Emanuel steward right hand1/6/2024 ![]() ![]() I needed a change, so I went to Windsor, Ontario to train and George Scott was there. Also I was having trouble getting fights because I had a bad reputation. I was at the Kronk in 1989 and trained there off and on for about five years. I couldn’t get good sparring in Montreal because I was knocking everyone out. Paul at The Kronk with Thomas Hearns and Emanuel Steward. Here, in his own words, is Paul Dubé’s recollections of a truly legendary gym which, sadly, is no more. In addition to being a prominent hockey player, Scott helped Emanuel Steward find prospects and sparring partners for the Kronk and it was he who first brought Dubé to Detroit. Branded as unreliable and unpredictable, it was decided he needed to look for opportunities elsewhere, which led him to Windsor, Ontario and a man by the name of George “Kirk” Scott. Having been kicked off the national amateur squad after he smuggled a platoon of strippers into the team’s dorm, Dubé subsequently found it difficult to move forward as a professional pugilist as his reputation preceded him. It was Dubé’s reputation for being an incorrigible party animal that led to him making a move out of Montreal. ![]() A fascinating figure, Dubé’s tale is unlike any other, and a major part of it was the Kronk Boxing Gym. Dubé’s life now revolves around his ongoing battle with cancer and his attempts to put the past behind him and live life to the fullest. It is a poignant and violent story largely defined by Dubé’s inability to distance himself from the world of partying, strip clubs and organized crime that undermined his athletic ambitions. ![]() Thomas Hearns surveys the damage last October.Īs readers of this site will recall, we profiled Dubé last year and recounted the amazing struggle that was his time as a fledgling pugilist. Which brings us to one Paul Dubé, Montreal’s connection back through time to the original Kronk, a man who had the privilege to train with the legendary Steward and spar with such formidable talents as Hearns, Moorer, and Toney, among others. The bottom line is few gyms of the last several decades can match the history and prestige of “The Kronk.” But in addition to all the top contenders and champions who walked into the stifling basement that was Steward’s sweltering kingdom of pain, countless journeymen, prospects, coaches and sparring partners also played their part and had their time there. And beyond the titlists who developed their skills there, such was the reputation of both Kronk and Emanuel Steward that a number of already established top talents journeyed there, including Evander Holyfield, Oscar De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis, Ray Mercer, James Toney, Jeff Fenech and Naseem Hamed. If ever a gym of recent vintage deserved to be treated like a veritable shrine of The Sweet Science, surely it is “The Kronk,” a true landmark of boxing greatness, the place which birthed such world champions as Thomas Hearns, Michael Moorer, Hilmer Kenty, Gerald McClellan, Milton McCrory, Tony Tucker, Frank Tate and Jimmy Paul. The original Kronk Boxing Gym is no more.Īs a fan and chronicler of the fight game, it’s difficult to shake the conviction that this should not have been allowed to happen. It appears last October’s fire has put a definite conclusion to a long and painful ordeal. Numerous attempts to revive both the gym and the recreation centre in which it was housed failed to gain the necessary traction, both before and after the building was crippled by theft of its copper pipes in 2006. Like the city in which it was rooted, in recent years “The Kronk” had fallen on very difficult times and in fact it had been closed for years. Six months ago the boxing world received some regrettable and disheartening news: the original Kronk Gym in Detroit, Michigan, the legendary place where brilliant trainer Emanuel Steward developed a long list of world-class boxers, was all but destroyed in a suspicious fire. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |