“Goldfather” Emanuel Steward
EMANUEL, PEDRO & COGNAC
San Francisco, CA– One night in early 1993, Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward and I got buzzed in his Motown mansion. After a short stint on the back porch, we threw a couple back in the kitchen before moving in to the front room.
GOLDFATHER QUITE AN EDUCATOR
Besides espousing some political points of view that swung more Left than Right, but some Right, the 1962 US AAU bantamweight (118 lb.) champion who passed in October 2012 left an indelible mark on both boxing and myself.
BURNED BY LEONARD & DUNDEE IN 1981
After a couple of hours of back and forth chat, the Kronk Gym Goldfather whose first champion was WBA lightweight guy Hilmer Kenty in March 1980 said, “Pedro Fernandez, you ask me anything you want.”
“SECOND SET OF EYES IN CORNER”
With both of us being kept warm by spirits and the furnace as it was snowing which was queer to a native San Franciscan. As we made our way around the room talking about posted pictures of Emanuel with everybody but Jesus Christ and Mahatma Ghandi, we came to a picture of Tommy Hearns and Ray Leonard.
PUTTING STEWARD ON SPOT
Looking at this September 1981 photograph of his charge Tommy Hearns and Ray Charles Leonard clashing for undisputed welterweight supremacy, I blurted out, “You mucked up there.” All of a sudden, as ex-Mike Tyson trainer Aaron Snowell says, “It got so quiet you could hear a mouse piss on a wad of cotton behind the piano.”
GOLDFATHER STOPS DEAD IN TRACKS
Raising a glass to his lips, Emanuel takes a decent swig of cognac and with a puzzled look he says in a tone that was quite unfamiliar, “Pedro Fernandez, what the muck are you talking about?”
NOW IT’S PEDRO ON SPOT
Not expecting the conversation to turn on a dime like it did, I had three options. 1. I could tell him I was jesting. 2. Sugarcoat it. 3. Tell it like it is. Had I not chosen #3, I would be kicking myself still some 21 years later. “Tommy, when you dried him out in your Caesars Palace shower, you brought him in 1 1/2 lbs. (145.5) under the welter (147) limit.”
NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY OFFENDED RESPONSE
“Damn, Pedro you got that right. How did you know about the shower? We always dried out to make 147, but Tommy had trained harder and was in better shape than he’d ever been. But I’ve thought about it over the years, if Tommy had that extra weight, could he have pulled that one out in round 14 or 15. Tommy and I were both shocked when the weight was announced.”
HEARNS STRATEGY GAVE RAY BREATHING ROOM
The then unbeaten Tommy Hearns who had knocked out 22 of 25 opponents had better than a three inch edge in height, a wider reach and power edge over the 5’10 also undefeated Ray Leonard, was the Hitman is still to this day the hardest hitting welterweight in history.
PUTTING STEWARD BACK ON SPOT
“Why didn’t you send Tommy out firing heavy artillery? He came out boxing and was content to fight at a distance, he ‘s the mucken Hitman, Emanuel.”
GOLDFATHER SITTING ON THRONE
Now seated in a huge chair, Steward thinks before answering. “I think I was afraid Tommy would shoot his wad, and he wanted to outbox Ray Leonard, who was probably the better pure boxer.”
WRONG TO BOX WITH RAY LEONARD?
“I think the strategy was wrong in hindsight. Funny Pedro, with Tommy coming in so light, I was concerned with his going 15 rounds. If I had to do it again, I’d have sent him out with the intent of knocking Ray Leonard out early. As it turns out when Ray was all busted up, Tommy didn’t have enough left to go get him. Angelo (Dundee) fired Ray up and to their credit they came on and won.”
“FOOTBALL IS A GAME OF INCHES”
Steward closed the book on the topic when he said. “If professional football is a game of inches, professional boxing is a game of ounces.”
Pedro Fernandez