by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 123rd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward who discussed a variety of topics including the upcoming mega bout between Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao, Chad Dawson’s May 21 matchup with Adrian Diaconu, Bernard Hopkins, Wladimir Klitschko’s heavyweight unification fight with David Haye, and more! Here are some excerpts from that interview:
His views on the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley this Saturday
“It’s an extremely intriguing fight to me because here is a fight that when it was first made it was totally criticized by everyone as being a total mismatch based on Mosley’s recent performances outside of the Margarito fight. The fight that he with Mora which wasn’t that exciting and then the terrible performance he had against Mayweather. Aside from staggering Mayweather I guess in the second round, I mean he was never really in the fight. But nevertheless the crowd and the public is going crazy. I cannot believe the amount of people that have been calling me up asking if I could get tickets at any price. It means to me that boxing is healthy still and the intriguing thing about it is people are dying to see a fight that I think when it was first established was like a 4:1 favorite for Pacquiao. I think that’s because the public still has a big desire to see marquee name fighters fighting each other. Especially like in the case of Pacquiao and Mosley who have for the most part really established themselves as really true warriors. So even though Mosley hasn’t been that great in his last fights, there are a lot of people asking me if I think Mosley can pull it off or if Sugar Shane can turn back the hands of time. It’s almost like Mike Tyson when he finally fought Lennox. It wasn’t the same Mike Tyson but the interest was still there because people are still trying to hold onto that Shane Mosley who had the two great fights with Oscar De La Hoya, and knocking out Vargas, and I guess Mayorga, and even t he fight he had with Miguel Cotto. So there are a lot of people in their own minds they’re kind of gradually forgetting about the Mayweather performance. I think it’s going to be a tremendous turnout and do big numbers with the pay-per-view that they’re selling. I think it’s good for boxing and regardless of who wins, which naturally favors Pacquiao, I think it’s going to be a good fight.”
His views on Mosley’s best chance to win against Pacquiao:
“Just myself it’s very difficult for me to see Shane beating him. I really can’t because Shane is not a puncher and he’s not really a boxer. Shane doesn’t really box. He’ll move around and he’ll like jingle his left hand and then he’ll jingle real loose-like and then he’ll explode with a bunch of flurries and then he gets back again and he rests again and he flurries again. So to beat Manny I think someone needs to box and try to make him get off balance a lot and use really good fundamental basics. That’s why Marquez always has given him and always will give a tough fight with Pacquiao because Marquez has such good basic balance. He made Manny get out of position a lot and he took advantage of it when he was out of position because of his fundamentals and basics being so sound. But that is not Shane. Shane would have to change and he’s not a big puncher. So I see him fighting a good competitive fight but I just don’t see Mosley beating Manny Pacquiao, it’s hard for me to really even create an image in my mind because he’s not the puncher, he’s not the boxer really. He’s a fighter! I see it being an exciting fight but I just don’t see him beating Manny.”
His views on Chad Dawson’s upcoming matchup against Adrian Diaconu and the training and preparation for that bout:
“Chad has been preparing good. He’s been training. That’s normal, but I think the opponent is a much more difficult opponent than many of the general fight fans realize. We studied him very closely and he’s a pretty good balanced out fighter and I think he’s going to enjoy a tremendous amount of unbelievable support from the Canadian fans, in particular the Romanians which have been really introduced and won over into the boxing world because of the unbelievable success of Lucian Bute. I think it’s going to have a lot of support from the Romanian crowd. He may have more support even than Jean Pascal in this fight actually. I think based on that and his natural talent that this could be a very difficult fight.”
His views on the Bernard Hopkins-Jean Pascal rematch and whether he believes Dawson will really get the winner should be beat Diaconu:
“Well I would say I hope that it is. That’s the best you can say. You never know what happens in boxing, but I think that Pascal and Hopkins is a very intriguing fight for the fact it was not really an exciting fight. Nevertheless I think they’re going to do unbelievable numbers in terms of the public that’s watching it on television as well as the live gate and it’s mainly because of two factors. One, everyone saw the fight because it was such a bad extremely bitter cold night that it seems everyone was home that night with nowhere to go. They didn’t want to go out in that weather so they watched the fight. Then the next factor was the unbelievable controversial decision. The fight was not an exciting fight but based on the controversial decision and the fact it was well watched means it’s going to have an unbelievable audience to watch the rematch between Jean Pascal and Bernard Hopkins. I asked Chad his opinion on the fight and I pretty much have to share the same. He says he doesn’t see where Jean Pascal can do anything differently to beat Bernard. If Bernard steps it up a little bit more Bernard will win more convincingly. Each fighter has his own merits and I think Bernard definitely will have an edge going to the fight, and probably even with the home crowd it will be almost 50-50 because of the way that the fans reacted to the last decision, but Jean Pascal is still a young fighter. You never know when he can get wired up and could possibly do something. For the most part Bernard seems to be the guy that is being a seasoned professional fighter, a very smart fighter, and the fact if he ever decided to step it up a little more very few guys would even go the limit with him because he’s such an accurate fighter and very experienced and seasoned.”
