NEW YORK ? Joe Grier is a humble man, a 61-year-old grandfather who isn’t interested in waging a war of words with Emanuel Steward, his training adversary Saturday night.
Steward suspects that the Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto super welterweight title fight at Yankee Stadium means more to Paterson’s Grier for more than just the obvious reasons. Steward suggested that Foreman beating Cotto could validate Grier’s career as a trainer, because Steward has worked with more than 20 world champions, including such great fighters as Tommy Hearns, Mike McCallum, Julio Cesar Chavez, Oscar De La Hoya and more recently Wladimir Klitschko and Jermain Taylor.
“Yuri’s out to prove something,” said Steward, a color commentator for HBO who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997. “And the trainer’s all wired up about beating me, so that adds to it.”
When asked to elaborate, Steward said, “That’s only normal. I’m not just a trainer, I’m a legend. There’s a difference. If [opposing trainers are] boxing against just another trainer, it’s nothing. But so much focus is on me in the papers and stuff, and that really eats them up.”
Steward failed to mention, of course, that if Grier has any additional incentive heading into Foreman’s first defense of the World Boxing Association 154-pound title, it’s because Murray Wilson, Foreman’s co-manager, tried to hire Steward to help prepare Foreman for the Cotto fight. Foreman (28-0, 8 KOs, one NC) said approaching Steward several months ago was Wilson’s idea, a move Foreman felt was unnecessary after Grier guided him to a convincing championship victory over favored Daniel Santos (32-4-1, 23 KOs, one NC) in his last fight, Nov. 14 in Las Vegas.
Before Steward, 65, decided to train Puerto Rico’s Cotto (34-2, 27 KOs) for the fight, Grier was against adding Steward to their training team, and not just because he has been Foreman’s head trainer for six years. Grier vividly remembers how Steward’s dysfunctional working relationship with another trainer from Paterson, the late Oscar Suarez, caused constant disruptions when they co-trained brash British star Naseem Hamed in 2000 and 2001.
Steward publicly criticized Suarez, who died from pancreatic cancer in September 2008, after the flamboyant former featherweight champion suffered an embarrassingly one-sided defeat against Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera in April 2001. Grier and Suarez were friends for nearly 30 years, and Grier clearly didn’t appreciate Steward belittling Suarez, who got his big break in boxing when he was hired to train Hamed in January 1999.
Grier said he was “disappointed” to hear Steward’s comments about the Foreman-Cotto fight, but otherwise declined comment.
“I really don’t want to demean myself by feeding into it,” said Grier, who has run a non-profit, self-named boxing gym in Paterson since 1997. “If that’s the way he feels, that he’s that superior or whatever the case may be, I’ll let it be.”
The retired Passaic County Sheriff’s Department captain is focused foremost on the undefeated Foreman, about a 2-1 underdog, winning the biggest fight of his eight-year pro career. Grier isn’t intimidated by the huge stage, or the odds.
Paterson native Frankie Toledo was a 13-1 underdog entering his featherweight title fight against South Africa’s Mbulelo Botile nine years ago in North Las Vegas, Nev., but Toledo masterfully out-boxed Botile to become Grier’s first world champion.
Toledo lost in his first defense of the International Boxing Federation title, though, to Mexico’s Manuel Medina. Grier doesn’t envision New York’s Foreman suffering the same fate against Cotto, who’ll try to win a world title in a third weight class.
“I wish [Steward] luck on Saturday night,” Grier said, “but luck is not going to win them the fight.”
VALENZUELA VALIDATED: Victor Valenzuela had to deal with another late opponent switch this week, but at least the undefeated featherweight prospect from Passaic will fight tonight, as scheduled.
Valenzuela (6-0, one KO, one NC) and Irvington’s Delvin Placencia (15-3, six KOs) both met the 129-pound weight limit Thursday night for their six-round fight tonight at the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City. Placencia has more professional experience than Valenzuela, but Valenzuela’s handlers aren’t overly concerned about accepting Placencia as a last-minute replacement for Valenzuela’s first fight in 8 1/2 months.
ROY’S RETURN TO HBO: Roy Jones Jr. will substitute for Steward on HBO’s “World Championship Boxing” broadcast Saturday night from Yankee Stadium.
Jones was an insightful analyst for HBO before he was fired in January 2006 for what HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg considered an unwillingness to properly prepare for broadcasts. The former pound-for-pound king was widely considered a potential replacement when Lennox Lewis’ “Boxing After Dark” contract wasn’t renewed last month, but it appears as if HBO will employ a two-man broadcast team of blow-by-blow announcer Bob Papa and analyst Max Kellerman for now.
