be in Cardiff, Wales.”
Interesting stuff. Is Harold right, should AJ take a tune-up bout before going back in with Ruiz? Two things we can all agree on are these: Emanuel Steward is fully deserving of any honour that comes his way, and Lennox Lewis is of course a heavyweight great.