by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 116th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward who was making his tenth appearance on the show. Steward discussed a wide variety of subjects including Miguel Cotto’s 12th round KO against Richard Mayorga, Andy Lee’s come from behind knockout against Craig McEwan, the announcement that Wladimir Klitschko will be having a unification fight with David Haye, Chad Dawson’s upcoming fight with Adrian Diaconu, Manny Pacquiao, Sergio Martinez, and more! Here are numerous excerpts from that interview:
Regarding Miguel Cotto’s performance in his 12th round TKO victory against Ricardo Mayorga:
“I felt that he fought a good fight considering everything. It’s not easy to fight Mayorga. He’s physically a big guy. It looked like he picked up about twenty pounds or more, maybe thirty pounds from the weigh-in to the fight. He was in great shape for this particular fight and he takes a good punch and his style is very difficult to analyze and defend against. So it was a fight that I thought Miguel fought very good in. I was very satisfied with it. He boxed a little bit and he still had to have some exchanges, which he did, with Mayorga. He came back and closed the show with a knockout, so I’m satisfied.”
On whether he was surprised that Mayorga lasted until the 12th round:
“I was surprised that he was able to last, I was surprised at his ability to take a good head punch, and his total just mental determination. It was not just a fight that Mayorga was just fighting to win. He was looking at Cotto at being his entrance into winning the Lottery, because as he said if he won that fight he was going to be able to fight Manny Pacquiao, which maybe meant in excess of $10,000,000 which meant he would have been a multi-millionaire for the rest of his life. That’s why I think he prepared so hard for this fight, no so much just for Cotto but looking beyond Cotto, because he continued to mention that throughout the publicity tour. His promoter, Don King, and his whole camp were continuously talking about Pacquiao, Pacquiao. This is what they had to do to get the big mega-million dollar fight, so I think he took this fight very seriously and trained very well and was prepared for the fight.”
His views on the final round when Cotto stopped Mayorga:
“Well I noticed that the best rounds for Mayorga were when he Miguel backing up, even though Miguel was pretty good at ducking, and bobbing, and weaving, and slipping, and leaving Mayorga hung up in the ropes a lot of times and then all out of position. But still Mayorga had his best rounds when he had Miguel backing up. So I told him the last round to go out real tight and close and try to get into an exchange with him, because I thought even though Mayorga was throwing looping punches earlier they were even wider as the fight went on, and to try and beat him to the punch with short punches and to go in close, and that’s what he did.”
His views on a potential rematch between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito:
“Well that situation still is really not in my hands, but I feel that it’s the most logical fight to be made the way the business of boxing works. In particular in the case of Cotto, I can’t think of any other fight that’s realistically available right now based on the time schedule of all of the potential opponents for him. I think it’s a good possibility it’s going to take place, probably in the summer or late spring of this year. I think for the most part, Miguel has that same type attitude. I don’t think he’s necessarily fond of fighting but not out of fear of fighting him, but he just feels he does not deserve that opportunity of a super fight. But that’s just something we have to put aside.”
His views on Andy Lee’s performance in his 10th round knockout victory against Craig McEwan:
“Once I saw that video I was not that impressed with the performance. I looked at it and it was a fight where he physically looked not so strong and not so sure of himself. It was the weakest physically I had ever seen him look. He explained to me later on, but it’s not even worth going into. Anyway he said he was very weak going into the fight. Nevertheless you just got to go along with what happened, and what I saw was not an impressive victory even though it was a good victory. It didn’t leave that superstar quality that we were hoping to implore on the public in the fight. But he won the fight and I told him the main thing is to win. To come back after losing I guess eight and a half rounds and to knock a guy out in the final round is still impressive. It turned out to be good for TV. It turned out to be a real good brawl between a Scottish man and an Irishman. So it was good for television, but I thought he got hit too much in the fight and was not as crisp as he had been in training. Nevertheless it’s a good win.”
On whether he believes some of Andy’s struggles may have stemmed from the fact he was not in the corner with him to provide instructions:
“I don’t know. Another one of his greatest victories was one night that I wasn’t there with Carl Daniels. I thought the instructions he was getting were the right instructions, but to me the biggest thing is I looked and analyzed it and he looked extremely physically weak and that was the biggest factor. So when you’re in that situation regardless of what instructions you’re getting, they are not going t o be that effective. Andy said he realized at the end of the 9th round that he was losing and this was the second time he had a major television fight and he didn’t want to go back to another three years of rebuilding his career. So he decided to just go out regardless of how he looked and with every punch he threw to just try and have knockout power and going all out for the knockout. It was fortune that he was able to do that, probably from an accumulation of punches. I guess McEwan was getting a little fatigued, too. But it was a good overall fight and very good for television.”
