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Emanuel Steward is a
boxing
trainer, commentator and inductee of the
International Boxing Hall Of Fame.
Steward was born in
West Virginia,
and by the age of 12, he had moved with his mother to
Detroit,
Michigan.
When he moved to Detroit, he began frequenting the Brewster
Recreation Center, where
Joe Louis
and
Eddie Futch
trained, and began an amateur boxing career. Steward compiled a
record of 95 wins and 3 losses as an amateur
boxer,
including winning the 1963 national
Golden Gloves
tournament in the
bantamweight
division. Afterwards Steward became interested in training
amateur boxers, but due to his family's economic situation he
needed a steady job, and so he temporarily became an
electrician.
In 1971 Steward took his half brother James to the
nearby
Kronk Gym
and became a part time head coach in Kronk Gym.
By the 1970s, Kronk became an amateur boxer hot-bed, as
Steward trained many of the nation's top amateur contenders. He
eventually translated that success with amateurs into a career
training championship-level professional fighters.
On March 2 of 1980
Hilmer Kenty
became Steward's first world champion by knocking out world
Lightweight champ
Ernesto España).
He achieved his most notable success with welterweight
Thomas Hearns,
whom he changed from a light hitting boxer into a devastating
puncher. Hearns became one of Steward's most successful and
popular fighters, fighting
Sugar Ray Leonard,
knocking out
Roberto Durán,
and challenging
undisputed Middleweight Champion
Marvelous Marvin Hagler
in a fight known as
The War.
Steward is still training fighters in Detroit,
Michigan. |
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