McClellan & Steward Question
McClellan & Steward Question
What were the details of the split between Gerald McClellan and Manny Steward? I know Manny, as he was want to do, would tell anybody who'd listen about how good Gerald was and then, all of a sudden, the relationship broke down. I never knew precisely why. Money?
Re: McClellan & Steward Question
I think McClellan was upset because he wasn't getting enough attention from Steward. That's what he was saying after the Baptiste fight.JLP wrote:What were the details of the split between Gerald McClellan and Manny Steward? I know Manny, as he was want to do, would tell anybody who'd listen about how good Gerald was and then, all of a sudden, the relationship broke down. I never knew precisely why. Money?
Re: McClellan & Steward Question
Common theme.
The first half of this interview more or less covers it:
"When he started at the Kronk he was very much a Tommy Hearns clone, trying to box and move like Tommy but definitely needed some tweaking.
"Tommy had been his hero. Unfortunately for Gerald I had Tommy, I had Michael Moorer, Michael Bentt, I had Oba Carr, Leonzer Barber and all those guys, John David Jackson, Gaby Canizales, Dennis Andries - how much time have you got? Even James Toney.
"I spent most of my time working with Tommy and Michael Moorer. Gerald started taking guys out and he had demons inside from his father, so when he started taking guys out he fell in love with this power he never realised he had because it was like a release.
"It wasn't a case of me leaving him to do his thing. I was simply too tied-up with working on Tommy's preps for the (second) Sugar Ray Leonard fight and actually didn't work with Gerald for one second before his loss to Dennis Milton because Dennis Andries employed me and paid me and had an important WBC world title fight.
"In hindsight, Gerald was a 21-year-old kid with no rounds under his belt going in with an experienced and slick pro (Milton) who had beat everyone as an amateur, so it was wrong and the guy I had looking after him, Stan Johnson, was wrong for him because he was a 'yes' man.
"We started afresh in 1990 and I became quite personal with Gerald. Gerald was a lost soul after every one wrote him off following his losses, he also needed abit of a father figure.
"He stayed with me and it's true I tooted him as the best of the lot. But in hindsight that was wrong because he didn't have the mentality, every time he got in the ring he saw his father so it was a chore for him to stick the jab and wait for sneak punches like Tommy.
"We always had disagreements, he was always wanting to work on footwork based on closing in and not even finding openings but making openings. Everything else was a chore for him so we never got along boxing-wise and training-wise. But he had almost unlimited potential physically.
"People mistakenly seem to think he was a fighter who came forward recklessly throwing big right hands. His move was feinting the jab and bringing down the straight right, and his best punch was the left (hook) to the body - that was the real effective one. He was one of the best jab artists I've seen, let alone worked with."
"The fight he had with Roy (Jones) in the 1988 Golden Gloves was tremendous, he was the only guy who could get close to Roy in terms of speed and made up for Roy's slight edge in speed with his timing and reach and so what you had then was a very competitive fight.
"Gerald had Roy hunched over, wincing from a bodyshot to the abs. That was early on and from there Roy seemed scared to stand his ground.
"Roy was backing off, which I never saw Roy do in the ams. Gerald was unschooled at cutting the ring size down back then and so just came forward and opened up, simply relying on speed, timing, reach and athleticism.
"Roy was countering him well and having the last word in exchanges, but then Gerald would take a little jump back and leap into another assault! You could see the fear in Roy's eyes.
"He (Gerald) deserved the win because Roy couldn't stand with him and almost accepted defeated in that respect.
"This was before Gerald came to Kronk and got quality sparring followed by quality tutorship, and before he truly realised he had these heavy pair of hands. So who knows if he fought Roy with me in his corner.
"Who knows? That's all I'm saying."
The first half of this interview more or less covers it:
"When he started at the Kronk he was very much a Tommy Hearns clone, trying to box and move like Tommy but definitely needed some tweaking.
"Tommy had been his hero. Unfortunately for Gerald I had Tommy, I had Michael Moorer, Michael Bentt, I had Oba Carr, Leonzer Barber and all those guys, John David Jackson, Gaby Canizales, Dennis Andries - how much time have you got? Even James Toney.
"I spent most of my time working with Tommy and Michael Moorer. Gerald started taking guys out and he had demons inside from his father, so when he started taking guys out he fell in love with this power he never realised he had because it was like a release.
"It wasn't a case of me leaving him to do his thing. I was simply too tied-up with working on Tommy's preps for the (second) Sugar Ray Leonard fight and actually didn't work with Gerald for one second before his loss to Dennis Milton because Dennis Andries employed me and paid me and had an important WBC world title fight.
"In hindsight, Gerald was a 21-year-old kid with no rounds under his belt going in with an experienced and slick pro (Milton) who had beat everyone as an amateur, so it was wrong and the guy I had looking after him, Stan Johnson, was wrong for him because he was a 'yes' man.
"We started afresh in 1990 and I became quite personal with Gerald. Gerald was a lost soul after every one wrote him off following his losses, he also needed abit of a father figure.
"He stayed with me and it's true I tooted him as the best of the lot. But in hindsight that was wrong because he didn't have the mentality, every time he got in the ring he saw his father so it was a chore for him to stick the jab and wait for sneak punches like Tommy.