On what areas he believes Andy Lee needs the most improvement with:
“Well upper body movement, two straight up, two steps going straight back. It was amazing he was doing so much different in the training sessions. He was boxing with one of the best prospects in boxing. He and Demetrius Andrade had some tremendous workouts in Florida as well as with a couple of other light heavyweights and cruiserweights. But in that fight he was just going straight back with very little head movement, and against the better fighters you just can’t do that.”
On what it is like as a trainer dealing with situations where you have two fighters with fights on the same night at different venues:
“Well it’s always going to be difficult, but you have to realize that it’s part of the business and you’re going to run across it sometimes if you’re on the top level and you have a lot of good fighters. You have to do pretty much what you have to do, but in this case it was very frustrating because originally we were all expecting to be on the same show. Andy Lee had been tossed about as fighting Martinez on March 12 and Martinez was going to be on HBO, and then Miguel Cotto was told he was fighting. I’m preparing for a training camp with all of us fighting on the same card and when the split came up we had to think about it. We just decided we would train together and we’d just have to do the best we could. I had already made a commitment. Cotto’s fight was signed and we completed that the week before they finally came up with the Andy Lee situation, because he went from Martinez to Duddy to McEwan. So it’s just part of the game when you’re on the top level and this may not be the last time I have to be in this situation, but it’s very painful.”
His views on the upcoming ay 21 fight between Chad Dawson and Adrian Diaconu:
“Well I think it’s going to be a tough fight. He’s a tough solid opponent and naturally the guy is going to be enjoying the wave of excitement being in Montreal and he’s got this whole Romanian type of movement of things going on, so it’s going to be a very tough fight. I think that Chad is the superior fighter, but he’s going to have to punch with good authority in this fight to try and get a knockout or at least get respect early on in the fight.”
On a potential fight between Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson if they win their respective fights against Jean Pascal and Adrian Diaconu:
“Well from what I’ve gathered from Bernard, and I can understand him, too. He’s really saying he only wants to get historical fights and big super fights which I think he’s worked hard to get in that position. I don’t think Bernard Hopkins has that much interest in fighting Chad Dawson although it’s likely the best contractual situation provided both of them win. Bernard is just very amazing. I think the fact that he created and made the fight with Pascal. I mean nobody could take the credit for that at Golden Boy. He actually went in and made that fight and fought an unbelievable smart intelligent fight. He’s put himself right now back in the thick of everything that’s happening in boxing right now and I have so much respect for him for doing that. He’s in a great position right now. After the Calzaghe fight and those types of situations where we all thought he was finished, and right now based on being extremely smart, and one who studies boxing. He’s a student of the game, and he analyzed Pascal and said, ‘Oh, I can beat that guy!’ and he went out and created the fight and won the fight regardless of what they did with the decision, because right now he’s one of the hottest and most popular boxers in boxing.”
On Wladimir Klitschko’s recent withdrawal from his fight against Dereck Chisora and his newly signed unification bout against David Haye:
“Well I don’t know what really happened with the Chisora situation, but it’s a fight that I never wanted so I wasn’t that upset about finding out it was being canceled. I always thought it was a no-win situation and I think that Chisora is a much, much better and dangerous opponent than everyone else gives him credit for, including the British fans. Nevertheless, I think it clears the way for really one of the good fights for boxing and I think it’s going to be a tremendous shot in the arm for boxing to see those two guys fight. There have only been two fights in the last year that the public has been having an appetite for so to say. That was Manny and Floyd and the heavyweight fight between Wladimir and David Haye. To see one of those fights at least being made to me is very good, because having fights that promoters and fighters want to make is one thing, but this is a fight that the public wants. There is no other heavyweight that I know of that has that type of excitement.”
On what changed in the negotiations between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye that finally allowed the fight to come together:
“I really don’t know. Basically Wladimir called me and said, ‘It looks like it’s clear I’m going to be fighting David Haye and I’m not going to be fighting Chisora’. From that I just basically started thinking of the right good sparring partners I could put together, but that’s about it. I really never found out all the details related to the negotiations.”
