BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Steward’s Juggling Act Put to Test This Week

Even Emanuel Steward, the ultimate hands-on boxing trainer, has to admit that his hands are pretty full now.

One hour he’s busy with Evander Holyfield, the first man Steward has ever trained for a heavyweight championship bout. Next, he’s in the ring with Thomas Hearns, the 35-year-old veteran of countless battles whom Steward has trained off and on for almost two decades.

First, Steward is shepherding Hearns to a television interview, then he’s back up to Holyfield’s suite to make dinner.

“Tommy, he wants to go to this movie,” Steward says. “Evander wants to go another. Do you go with one, or go with the other?

“I just play it by ear. Works out pretty good.”

It’s part reminiscence, part big-time spectacle for Steward, the man whose Kronk Gym is synonymous with Detroit boxing.

All this is in preparation for Saturday night, which Steward says will be “one of the most exciting days of my life.”

Most of the attention has been focused on Steward’s work to get Holyfield ready for his multimillion-dollar rematch with International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Assn. title-holder Riddick Bowe.

But, for Steward, the most emotional situation is his reunion with Hearns, who is scheduled to fight Andrew Maynard on the undercard.

“Evander’s fight is a real big thing,” Steward says between training sessions. “But then you’ve got Tommy, who’s been with me his whole career. He’s like a child of mine. It’s very important I spend time with him.”

Hearns, the fighter who made Steward and Kronk famous through his wars with Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler, had a bitter split with Steward in 1991. But recently Hearns, now a light-heavyweight, asked to work out at Steward’s private gym to test his tender right hand. Before long, Steward was Hearns’ trainer again.

“Me and Emanuel spent 17 years of our lives together,” says Hearns, who is hoping to cap his long career by gaining an unprecedented sixth championship belt. “I felt we had to finish it up on a good note.”

Steward estimates that Hearns is about 70% of his former self and says he has extracted a promise from Hearns, who hasn’t fought since a split-decision loss to Iran Barkley in March of 1992, that he will retire as soon as he gets that sixth title.

“Our relationship is better,” Steward says. “We’ve been separated, you know? You’re more relaxed now, you’re not worried about what can happen because it already happened. You know you survived it.”

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Heading into his rematch with Bowe, Holyfield says he feels refreshed working with Steward after having been trained for so long by the team of Lou Duva and George Benton.

Holyfield says he didn’t so much fire Duva and Benton as they moved on without him after his brief retirement.

Steward says he isn’t planning any major strategic changes for the fight against Bowe, that he is only trying to make Holyfield as relaxed and confident as possible for Saturday.

“I think people do need changes sometimes,” Steward says. “He’s comfortable. He feels he’s got the team that he picked, not that somebody else picked because of business.

“I’ve gotten to spend personal time with him, too. I do that with all my fighters. But I’ve found out it has not been the case with him.

“We go to church together. I’ve gotten to understand him, his family. The things that mean a lot to him, the things that don’t. We go bowling together, watch movies, eat.

“To understand a person, you can get the best out of them.”

Most fighters, when they change trainers, offer up a litany of reasons why their former trainers caused them to lose, Steward says. But he was impressed when Holyfield blamed only himself for his slam-bang style during last year’s loss to Bowe when he should have been staying away from the bigger Bowe with jabs and movement.

“He was realistic,” Steward says. “He didn’t fault his trainers or anything. He said, ‘I lost the fight, Emanuel, because I didn’t do the right things. I was given a certain strategy by my corner men to box, move. But, I had my mind made up.’

“That impressed me. A fighter loses a fight, he usually blames everybody else. He said, ‘I was the cause of the defeat. I just want a chance to win my title back.’ ”

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In the history of the division, only three heavyweights have ever done what Holyfield is trying to do: Regain a championship in a rematch. The three? Muhammad Ali, Tim Witherspoon and Floyd Patterson.

“Patterson’s case may be similar to what we’ll be facing Saturday,” Steward says. “(Ingemar) Johansson won the title and it went to his head. Good-looking Swede, beautiful girlfriends, so much adulation and attention. . . .

“Patterson was hungry, very reminiscent of Holyfield to me. Johansson should have won the (second) fight, but he didn’t.

“We’ve got a lot of that with Bowe. He won the fight and he’s all over with the Pope, a whole different aura has come around him--so much so soon (in only) 12 months.”

Responds Bowe’s trainer, Eddie Futch: “There are absolutely no similarities between this fight and Patterson-Ingemar Johansson whatsoever. Not one. Bowe is not a Johansson. Johansson could punch, but that’s all.”

Boxing Notes

It’s amazing how much chaos one knockout of a mediocre heavyweight can cause in the top echelons of the sport. Tommy Morrison’s stunning one-round knockout by Michael Bentt last Friday at Tulsa has left Lennox Lewis scurrying, the MGM Grand Las Vegas scrambling and Riddick Bowe with even more clout than before.

Morrison, who has been released from his promotional contract by Top Rank, had already signed a deal that guaranteed him $8.25 million for a March 5 fight with Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion, at the MGM. The winner of that fight would have fought Bowe for much, much more. Against the advice of his manager, Bill Cayton, Morrison chose to take a tuneup against Bentt. The loss, Morrison’s second, has thrown his career into limbo and left Lewis without an opponent--though there is talk he’ll end up fighting Bentt at the MGM on the same date, possibly with the Michael Carbajal-Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez rematch as a co-feature.

“It’s very frustrating, but I’ve learned to live with it,” Cayton said. “I’ve had frustrating experiences before. You know, I had Mike Tyson. . . . “

Morrison’s fall might actually hasten the long-awaited Bowe-Lewis bout, assuming Bowe gets past Evander Holyfield. Lewis might not want to risk a potential $10-million windfall by fighting Bentt for $6 million, and although Bowe is scheduled to fight No. 1 contender Michael Moorer in the spring, he is contractually free to bypass Moorer if Lewis becomes available.

“Had Morrison lived up to the contract I had signed, it would be a different world,” Cayton said.

As it is, Cayton said, he is hoping Morrison gets his head together for a hard run back to title contention. “‘We’re planning a series of fights, beginning in January, possibly one a month for four or five months,” Cayton said. “He has to rededicate himself to boxing, and if he does, if he chooses that goal, I will do everything I can.”

The proposed Oscar De La Hoya-Genaro Hernandez junior-lightweight title fight Feb. 5 at the Olympic Auditorium is edging toward completion. “In the beginning, Genaro was talking about how much money he wanted,” says his manager, Nori Takatani. “Now, he’s only talking about how much he wants to fight. Money is secondary.”

Many in the boxing community, however, suggest that De La Hoya is rushing into a championship fight prematurely, especially considering that he was knocked down in the first round by Narciso Valenzuela last Saturday. “It’s stupid,” said promoter Dan Duva. “Anybody can see the kid is not ready. He showed that Saturday.”

* WEIGHT WATCHERS

Champion Riddick Bowe weighed in at 246 pounds, Evander Holyfield at 217, for their heavyweight bout on Saturday. C12