"We always had disagreements, he was always wanting to work on footwork based on closing in and not even finding openings but making openings. Everything else was a chore for him so we never got along boxing-wise and training-wise. But he had almost unlimited potential physically.
"People mistakenly seem to think he was a fighter who came forward recklessly throwing big right hands. His move was feinting the jab and bringing down the straight right, and his best punch was the left (hook) to the body - that was the real effective one. He was one of the best jab artists I've seen, let alone worked with."
"The fight he had with Roy (Jones) in the 1988 Golden Gloves was tremendous, he was the only guy who could get close to Roy in terms of speed and made up for Roy's slight edge in speed with his timing and reach and so what you had then was a very competitive fight.
"Gerald had Roy hunched over, wincing from a bodyshot to the abs. That was early on and from there Roy seemed scared to stand his ground.
"Roy was backing off, which I never saw Roy do in the ams. Gerald was unschooled at cutting the ring size down back then and so just came forward and opened up, simply relying on speed, timing, reach and athleticism.
"Roy was countering him well and having the last word in exchanges, but then Gerald would take a little jump back and leap into another assault! You could see the fear in Roy's eyes.
"He (Gerald) deserved the win because Roy couldn't stand with him and almost accepted defeated in that respect.
"This was before Gerald came to Kronk and got quality sparring followed by quality tutorship, and before he truly realised he had these heavy pair of hands. So who knows if he fought Roy with me in his corner.
"Who knows? That's all I'm saying."
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misterpunch
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Re: McClellan & Steward Question
good informative stuff 
Re: McClellan & Steward Question
Great find.orbtastic wrote:Common theme.
The first half of this interview more or less covers it:
"When he started at the Kronk he was very much a Tommy Hearns clone, trying to box and move like Tommy but definitely needed some tweaking.
"Tommy had been his hero. Unfortunately for Gerald I had Tommy, I had Michael Moorer, Michael Bentt, I had Oba Carr, Leonzer Barber and all those guys, John David Jackson, Gaby Canizales, Dennis Andries - how much time have you got? Even James Toney.
"I spent most of my time working with Tommy and Michael Moorer. Gerald started taking guys out and he had demons inside from his father, so when he started taking guys out he fell in love with this power he never realised he had because it was like a release.
"It wasn't a case of me leaving him to do his thing. I was simply too tied-up with working on Tommy's preps for the (second) Sugar Ray Leonard fight and actually didn't work with Gerald for one second before his loss to Dennis Milton because Dennis Andries employed me and paid me and had an important WBC world title fight.
"In hindsight, Gerald was a 21-year-old kid with no rounds under his belt going in with an experienced and slick pro (Milton) who had beat everyone as an amateur, so it was wrong and the guy I had looking after him, Stan Johnson, was wrong for him because he was a 'yes' man.
"We started afresh in 1990 and I became quite personal with Gerald. Gerald was a lost soul after every one wrote him off following his losses, he also needed abit of a father figure.
"He stayed with me and it's true I tooted him as the best of the lot. But in hindsight that was wrong because he didn't have the mentality, every time he got in the ring he saw his father so it was a chore for him to stick the jab and wait for sneak punches like Tommy.
"We always had disagreements, he was always wanting to work on footwork based on closing in and not even finding openings but making openings. Everything else was a chore for him so we never got along boxing-wise and training-wise. But he had almost unlimited potential physically.
"People mistakenly seem to think he was a fighter who came forward recklessly throwing big right hands. His move was feinting the jab and bringing down the straight right, and his best punch was the left (hook) to the body - that was the real effective one. He was one of the best jab artists I've seen, let alone worked with."
"The fight he had with Roy (Jones) in the 1988 Golden Gloves was tremendous, he was the only guy who could get close to Roy in terms of speed and made up for Roy's slight edge in speed with his timing and reach and so what you had then was a very competitive fight.
"Gerald had Roy hunched over, wincing from a bodyshot to the abs. That was early on and from there Roy seemed scared to stand his ground.
"Roy was backing off, which I never saw Roy do in the ams. Gerald was unschooled at cutting the ring size down back then and so just came forward and opened up, simply relying on speed, timing, reach and athleticism.
"Roy was countering him well and having the last word in exchanges, but then Gerald would take a little jump back and leap into another assault! You could see the fear in Roy's eyes.
"He (Gerald) deserved the win because Roy couldn't stand with him and almost accepted defeated in that respect.
"This was before Gerald came to Kronk and got quality sparring followed by quality tutorship, and before he truly realised he had these heavy pair of hands. So who knows if he fought Roy with me in his corner.
"Who knows? That's all I'm saying."
Re: McClellan & Steward Question
Thank you.
Re: McClellan & Steward Question
Just an observation on Steward. There seems to have been two phases to Mannys career as a trainer. The first part was him taking these Detroit kids from day one as amateurs at The Kronk bringing them through the amateurs and turning them pro. The second phase had already established fighters and champions coming to train with him. He certainly did well in both phases but like that article saysNhe had his hands full super busy. I don't know how he did it.