Regarding Wladimir Klitchko’s unification bout against David Haye this July:
“I’m glad that the fight is taking place because once again it’s a match that’s good for boxing. It’s one of the two fights that the public has had interest in that the public seemed to have demanded more so than just being a fight that a certain promoter or two found convenient for them. I’d say outside of the Pacquiao and Mayweather fight this is the only other fight that the public seemed to have some interest in mainly because of the I guess verbal abuse and cartoon abuse that David Haye has heaped upon t he Klitschkos. So I think it’s going to be an exciting fight because of the fact that Klitschko is going to be out of his normal emotional calm state of mind because he has been so angered by David Haye and I think that Haye has the mindset of a winner. Unlike a lot of the guys who fought Wladimir recently and Vitali, they were glad to say that they participated and got to make some money but never came in there with that burning desire or confidence that they were going to win. So I think David brings a new energy. He still can punch. He’s got fast hands. In all of the areas that I look at it Wladimir has to be favored, size-wise, experience, and I guess in this case maybe hometown advantage. One big question that still exists is both guys have questionable chins and whoever gets caught early could change the whole fight.”
On when he expects training camp for Wladimir to kick into high gear:
“Well Wladimir has a scheduled system setup where it’s about six weeks. So everything is laid out pretty good. He’ll box about 130 rounds, because whenever he spars he spars 12 rounds almost always. That’s in about maybe another two weeks, but he’s never out of condition. That’s the one thing you should remember. Wherever he’s calls me from he’s usually just coming from the gym, or coming from running or working out. So he comes in for training camp lighter than he actually weighs in when he weighs in for the fight, which is unusual. He’ll come into training camp at 235 or 237 and the night of the fight he’ll be 242 or 244 and that’s after training hard, sparring, and doing a lot of everything that goes with the training camp because he’s already in shape when he comes to camp. The reason his weight goes up is because he eats three solid meals at regular times, whereas he’s normally so busy like any young single guy that he’s not eating in regular intervals, but he’s always in good condition and outstanding shape.”
On why he believes so many all time greats (like George Foreman, Marvin Hagler, and Larry Holmes) have all come “On the Ropes Boxing Radio” and expressed the opinion that they believe Floyd Mayweather Junior is reluctant to face Manny Pacquiao:
“Because it’s true. Manny went in I guess with the last situation and agreed to everything that was demanded and Floyd for the most part backed off and Floyd really actually believes that Manny is using some type of an enhancement and this and that. Regardless of whether it’s true or not he really believed it. It’s an interesting fight because if the fight would place, maybe it’s changing now because of so much inactivity on the part of Floyd, that Floyd would win the fight! Now maybe Floyd doesn’t believe it that much. So maybe that’s the problem. But Floyd seriously has doubts about Manny’s use of performance enhancing drugs. Whether it’s true or not it’s his belief and that’s the main thing and that’s what he’s concerned about. I don’t know what could be the solution. Manny came in and said he would come in and do anything that he needed and it still didn’t take place. So I don’t know. I think eventually it’s a 50-50 chance that the fight may take place. It’s not much more than that. You know right now Pacquiao’s doing very well as we can see when he can fight a Shane Mosley who hasn’t had an impressive performance, and I guess if we take away the Margarito fight going all the way back to Cotto which was a loss. But still nevertheless Manny is drawing unbelievable numbers. I guess he’s gone down to Dallas doing 50,000. He never fought there before and is fighting a guy who never fought there before. I mean here’s a guy from the Philippines fighting a guy from Africa and they still did 50,000. So he’s doing extremely well. He does big numbers so he’s in an extremely good position right now, without even Mayweather.”
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