![]() To understand just how we got there, we need to go back to the beginning. For once it didn't take a keen eye for the technical details to process what was happening.īut this is the twelfth and final round. So was everyone else who saw what he did. Whatever the reason, Manny Steward-the calm and calculated brain of a few dozen world champions-was exhilarated. Was it to beg for his intervention in bringing an end to what he was witnessing or in appreciation for the beauty his hand had made possible? On the 26th of April, 2003, Steward cried out to the almighty. ![]() When he lost his cool, you could be sure something out of the ordinary was happening-the sage letting his mask slip and shouting out like a fan who has lost all his inhibitions. The hall-of-fame trainer had passed on his knowledge of the sweet science to numerous greats-among them Thomas Hearns and Lennox Lewis.Īs an announcer he was mild-mannered and shared his opinion only when he envisioned himself on the ring apron doing what he did best, suggesting tactical shifts for fighters better than anyone else could. No way, no how.By the second year of the new millennium there wasn't much in the sport of boxing that Emanuel Steward hadn't seen. A fight like that can't be an end to a career. "I didn't show my ability when I fought him first time, not even 30% of it. Whatever the outcome of the contest for Morales's World Boxing Council featherweight title, Hamed says it is Barrera he wants. Meanwhile, Hamed continues to bang the drum for a rematch with Barrera, who must first face his great Mexican rival Erik Morales. Tapia, 35, who made his British debut last month, has signed a contract with the US television company HBO which makes a Hamed fight a likelihood, particularly since Tapia's enduring popularity would ensure a commercial success.īritish fans are being given another chance to view Tapia at close quarters as he fights his fellow American Angel Vazquez in the principal support bout on the London bill. Plans are being hatched to match Hamed thereafter with the charismatic former world bantamweight and super-bantamweight champion Johnny Tapia in the US in the summer. ![]() Hamed should have few problems picking up a win over the 34-year-old Calvo, who rates a points victory over the former world champion Steve Robinson in Madrid last year as the outstanding performance of his 38 pro fights. But I believe I am the best in the world still. You have to put your hands up and say you got beat by a better man on the night. "But he played it cool, he played it right. It was the biggest fight of my career and I wanted to sparkle that night. But they don't come just by wanting them. ![]() It is clear Hamed hopes to be able to adopt the more elusive style of his early career and he said: "That night against Barrera, I had one thing in my head for 10 weeks in training, all I could see was a knockout. What kind of advice is that? He talks about all the champions he's had, but almost all of them were already top-class fighters when they went to him." "I was told 'You need a knockout to win' for rounds on end. He's not as good as he is made out to be in the gym and my corner was terrible in the Barrera fight. Hamed and Steward, who also trains the world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, parted company in the aftermath of Hamed's first professional defeat when he was outpointed by the Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas last April, and Hamed has now entrusted all training responsibility to the Puerto Rican Oscar Suarez as he prepares for his comeback against Spain's Manuel Calvo at the London Arena on March 23.Īlthough Hamed emphasised he was not making excuses for the defeat by Barrera, he said of Steward: "I thought he wasn't what he is made out to be. Emanuel Steward's reputation as the world's leading trainer took a battering in the genteel confines of a Park Lane hotel in London yesterday, as Naseem Hamed explained his plans for rebuilding his career to reclaim a position of pre-eminence in the featherweight division.
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