by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – With the highly anticipated heavyweight unification bout between IBF/WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko (55-3, 49 KOs) and WBA title holder David Haye (25-1, 23 KOs) less than 48 hours awayOn the Ropes Boxing Radio was afforded the opportunity to speak with Klitschko’s trainer Emanuel Steward in a special exclusive interview. Steward gave his breakdown of the upcoming fight and shared his views on how he believes things will unfold once the opening bell rings. Here is a complete transcript of that interview:
JENNA J: Let’s go to our guest for this special edition of On the Ropes as we’re joined by Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward. Emanuel, the fight is getting really close. Can you feel it?
EMANUEL STEWARD: Well we’re already excited about the fight. I guess it’s probably the biggest fight going into it since Lennox and Mike Tyson probably, even though Vitali Klitschko and Lennox really turned out to be a dramatic fight in one that nobody promoted it and expected it to be that way. This is the first heavyweight fight that the fans have wanted and been excited about since Lennox and Mike.
JENNA: Emanuel, did you ever have any doubts that we would get to this point? The fight has been on and off so many times, and even when this fight was put on people doubted we would even get to fight day. Are you surprised that we’re here now?
STEWARD: Well yes and no. Still, it’s a little surprising but what the Klitschkos did was actually put David Haye in a corner where he had to fight one of them eventually or almost quit boxing or be ridiculed. The only other possible fight was maybe the Adamek fight, but they signed Adamek up very quickly to fight Vitali. After his last rehearsed fight or whatever it was with him and Audley Harrison. He couldn’t go back that way again and I think fans were not going to permit him to fight another Valuev or Ruiz. So he was pretty much backed into a corner without having a credible opponent and so eventually he had to take this fight here.
JENNA: Alright well Wladimir has seemingly gotten a little more annoyed with David in recent weeks and David has seemingly come out of his shell a little more after that British TV show. What do you take out of all that?
STEWARD: Well you know it’s down to the wire with both of these guys, but David is the one as the fight is drawing closer now who’s going back into his shell. I don’t know what you might be reading of him, but I’m right here and listening to him. Wladimir is feeling extremely comfortable about the fight and actually to the place where in some cases he’s almost intimidating David now that the fight is growing closer. I believe that reality is setting in and with all of the things that David has been doing, I guess cutting out his cartoons, and his shirts, and video games that he’s created. All of those gimmicks have pretty much run their course now and reality is setting in and he’s going to have to climb into the ring very shortly to face Wladimir, and they will take all of his scissors, and t-shirts, and video games away from him and he’ll be left alone to fight Wladimir Klitschko and that’s when the real drama will start and the emotional pressure will begin to come into play.
JENNA: Alright, well Emanuel as always I’m joined by my Co-Host Geoff.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hi Emanuel. It’s a pleasure to have you back on the show.
STEWARD: Okay, it’s a pleasure being on the show too, Geoff.
CIANI: Emanuel I wanted to ask you, most of the people who are picking David Haye to win this fight seem to think he has this huge advantage in hand speed and quickness and I’m curious, do you think it’s going to play out that way in the fight?
STEWARD: Nope! Well you know in these cases, every fighter has one or two advantages he believes, and we specialize in taking that advantage away. In this case in all of the other areas Wladimir is superior, so they figure that can come in with speed. They are not going to be any faster than a Sultan Ibragimov, a Chris Byrd, Eliseo Castillo, or Eddie Chambers. In all of those cases Wladimir not only beat those guys, but afterwards they said they were just totally shocked at how fast he was and that he was faster than they were. The image that David Haye has of Wladimir is just of a slow moving stiff robot. It’s totally a joke and I think he believes that. He’s comparing Wladimir to Valuev and those type of guys.
But the one area where he feels he is superior in, and most of the fans are going to be surprised that Wladimir’s going to have faster speed than Haye. Once you take away a guy’s only asset where he thinks he has an advantage at, he has a problem and that’s what we’ve been preparing for much like we did for the fight with Ibragimov and the fight with Eddie Chambers. He will not have the advantage in speed, he definitely doesn’t have the advantage in size, he doesn’t have the advantage of experience in super fights, and as far as punching power! He punches yeah, but he punches good with Maccaranielli who was knocked out by Wladimir’s sparring partner Ola Afolabi. Nevertheless, that’s what the public sees but the punching power Wladimir has is the most devastating single punch punching power of any heavyweight that I’ve ever trained. He just doesn’t do it often enough. With five seconds left in the fight he knocked out Eddie Chambers. Then he had the short left hooks with Ray Austin. Once he realized he was cut he went out and knocked out Calvin Brock with one single right hand.
