by Izyaslav “Slava” Koza: I met Emanuel Steward face to face on three different occasions. The first time was to schedule a video interview shortly after I conducted one with Wladimir Klitschko before his unification bout against Sultan Ibragimov. At his request and as a great honor to me, the second time, and when the video was recorded, was at his bungalow at a resort where part of the training camp for that fight took place. Too busy with both the upcoming bout preparations as well as an upcoming HBO telecast Emanuel still spent the better part of an hour answering all sorts of fantasy boxing questions an interviewer/fan like myself could make up.
The interviews could be found at my YouTube channel under www.youtube.com/novirasputin2
After the interview, and despite the above mentioned schedule Emanuel spent another hour discussing more boxing, life, politics, and everything else in general. As a final imprint on the impression he would forever make on me the man took out a Kronk Gym T-shirt and handed it over as reminder of our interaction.