{"id":410760,"date":"2025-09-09T15:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410760\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:30:11","slug":"emanuel-steward-named-the-top-3-fighters-he-ever-trained-after-working-with-over-40-world-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/410760\/","title":{"rendered":"Emanuel Steward Named The Top 3 Fighters He Ever Trained After Working With Over 40 World Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The legendary Emanuel Steward<\/a> has rightfully earned his status as one of the greatest trainers of all time.<\/p>\n

Steward founded the iconic Kronk Gym<\/a> and trained 41 world champions during his remarkable career, leading to his Hall of Fame induction in 1996.<\/p>\n

Before he sadly passed away in 2012, Steward once told Boxing247<\/a> about the top three fights he ever worked with, beginning with placing Lennox Lewis<\/a> in third.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cLennox was another tremendously hard worker. When I took Lennox over, I had just trained a guy to knock him out \u2013 Oliver McCall. But I told everyone Lewis would be the next dominant heavyweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, Lennox had natural talent, but I had to work with him to polish it. I worked on his jab and that became his most formidable weapon. The jab is the most important punch in boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Lewis claimed memorable victories over the likes of Evander Holyfield<\/a> and Mike Tyson<\/a>, and was the last undisputed heavyweight champion until Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> achieved the feat in 2024.<\/p>\n

Next up, Steward ranked Oscar De La Hoya<\/a> as the second best fighter he ever worked with.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOscar had tremendous natural talent. In fact, he had phenomenal talent. I\u2019d probably say Oscar was the most naturally talented guy I worked with as a pro. Although one guy I worked with, but not as a pro, only as an amateur, was \u201cSugar\u201d Ray Leonard. He was the most gifted guy I ever saw. Next to him, it\u2019s De La Hoya.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

De La Hoya was a six-weight world champion and was regarded as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world at one stage in the late 1990s, after defeating fellow greats like Julio Cesar Chavez<\/a> and Pernell Whitaker.<\/p>\n

Finally, Steward declared that Tommy Hearns<\/a> was the best of the bunch.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cNot only was Tommy the best fighter I ever worked with, he was also the most exciting. For me, climbing in the ring whenever Tommy fought, it was just so exciting. Tommy was very special. He was probably the closest reflection to my own style of fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Tommy, he had so many outstanding qualities it\u2019s hard to list just one \u2013 but he was so dedicated. Tommy worked so hard in the gym. If I told him, \u2018Tommy, today you spar 20 rounds.\u2019 He\u2019d say \u2018Okay.\u2019 That\u2019s just the way he was \u2013 dedicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hearns was one of the legendary \u2018Four Kings\u2019<\/a> alongside fellow greats Sugar Ray Leonard<\/a>, Marvin Hagler<\/a> and Roberto Duran<\/a>, with the quartet all involved in iconic fights with one another throughout the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Hitman\u2019 was the first boxing in history to win world titles in five weight divisions, and ended his career with a record of 61 wins, 5 defeats and 1 draw, with 48 of his victories coming by knockout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legendary Emanuel Steward has rightfully earned his status as one of the greatest trainers of all time.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-410760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115175058442908791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}