Hit Man - Brian Hughes [84]
In an interview conducted with respected Detroit boxing journalist, Lindy Lindell, Emanuel Steward was more candid about his feelings and his disillusionment with the state of the sport. He expressed disappointment at boxers he had nurtured from the beginning who had let him down and regretted that these experiences had left him “unable to trust anyone.” Reflecting on his early coaching career, he said, “When I started the Kronk Boxing Team, it was a programme where everyone within depended on a kind of family-type of loyalty. It was only after I began to get involved with fighters who were not from the Kronk that I realised that this kind of situation didn’t necessarily carry over. With the original guys like Jimmy Paul and Milton McCrory, the Kronk was their life and their families were involved as well, like satellite members of our team. This climate meant that we never looked at contracts very closely.” Steward maintained that this relaxed approach to the legalities had been a mistake. “When we got involved with other fighters, we were lax from a business viewpoint. Most of the guys who came in, like [IBF welterweight champion] Tyrone Trice, were susceptible to listening to outsiders who would bend their ears. This is a problem common to the business of boxing. This creates jealousy and a bad atmosphere because fighters are very egotistical.” The portents of discontent were evident in Steward’s words and manner. He knew that the end of his eighteen-year relationship with Thomas Hearns was nigh.
The split, when it came, was a bitterly fought, protracted affair with both men appearing unwilling to take the final step and terminate their partnership. After the Olajide fight, Hearns was eager to press on and fight again quickly, and negotiations for a possible contest with Roy Jones, the IBF super-middleweight champion, began. Hearns was angered by Steward’s confirmation of this to the press and his claims that he was haggling for a $3 million purse for his fighter. Hearns stated that he was personally conducting negotiations with Jones because Steward was otherwise engaged with his other fighters, leaving Hearns to negotiate, train and prepare on his own at the Kronk gym. “Emanuel tries to put himself out there in front and make it seem like he’s doing everything and I’m doing nothing,” Hearns said. “I want this fight, and, I want to show to him and to everyone else that I can go out and speak on my own behalf and have the ability of organising things for myself.” Hearns had met Roy Jones near his Florida home and they had discussed boxing each other in the autumn of 1991, with Las Vegas their preferred venue.
Hearns was particularly aggrieved that Steward had been unavailable due to entering the training camp of heavyweight Lennox Lewis to prepare him for his bout with Ray Mercer. “It feels like Thomas Hearns has been on the back burner for a long period of time,” he complained. “I think I am the main breadwinner but Emanuel is too busy training other fighters. He doesn’t have time to train his own fighters. Instead, I have to look out for myself because the person I used to depend on doesn’t have time for me.” Yet he refused to confirm that he had split with his mentor, saying “I still have a lot of belief in Emanuel and I’m not closing the door.” Though, ominously, he added, “Yet.”
JUST WEEKS AFTER this statement, Hearns announced that he had ended his association with manager and trainer Emanuel Steward for “personal and professional reasons.” He then shocked even the hard-bitten boxing hacks by declaring that the notorious Harold Smith, fresh from serving six years in federal prison of a ten-year sentence for embezzlement, and Dennis Rappaport, a boxing manager from