It’s very seldom you have a guy with that type of punching power. So I don’t think the punching power favors David Haye. This is something where they’re trying to find what are his best assets, but his best assets are not enough. So I think Wladimir’s overall experience in super fights being in filled 50,000-something seat stadiums, his all around boxing ability, the left jab which is not a simple jab that they seem to think. It’s a very, very educated complicated form of jabbing that he does that no one gets away from. So I just personally feel extremely, extremely comfortable going into this fight and Wladimir feels the same way.
CIANI: Now in recent fights, and Chris Byrd mentioned this when we had him on the show earlier and the week and he said ever since the rematch with him that Wladimir has been very patient and systematic in beating his opponents down. But you’ve mentioned on the show previously that you haven’t seen Wladimir this angry since the rematch with Chris Byrd. I’m wondering if you expect him to come out a bit more aggressive than we’re accustomed to seeing?
STEWARD: Yes, he’s going to be a little more aggressive but not to the point where he’ll be off his fight plan. He’s been through a lot of fights. The man has nearly 60 fights so he knows how to apply pressure in a systematic way without getting too careless or burning himself out and making mistakes. But there will be a lot more intensity in this fight then there has been in say the Sam Peter fight and up to the finish in the Eddie Chambers fight. He will be a much more intense fighter, with more of a direct attack and so lackadaisical where sometimes he gets very comfortable with controlling the fight with just his left jab. That will not be the case this time.
JENNA: Now Emanuel, one thing that both David and Wladimir have in common is that both men lasted tasted defeat in 2004 both in the fifth round. How do you think both men have changed since their last losses?
STEWARD: Well I think they both have improved. I think the difference is the caliber of opponents that Wladimir has been fighting has been different and also they have been heavyweights. David hasn’t fought that many quality heavyweights at all. If Monte Barrett can be sold as opponent, someone that Wladimir knocked out I think about nine years ago when he was a pretty decent upcoming fighter, and we could not even use him as a sparring partner three years ago because he was that inferior. After a few days in the gym we actually had to send him home because he couldn’t hold up, and still they sold that fight to the British public after all of that, and they bought that. With Valuev he had lost to Chagaev, and then Ruiz. I mean this is what he’s been fighting whereas Wladimir has fought Sam Peter, and at the time undefeated Sam Peter when they fought the first time, Calvin Brock who was undefeated when he fought him, Sultan Ibragimov was undefeated still when he fought him, and Eddie Chambers who is one of the best most talented young fighters I’ve seen still who may still end up being heavyweight champion in another year or so. Then Tony Thompson was definitely a big challenge, a big man who was left-handed. The caliber that he’s fought as compared to what David Haye has is like a joke. You can’t even compare them.
JENNA: When it comes down to the fight itself, and you mentioned this before during the press conferences that you’ve never seen Wladimir this emotionally charged up for a fight. Do you think that can at all lead to him making mistakes that could get him caught with a big punch, a punch that could give David Haye a chance in this fight?
STEWARD: You won’t see it happen. He’s very motivated but he knows how to plan an attack without getting careless. In fact in recent days he’s been actually laughing more at David and looking at David and looking at his friend/manager/trainer, but friend more so than the latter day. Him and Booth are like two kids who are excited about being in a big Broadway play or something. They got a lot of theatrical stuff that they do every time, but they’re not really tuned into reality. As far as we’re concerned they’re not even professionals, and as the fight gets closer Wladimir is actually laughing more at David Haye and his whole entourage and all the theatrics. Where before he was upset, he just realizes that David is definitely out of his league and he has created all of these theatrical antics, and thank God that he did. He’s created a great fight, but I think on the night of the fight you’re going to see an unbelievable big disparity in skills. You will see David Haye look very, very out of place.