On a potential showdown between Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury and whether he believes it will happen:
“Just coming off of the busy weekend I have not had the time to digest or think anything about the fight one way or another. I have not even spoken to Tyson since last Friday. It would be a very compelling and interesting fight, though, I’ll tell you that much. Tyson has talked so much with people he wanted fights with that people will say he should back up his words. I think it will be an exciting fight. I think Chisora is a very tough and much more improved fighter and I like the fact that Tyson has been fairly busy recently. If he trains properly for the fight he has a good chance of winning it, but it’s a very tough fight right now.”
On whether he believes Sergio Martinez will ever get the opportunity to prove his greatness against someone like Floyd Mayweather Junior or Manny Pacquiao:
“That’s a good question. Usually when there is enough interest something happens, but that’s why I feel so sorry for him because he is coming along at one of the times, like so many other guys in recent years like mainly Bernard Hopkins. There are not that many top challenges and then he’s just so sensational in his own performances that a normal good challenger would still not be considered worthy to fight him because he’s just a superstar fighter now with a flashy style. So it’s really a big question in my mind whether he’s going to get one of these fights, because he’s really too big and style wise for most of the welterweights and junior middleweights up there. He doesn’t weigh that much. I think he weighed only 158 for this fight. Still, just his movement and his rhythm and his skills makes it very hard for the general fans to see him having problems with most of the junior middleweights, and he’s too small for the super middleweights, and there is nobody who stands out at middleweight. So it’s going to be very hard to visualize him fighting a guy like a Floyd Mayweather and these other guys, and even Miguel and Manny because those guys are physically smaller guys and most of them are just moving up to junior middleweight from welterweight. It would be interesting to me still to see him have a fight with Paul Williams. If Paul won one or two fights and they fought a rematch I think it would always be an exciting fight between those two.”
His views on Nonito Donaire as a fighter and his recent KO victory against Fernando Montiel:
“See that’s what that pound-for-pound thing to me was created for, saying if one guy was in any other weight division how would he hold up. It started with the Sugar Ray Robinson image. Now we just have it for whoever is the hottest fighter at the moment type, but he is the guy that I would love to see being the exact same weight of a Manny Pacquiao or the exact same weight of a Sergio Martinez at 160 or to see him in there with any of those types of guys. Unfortunately, he’s kind of in a class by himself unless he picks up a little weight. I think Donaire is fantastic for boxing. When I saw him in his last fight with Montiel, that was the first time I ever really saw him and man I was impressed! He had balance, precision, punching intensity, intelligence, I mean all of that in that little short period. I was extremely impressed with him. It’s guys like him, and Martinez, and still Cotto, and Pacquiao, and then there are these new stars that are going to be popping up with Berto and Ortiz and all of them. I think we’re going to have a pretty balanced field and the only guy who’s caught in a bad position is Martinez because there are no middleweights for him and that’s unfortunate, but as they say it will sort itself out.”
On whether he views the winner of Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley as a future rematch opponent for Miguel Cotto:
“I don’t really know because those decisions are made by Bob Arum the promoter and Brian Perez who is a guy who coordinates most of his things. When I first got involved with Miguel the things that I saw were the fight with Yuri Foreman, and I thought there was going to have to be an in between fight somewhere which turned out to be Mayorga. For the most part right now, and it may change from day to day, but just from conversations we’re having there are about three more guys and that would complete the five fight plan that I was looking forward to when I got involved with him. Number three can easily be with Margarito, which it seems to be going that way the way things are moving. Then possibly have a fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Junior. That seems to be something that’s still being tossed around, and if he could win both of those there could be a possibility maybe with him and Manny Pacquiao for a fight. Right now I don’t think enough people believe enough to make Pacquiao and Cotto right now. But if he has impressive wins over Margarito and maybe another fight, I think fans will see this newer type Cotto may have a good chance at possibly beating Pacquiao. He suffered such a one-sided beating in the first fight, but now I think it’s going to take a lot of things to build the fans’ faith back up in that fight. It could happen but I think it’s going to take a little work. If it did happen, I think it would be a phenomenal big fight because of the tremendous following that Miguel has always kept, even in the two losses that he had. He has an unbelievable following and not just among Puerto Rican fans but with just general boxing fans because of his style of fighting and I guess his never complaining about everything and it’s part of the mystique of his personality. He’s the guy that never says too much. In fact he’s more of a mystery type guy that you see in the movies that you just can’t figure him out. I think that helps, and then Manny Pacquiao’s popularity is just unbelievable. The fact the both are exciting fighters and both are very humble personality people and that makes the fans be attracted to them. That’s down the line. He’s got to get by Margarito first, which I think is always going to be a difficult fight because of just pure styles and sizes, much like Iran Barkley was always a pain in the ass for Tommy Hearns. Regardless of what happened back and forth in other fights but there was always just a style problem. Margarito is a very, very tough fight for Cotto just because of styles.”
