'Sixhead' looking for new trainers
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
April 27, 2002
THE tenure of Andrew `Sixhead' Lewis' three-man training team may be slowly drawing to an end as the former World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion has for the first time publicly declared his dissatisfaction with their work.
Following up on an interview his manager Nelson Fernandez gave to Stabroek Sport on Thursday, Lewis claimed that he was not impressed with the effort of trainers Angel De Jesus (head trainer), Quinto Soto and Edgar Sanchez.
The champion plans on returning to Guyana next week and wants to stay approximately one month and while here he will be training under the eyes of mentor George `Canchie' Oprecht, the ex world champion said yesterday from New York.
"I want to change my entire training team. I really don't have a problem with manager Nelson Fernandez but I'm not too comfortable with my trainers," Lewis confessed.
The 31-year-old who is expected to return to the ring in late June or early July, side-stepped when asked if he would be sacking his present trainers but later admitted that he has been shopping around for replacements.
Stabroek Sport was reliably informed that Lewis was considering the names of world famous trainers Emanuell Steward and Roger Mayweather as possible alternatives to his present trainers. The call for the sacking of De Jesus and company intensified after Lewis suffered his first defeat and in the process lost the WBA welterweight title after being TKOed by Ricardo Mayorga on March 30. Former Commonwealth champions Lennox Blackmoore, Patrick Ford, Reginald Ford and Colin Morgan, all Guyanese who train fighters at Gleason Gym in Brooklyn, had warned that Lewis needed to take a closer look at his trainers if he is to make it back to the top.
In addition, former IBF junior welterweight champion Zab Judah and his father and trainer Ruel also called for Lewis to change his trainers. The younger Judah reasoned that there has been a marked decrease in Lewis' performance since February 2001 when he won the WBA title. "I never want to complain but I'm not comfortable with them. I just want to come back home. Get back to my roots, allow `Canchie' to train me a bit."
Lewis was scheduled to return home this week but said that he postponed his arrival in order to take care of some pressing business in New York.
Quizzed on if he would be moving up to the junior middleweight division, which he was considering, Lewis disclosed that although he had some difficulty making the welterweight limit he is now certain that that problem could be solved with the help of a dietician. "I will be remaining in the welterweight division. I think that once I get a dietician things will be better."