Emanuel Steward is considered to be one of the best in the business when it comes to training prizefighters. Fightnews spoke to Steward about the "Million Dollar Lady" card (July30th at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas) in which one of his prize fighters, Lucia Rijker (17-0,14 KOs) will be taking on the legendary Christy Martin for a record one million dollar purse.
Emanuel, what happened to the proposed fight between Lucia Rijker and Laila Ali (20-0. 17 Ko's) on the Million Dollar Lady Card winner take the big purse fight?
We thought they would have (Laila Ali) taken the fight. Then through a guy who was the middle person, well, Lamont Jones who is the lawyer for Johnny McClain (Laila Ali's husband). He called back and said 'Why don't we just have it where the fighters (Laila & Lucia) take $750,000 apiece?' I said 'No, the big thing is they are building towards a woman making one million dollars.
That's funny because, If anyone would be balking at taking the fight between those two, for high risk and low reward it would be Lucia, cause of the weight disadvantage?
Everything (height, weight and reach), and when we took the contract to Lucia, she looked at it, signed it, didn't say nothing, not a thing. When we took the contract to them (Laila Ali and management) we thought they would sign quicker than us because she (Laila Ali) has got nearly 30 pounds of natural normal weight (over Lucia) and she is about 4 1/2 inches taller, and then she is 10 years younger and has been active (Lucia last fought in May of last year). The fight was [originally] going to be in LA where you know, Laila was born and raised. We thought every advantage was favoring her (Laila Ali) and then they wanted to counter the purse we offered, so many problems, I just said 'Look, what, are you going to do it or not?' Lamont said, 'They will pay us' and they don't want to. I said 'OK', so I told Bob Arum, who was putting (Million Dollar Lady Card) it on and Bob said 'Let's go ahead and do the fight with Christy Martin (45-3-2, 30 KOs), that's the fight that everybody wanted' even though she lost to Laila, because then again, Laila is so big.
Well, that's a more even fight.
It's a more even fight, the two hate each other. It was always a dream fight in the womens division anyways, so he said, 'You would do the same (original contract offered) thing?' I said 'Yeah, I do the same thing!' So the winner of it (the fight) gets a million dollars. The fight will be at Mandalay Bay and the real star of the event is Lucia Rijker believe it or not. Even the ESPN show that they did where Laila Ali fought on, it ended up being a Lucia Rijker show and that wasn't the way they planed it but that's the way it turned out to be. The movie stars in Hollywood, everybody wants to see Lucia fight a real fight. We cannot believe the amount of people calling and saying they want tickets to the fight, unbelievable.
How is Lucia looking in the ring right now?
She is very serious about it. She is going to be training just like Lennox (Lewis) trained for Mike (Tyson) this is a big fight. After Wladimir's (Klitschko) fight on the 23rd we are heading up to the Poconos, because she liked it. That's were she trained when Lennox fought Vitali (Klitschko) she fought.
Who would she spar up there with?
She would probably be boxing with Vivian Harris and with Octavio Lara. We would go up there to the Poconos about the second week of May. We would be up there for about six to seven weeks of hard training up there, running through the mountains and it's going to be a serious, big training camp.
You train her just as hard as the men?
Yeah, well she is that way. She is and I have always said that even before I got to manage her. She is the best one-on-one competitive female athlete ever in the history of any sport.
That says a lot, coming from you (Steward has been training fighters since 1961 and has trained 26 world champs).
Not just for boxing. Since she was 12-years-old she was a judo champ, at six-years-old she was beating girls. At 12-years-old she was the national judo champion of the whole country and then she went into kickboxing now she is into boxing. So, since she was a little baby girl, she has always been one on one beating and flipping on some girl or woman, so for some others they just get into boxing while she has been in full contact sports all her life. It's going to be a painful training camp.
She (Lucia) will be the odds on favorite on this one.
Yes, but one thing we do know and I know. Christy hates Lucia and Lucia hates Christy. So, one thing is Christy is going to come in prepared for this fight. Lucia has never been in big super fights the attention is going to be big and when Christy comes in the ring for this, she said when she signed the contract she said to Bob Arum 'You know I will be ready for her' she said 'I'm tired of everybody saying I have been running from her' she said 'I am going to be training like I have never before trained, for Lucia Rijker' cause who ever wins this, her legacy is going to depend on this. What happened with Laila, that's no big thing cause she was too big, but this one here, this is the fight that I, you know, I've got to win, I know she's going to be training and you know, you come after and you have hesitating with Christy who is another Mike Tyson, she's going to jump on you right away and that's one thing about her, she has got one her size now (referring to Lucia who is much smaller than Laila). She is going to come at her and Lucia is going to have to be ready cause you all think she is a big favorite but Christy is going to bring it to her, we know that and the tension is going to be thick that night in the arena.
Since were talking about females in boxing, I have to ask you about one of the top fighters along with Lucia, Laila and Christy. I think Anne Wolf is a monster in the female boxing scene.
You know, I trained Anne Wolfe for her fight with Vonda Ward, I didn't work her corner in that fight because I was tied up, but she came out to training camp with all of the Kronk fighters. I had Lucia, Wladimir and Vivian Harris and she trained out there with them.
She trained with Lucia?
Yeah, we all trained together.
Did she spar with Lucia?
No, she did not spar with Lucia because they could both possibly fight each other, but she (Anne Wolf) is too big but Lucia never trains with a woman anyway she always boxed with guys.
Do the guys take it easy on her (Lucia)?
No, the first time I ever saw Lucia spar she was sparring with Vince Philips who was a world champion right after he knocked out Kostya Tszyu and I had the Kronk gym right up there at Big Bear, Kronk Big Bear Gym. Jam-packed there on a Saturday, everyone wanted to see this girl they heard about, this explosive new girl from the Netherlands who had come over here who was a legend in her country and the work out was unbelievable, I could not believe it. I said 'A girl boxing with a world champion' they went about four rounds, they was getting down and that's when I realized how good a fighter she was. But no, she has always boxed with, not just with guy boxers but top of the line boxers, but her and Vivian (Harris 'MENS' WBA jr-welterweight champ) they will be boxing. She has boxed with Vernon Forest (former world welterweight champ) who was out there the same time.
