HEAVYWEIGHT boxing is always a risky business. Big men carry heavy hands. Wladimir Klitschko has been so dominant in recent years that at times heโs looked near enough invincible.
But cracks could be starting to show, especially after Klitschko was not as commanding as expected in Aprilโs points victory over Bryant Jennings.
โAnybody that laces up a pair of gloves, with the legacy Wladimirโs got โย the longer you go, everybody gets more dangerous. You see the finishing line, and everybody else sees it too, so they donโt want you to get there,โ Klitschkoโs trainer Johnathon Banks told Boxing News.
โEverybody else is much more dangerous because they want to stop you, everybody sees you going for the finish line. Whoever stops you will be seen as the best, because theyโd have stopped the best. These guys are getting dangerous because they know that this is their last chance to become the best in history.
โโWhoโs the longest-reigning heavyweight champ in history?โ โย โWladimir Klitschkoโ โ โWho beat him?โโฆ so that makes it really, really big for them to fight Wladimir. They not gonna make a run like that themselves, thereโs nobody in boxing who can. Just to be able to stop this reign: thatโs what it is, theyโre trying to stop it. Theyโre not trying to beat him bad, they just trying to do enough to win.โ
On October 24 Klitschko puts his WBO, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles on the line against Tyson Fury in Dusseldorf. โRight now itโs Tyson Fury: thatโs whoโs on the chopping board, so heโs the most dangerous opponent right now. If I was Tyson Fury Iโd have gone after Deontay Wilder, and got that title, and then made it a HUGE fight with Wlad Klitschko,โ Banks said. โI think [Wilderโs] a pretty good fighter, I mean heโs WBC champion, so I think heโs a good fighter. Heโs a talent.โ
Banks has been forging his trainer-fighter bond with Klitschko since the sad death of Manny Steward. The American was initially surprised when the heavyweight champion asked him to assume the responsibility. โIt all happened, it was like one big boom when it happened,โ Banks recalls. โI never, ever held pads for Wladimir, ever, until the day he wanted me to train him. I went over to Austria and held pads for the very first time. I was nervous. I was nervous, because Iโd never held pads for him before.ย All the stuff we did in the ring together, all the combinations, we had gloves on.
โDifferent circumstances call for different things, I donโt know. He didnโt have a professional chef when I met him: it was just me and him. He didnโt have a lot of sparring partners; thatโs why me and him got so close. We put in round, after round, after round, getting him ready for his fight. We spent a lot of time together, a whole lot of time, itโs crazy, and we drew closer together. And itโs like we created the brotherhood because we spent so many times just by ourselves. Emmanuel had to go and do HBO? Itโs me and Wlad. Emmanuel come back, and he do whatever? Itโs me and him, so the situation: weโve just grown really close.
โHe would ask me about, โDo I know about sparring?โ Heโd ask me: โWhat do you think about how I look at it?โ Iโd say, โYou can do better,โ always itโd be, โYou can do better.โ And Emmanuel would be sitting there, and heโd ask me, and Iโd start talking to him: me and Emmanuel always talked.
โAnd the relationship grew from there, and I remember in 2007, 2008 something like that, Wladimir said, โYou know what, JB? I think you would be a great coach.โ I said, โWhy you say that?โ He said, โI just think so. The way me and you talk. The way you look at boxing, I just think youโd be a great coach. If something ever happened, if Emmanuel couldnโt make it, the only person I can see training me is you.โ
โI said, โCome on, man, you got an assistant trainer, been in boxing a lot longer than Iโve been born.โ He said, โYeah, but it doesnโt take the age of the person to make a good coach, just the way you talk and explain things, and the way youโre learning from the best coach in history, so you canโt help but be good.โ And I just left it alone, I didnโt think nothing of it, and just years go by, years go by, and when that phone call happenedโฆ Iโmย stillย shocked that he called me to train him. I donโt know, it baffles me how he called me, among all the names that I could think of. And I wasnโt no trainer that time. That was the last thing on somebodyโs mindset, of being a trainer. โYou got your assistant right here, why me?โ
โI say I consider myself, I really feel Iโm a teacher: same thing as a teacher standing in front of a class at school. Teachers want to explain something to the point where students will learn, so I count myself as a teacher. Because I was taught by a teacher.โ
FOR AN EXCLUSIVE FEATURE ON EMMANUEL STEWARDโS LEGACY, TRAINING KLITSCHKO AND MORE DONโT MISS THE LATEST ISSUE OF BOXING NEWS MAGAZINE