CIANI: Emanuel, if Wladimir wins this fight how exactly do you think it impacts his legacy and do you think that this would be his career-defining win to this point?
STEWARD: This will definitely be his career-defining fight and he realizes that. All of these other fights he’s won, the Gold Medal which he won in ’96 and all of that will all be moot compared to this fight here. His whole career will pretty much hinge off of this fight here. This is the super fight that he’s always wanted, and that’s the way boxing is. When you think of Alexis Arguello, as soon as you think of Alexis you think of Aaron Pryor. He won 50 or 60 fights and was a great champion, but it’s always just one or two career-defining fights they remember when your career is over. In this case it’s going to be the David Haye fight. He started boxing when he was 14 and all of it is coming down to July 2 and everything will be on the line in terms of legacy based on what happens July 2, 2011.
JENNA: Alright now Emanuel if David Haye loses this fight which a lot of people believe that he will, do you think he will in fact retire right after it?
STEWARD: I do not believe that David Haye is going to retire after this fight. He will have enough money without really fighting himself into a great position. He’s talked and done enough gimmicks to get himself into this situation because of the big hunger of the public for a competitive heavyweight fight. So he created it without actually doing anything in the ring. With all of these other publicity gimmicks and he’s created it where he will might make somewhere maybe in terms of American money like $26 or $27 or $30 million. So he’ll be set for life, but I think David Haye will not want to finish his career on the embarrassing note of being a knockout victim so he will fight again.
JENNA: Now you already mentioned before how Wladimir is very focused for the fight and you don’t see him making any mistakes, but in a scenario that he does make mistakes, what can you see him doing that could lead him to losing?
STEWARD: I’ll be very honest with you, I don’t see any way I can see Wladimir losing this fight. I mean anybody in the heavyweight division or any fighter can land a punch. I mean you got small gloves on, you got powerful guys, and David Haye is a good puncher and he does have speed. Overall, we’ve been analyzing this fight and we’ve been going over it step-by-step covering each possible scenario, outside of just a one punch situation, I can’t see David winning. In that type of a situation it can happen to anybody that can land that one punch as we saw with Hasim Rahman and Lennox Lewis in the first fight. Beyond that, whether it was just a pressure style, or counterpunching, or outboxing him, or trying to come in to go toe-to-toe. All of David Haye’s strategies are going to be declared null and void, except for if he can just land that one single punch.
JENNA: How do you this fight playing out from start to finish. Right now what’s your official prediction? How’s it going to end?
STEWARD: I think Wladimir is going to come out and apply tremendous foot pressure, not just walking in like a robot, but fast foot pressure with cutting off the ring. He will be creating anxiety and making David Haye, when he does throw punches, fall off balance because he fights with his legs really far apart and he can never throw a few punches usually with that balance. With the mental anxiety that he’s going to experience, he’ll start folding because of the pressure that’s going to be applied and I see Wladimir knocking him out within four rounds.
JENNA: Alright, well my final question revolves around what the fans will be seeing. This fight will be on HBO. It will be Wladimir’s first fight on HBO since his fight with Hasim Rahman. Do you think this fight with David Haye will be the start of something to come where the heavyweight division gets rejuvenated from it and that people will want to see more of Wladimir Klitschko?
STEWARD: I believe that this fight will create a lot of excitement and renew interest and focus on the heavyweight division, because the interest that is being generated just by the announcement of the fight, and David’s tactics, and Wladimir wants to badly fight back in America. To be honest there are not too many American contenders except Arreola who is I guess having his regular three wins or four. We have to fight him if we’re going to try and make a fight with him before he loses again, because that’s what he seems to do. With his renewed weight he seems more disciplined. That would be an ideal situation for me, is to come back to America for his next fight maybe against an Arreola, but the fight’s got a lot of interest. When I was at home last week in St. Louis with K9 for Sechew Powell, I was surprised at just the amount of interest that is phenomenal in this fight, because people are waiting for a good heavyweight fight.
JENNA: Alright well Emanuel, it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the show so close to such a big fight. I want to wish you all the best of luck on Saturday night with both you and Wladimir, and I just can’t wait to see it!
STEWARD: Thank you for having me on the show.
CIANI: Thanks Emanuel, best of luck, Saturday.
STEWARD: Okay, you’re welcome Geoff.
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