Emanuel Steward chats with World Champion Lennox Lewis prior to the fight with Evander Holyfield, who Lewis defeated.

Part 4 -- The big break

    In 1980, Steward learned that World Boxing Association champion Ernest Espana had no opponent for a scheduled defense. Steward and his Irish lawyer, John Noonan, flew to Puerto Rico to meet with Espana’s manager, Pepe Cordero, planning to offer him a $75,000 “inducement” to give Kenty the title shot.

    “We went into Cordero’s office,” Noonan told The Irish Times, in a story Steward confirms, “and he put a gun on the table between us and said, ‘Now, gentlemen, how can I be of service to you?’ We told him, and he said, ‘$100,000 for Espana, $25,000 for me, and I’ve got an old welterweight named Angel Espada who needs a payday, that’s another $25,000.’ ”

    Steward hocked almost everything he owned and paid the money, considering it a sound investment, and the bout was arranged. Kenty stopped Espana in the ninth round in Detroit for the title, and suddenly he and Kronk had made the big time.

    Steward, and Kronk, never looked back. Today he is a multimillionaire, raking in an industry-high 12 percent of his fighters’ purses, which can reach as high as $15 million. He travels the world as a commentator for HBO — his frequent-flier statement shows 178,000 air miles last year.

    Steward’s peers say he has left his personal stamp on the the boxing world.

    Russell Peltz, a promoter for 30 years who now stages bouts for ESPN called Steward “one of the outstanding trainers of his generation. He single-handedly revived boxing in Detroit in the 1970s.”

    Steward did not succumb to the temptations that claimed so many of his original Kronk boxers. He still grieves for those who came to tragic ends, including Bernard “Superbad” Mays, who drank himself to death at 33.

    “I just never had much time for them, even if I wanted to,” he said. “And all my life I’ve had a strong, strong belief that everything in the universe balances out. Anything wrong you do will come back to haunt you.”

    Steward’s fondest memories, he says, are of those original Kronk teams of the ’70s and ’80s, among them 50 amateur champions, who won 120-plus titles, including three Olympic gold medals. “And never did we have a fight among the kids,” Steward said of the youngsters who built Kronk’s reputation. “There was such a bond. Never again will there be a team with a spirit like that, in any sport.”

    But now this conversation is over — one of four security monitors above the big-screen television shows the red Rolls returning to pick Steward up for an awards ceremony in Grosse Pointe.

    And the disembodied voice pipes, “Emanuel, line two, it’s HBO again ... ”

You can reach Fred Girard at (313) 222-2165 or girard@home.com.