![]() When I started working with this guy, I thought to myself that this guy had about 90 fights before he lost his first fight so he must have something going for him. It was something that I learned and I try to teach that to some of my fighters still, today. I saw him block a punch with his left elbow and then he would return a left hook with the same hand that he had blocked the punch with. I learned from him certain things that he did and I was surprised. I think outside of maybe the Greg Haugen fight and maybe one or two other fights, he never really had the chance to show his boxing talents, but he boxed very well. He said, “I have to be aggressive, but I really love to box when I get an opportunity”. They put me in with Camacho, and Meldrick Taylor” and he was naming all of the fast fighters that he had to fight. He said, “Steward, how can I? Look at all the fighters they put me in with. I said, “Why don’t you box? I didn’t know you could box so well”. When I started training him for the rematch with Randall, I was working and I saw him dancing and moving. He was very smart in that area and also he was very concerned about being perfect.Īs a boxer, I was amazed with his boxing talents. It would just give him time to think a little better. He would always have the lady Gladys interpret things for him when he would be asked a question on television, but he understood the questions. He was always trying to be conscientious of not saying the wrong things. He spent time teaching me Spanish and he spoke much better English than people realized. He was bigger than anything that I have ever worked with. I had brought a friend of mine and I said you can get a seat usually up in the press area. It was at the MGM and they told us that the place was sold out. Meldrick was not what he was before, but still, there was a lot of interest and intrigue in that fight. Then he knocked out Meldrick Taylor in the return with him. He came back and beat Frankie Randall, even though it was controversial where they stopped the fight. He beat him which was a major thing for all of the Mexican people. Then there was also the one, which was not as big, but to beat Rosario which was a very special thing because of the Mexican and Puerto Rican rivalry. When he fought the fight, I’d probably say the first one with Meldrick Taylor, it couldn’t have been more dramatic than that, to come back in a fight that he was trailing in and score a knockout with two seconds left. You could be good, but you have to have these signature fights in your career that really mark your greatness. I think that as a boxer he gained his notoriety because of his major accomplishments in big fights. He always insisted on being out in the open in public where he can meet the fans and kiss the babies and he really loved it. When we would go to the restaurants to eat, they would want to put him in rooms where he would have a little privacy with his family. What was special about him, and I’m speaking about him as a person and not as a boxer, was his star power in Mexico. I just never saw anything like that before. Each one of the guys who was a bullfighter would have to bring his hat up so it would be thrown up in the air so he could catch it before each one of the bullfights, and when he left they showed it on the screen and the whole stadium just went crazy. There were probably about 1,000 people in the parking lot when the car pulled up and when he walks in the arena they had his picture all up on the big screen. When he got out of the stadium once when we were at a bullfight, people would pass the word that he was coming. Just on freeways people would be driving their cars and almost crashing trying to just touch his car. ![]() I had the pleasure of being with him in Mexico because I trained him in there instead of in the United States, and I never saw anyone be analyzed as much as he was. Definitely he belongs in the Hall of Fame because he’s not just one of the all time greats, but as far as his country he may be the greatest sporting hero, not just boxer, ever in Mexican history. ![]() What are your thoughts on his legacy as a fighter and do you think there was any question that he was going to find himself in the Boxing Hall of Fame?ĮMANUEL STEWARD: Well first of all, I’ll start by answering the last question first. Of course, I’m referring to Julio Cesar Chavez. GEOFFREY CIANI: Emanuel, to kick off this new series the first question I wanted to ask you is about a fighter that you once worked with who is scheduled to be inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame this year and he is widely viewed as one of the best Mexican fighters of all time.
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