On what he would do to try and exploit Pacquiao’s weaknesses if he was training someone to face him:
“First off, Manny is a complete machine. When I think of him I don’t just think of a fighter the way I would think of other fighters. He’s what I call “a machine” because darting in-and-out, punching from angles, ducking underneath punches and punching while he’s ducking. He’s a very difficult guy to fight. I think the basic style that Miguel used the first fight when he fought was to throw a lot of short punches up between the middle. Manny has problems with getting hit between the gloves with punches sometimes, but he makes unbelievable adjustments in the fights. Pacquiao is one of the best fighters I ever saw for making adjustments. Since he’s been working with Freddie he’s improved a lot. When I first saw him he would basically move around, move around, did a little Mike Tyson like bob-and-weave rhythm, and then he would come in with a strong left hand. That was pretty much it, but throughout the years he’s learned to use his right hand very effectively, his jab and his right hook. His balance has improved, so he’s a difficult fight for anyone but you have to come in prepared to shoot a lot of short punches in particular in between the gloves. Hopefully in Miguel’s case to get him to the ropes and start ripping him with that hard left hook to the body, which is still a very effective punch for him. He would have to work on being very physical with Manny this time, but Manny is very difficult to fight still and very balanced out.”
On who he thinks stands the best chance at beating Manny Pacquiao right now:
“Well right now the guys that would be a threat for him he’s not going to fight them all, anyway. I know it sounds strange but I know it would be a tough fight for him is Tim Bradley still. They’re both really close to the same weight. Manny has fought in all these other weight divisions and won the titles, but he’s nothing but still 139 or 140 pounds. That’s what’s so amazing that he’s fought these welterweight and junior middleweight fights when he’s really nothing more than 140 pounds. That’s not going to happen because Bradley is not on the horizon for those big super fights which is what Manny is about now, and he deserves that only fighting the big fights. I think still always the one who will be a big problem is Marquez. In fact Miguel Cotto was telling me that one day when we were training. We were just watching a tape and he said, ‘You know, Marquez would always be a problem for him because Marquez has good balance and he will always be there to take advantage of him every time he gets out of position. It’s fortunate for Manny in the two fights that he won the fights primarily because of the four knockdowns altogether. Those knockdowns are what permitted him to have the draw in one fight and the close decision in the other. But Marquez would always be a big problem for him and I don’t think Manny is interested in fighting him because of that.”
On whether he feels that Wladimir Klitschko versus David Haye is happening past the point where fan interest peaked:
“Well I think it’s not as big and hot as it was and there has to be some work in the next month or so to rekindle that excitement that they had going on about two years ago, maybe even more when it was red hot and Haye had the cutouts or the dolls or whatever. It was very hot then. It’s been off-and-on and on-and-off so it’s going to take a little work to rekindle the interest in that again.”
On whether he feels Wladimir Klitschko’s longest layoff going into his fight with David Haye will have a negative impact on his performance:
“No, well you know David Haye hasn’t been that active, either. In the history of heavyweights Wladimir has been an exception. He’s been very busy compared to some of those in the past. I think the fight is going to be a fast punching exciting fight. Both guys have questionable chins and there will be emotions in the fight and David is not known as the type of guy who normally waits around. David Haye’s an explosive guy early and that means that Wladimir is going to have to step it up a little bit and be prepared to be attacked from a different type of speed from an opponent that he’s used to. But I think it will be a very exciting fight because of the emotion factor which is involved with it.”
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For those interested in listening to the Emanuel Steward interview in its entirety, it begins approximately forty-one minutes into the program.
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