By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
In this Q&A, legendary trainer, Manny Steward, shares his thoughts on the WBA junior middleweight (154 pounds) bout between Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. that is being planned by Top Rank Promotions for Dec. 4 likely at either at New York's Madison Square Garden or the MGM Gand in Las Vegas.
Steward will be in his second fight with the 29-year-old Cotto (35-2, 28 knockouts) of Puerto Rico, who is coming off of June's ninth-round knockout that dethronedYuri Foreman. Steward said that he once trained the father of Chavez Jr. (41-0-1, 30 KOs), of Mexico, and had been considered to train the son.
The bout also matches Steward against four-time Trainer of the Year, Freddie Roach.
FanHouse: How big is the fact that Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. -- the son of the former champion -- are otentially going to fight on Dec. 4?
Manny Steward: Well, it looks like it's going to happen, first of all. It's a very intriguing ffight, and it looks like it's going to be at Madison Square Garden, too. I think that it will be at The Garden. They're getting ready for the fight.
How intriguing is it from a fan's point of view that you have Mexico against Puerto Rico in Julio Cesar Chavez going against Miguel Cotto, and then the trainers Freddie Roach against Manny Steward, and at The Garden, where Cotto is unbeaten in six fights?
Yeah, you can't forget about the fact that Freddie Roach will be in the other corner, yeah. There are a lot of story angles involved in this fight. Even more than what you mentioned is the fact that Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. had actually asked me to train his son.
When did that happen?
Well, when I was down at the Dallas Cowboys' Stadium for the [March 13] Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight, who comes over and comes over and grabs me on the shoulder, as if, like in desperation? 'Steward, Steward, you've got to help my son, he's got to help him. Big fight coming up with John Duddy,' and, 'give me your phone number please.'
I just told him to give me a call, and I think, at the time, I was working on Wladimir Klitschk's fight with Eddie Chambers [12th-round knockout on March 20.] Ithink that he was unable to get in touch with me while I was over there in Germany, so I guess they decided to take him on over to Freddie's gym.
What about the fact that you once trained Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.?
It's going to be strange for me to be going into the ring against the son of one of the former fighters that I trained. I just had to do that this past week, with Cornelius Bundrage against Leon Spinks' son, Cory Spinks [fifth-round knockout for Bunderage that dethroned Spinks as IBF junior middleweight champion.]
You know, Leon lived across the street from me in Detroit, so I took over as his manager and trainer for a while. I had him for three or four fights. The night before the fight with Bundrage, Leon was talking to me about it like, 'I never thought that you would be training someone to fight against my son.' I said, 'I bet that you never thought that you would have a son in this position either, did you?'
Which fights did you train Julio Cesar Chavez for?
After the first loss that Julio Cesar Chavez lost to Frankie Randall, that's when Don King and those guys asked me to come in and do what I'm doing with Miguel Cotto now. I came in and helped him the rematch with Frankie Randall [won by Chavez by eighth-round technical decision.]
I also trained him for the rematch with Meldrick Taylor and his fight with Tony Lopez [eighth and 10th round knockouts.] I would have stayed with him longer, but then, I decided to go with Lennox Lewis.
I remember Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and, Omar Chavez, his two sons when they were little kids, they were always with us all of the time. When we've interviewed his son for HBO's fighter meetings, I ask him all of the time, and we talk about it all of the time. I've known him since they were babies.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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