Angelo Dundee, who has died aged 90, never boxed himself, but became the most famous cornerman in the world as the trainer of Muhammad Ali.
Hired to train the then 18-year-old Cassius Clay soon after the young Kentuckian’s gold medal triumph at the 1960 Rome Olympics, Dundee remained continually at Ali’s side right up until his crushing, one-sided defeat by the rising Larry Holmes on October 2 1980.
Dundee’s association with Ali tended to obscure the rest of what was a remarkable curriculum vitae: he worked with 15 other world champions, among them Sugar Ray Leonard, José Napoles, George Foreman, Jimmy Ellis, Carmen Basilio and Luis Rodriguez. Explaining his role, he once reflected: “When you’re working with a fighter, you’re a surgeon, an engineer and a psychologist.”
Fiercely loyal and protective towards his fighters, Dundee admitted deliberately ripping open a tear in Ali’s glove to buy precious seconds after his fighter had been flattened by a Henry Cooper left hook in their famous non-title clash at Wembley Stadium on June 18 1963.
More than a decade later, after the 32-year-old Ali had sensationally reclaimed the world heavyweight crown with an eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in Kinshasa, Dundee was said to have loosened the ring ropes to help Ali win the fight by using the so-called “Rope-a-dope” technique. This time, however, Dundee consistently denied the claims.
Despite coming across as a fast-talking hustler, Dundee had a reputation as one of the kindest men in boxing. Howard Cosell, the long-time boxing commentator, who famously turned against the sport in the 1980s, once observed: “Dundee is the only guy in boxing to whom I would entrust my own son.”
Dundee was born Angelo Merena on August 30 1921 in Philadelphia. Growing up in a tough area of the city, he quickly became streetwise. “Philadelphia is not a town, it’s a jungle,” he once recalled. “They don’t have gyms there, they have zoos. They don’t have sparring sessions, they have wars.”
He served with US Air Force in the Second World War, by which time he had changed his name. His brother Joe, a boxer, fought professionally as Joe Dundee, and Angelo followed suit (as did a third brother, Chris). Though the moniker was a tribute to the former featherweight champion, Johnny Dundee, some have suggested that the boys changed their names as their parents frowned on boxing as a pursuit.
During the war Angelo Dundee spent time on air bases in England, which helped foster in him a love of this country (he always enjoyed returning to Britain with Ali). He gained experience as a cornerman during military boxing tournaments before, at war’s end, heading to New York, where he learned the finer point of boxing science while working as a “bucket guy” for trainers such as Charlie Goldman, Ray Arcel, and Chickie Ferrera at the celebrated Stillman’s Gym.
Angelo then followed his brother Chris to Miami, where the latter had opened the Fifth Street Gym. Chris had moved on to promoting fights when, newly installed as chief trainer, Angelo was in the corner when Carmen Basilio defeated Tony De Marco for the world welterweight crown at Boston on November 30 1955.
Dundee first came across Ali in 1957, when the 15-year-old newly-crowned Golden Gloves champion of Louisville rang him and, after announcing that he was going to become an Olympic and world heavyweight champion, asked to come up to Dundee’s hotel room and meet him. “I thought there was some nut on the line,” the trainer remembered.
He later supervised a sparring session Clay had with the world light-heavyweight champion Willie Pastrano and, in December 1960, trainer and fighter teamed up together at the Fifth Street Gym. Eight days later Clay knocked out Herb Siler in the fourth round of what was only his second professional fight. “No matter what happened after that, [Angelo] was always my friend,” Ali said. “He was there when I needed him and he always treated me with respect. There just wasn’t any problem ever between us.”
Dundee would later recall the fun of those early days and how training Ali was a totally different proposition to working with other fighters: “It was like jet propulsion — just touch him and he took off.”
Ali (then still Cassius Clay) was on the cusp of a world title shot against Sonny Liston when he travelled to London to take on Britain’s hugely-popular Henry Cooper. In the build-up he had labelled the Englishman “a bum”, a description he clearly had cause to regret when dropped by the famous left hook in round four.
What happened at the end of that round has become part of boxing folklore. “They accused me of cutting the gloves,” said Dundee. “Can you imagine me doing something like that? There was a rip in the gloves. All I did was make it a little bigger. They’re hunting around for gloves and I’m buying my man time.” Clay went on to stop Cooper on cuts in the following round.
For all his brazen self-confidence, “The Louisville Lip” was the underdog going into a world title challenge against Liston in Miami in February 1964. Dundee, however, felt victory was assured so long as his fighter did not succumb to the champion’s powers of intimidation. As it was, Liston had no answer to Clay’s fast hands and lightning reflexes.
At the end of the fourth round, however, Clay suddenly complained of a burning sensation in his eyes, possibly caused by ointment from Liston’s shoulder. Afraid the referee would intervene and stop the fight, Dundee rinsed his man’s eyes and pushed him out towards the centre of the ring with the words: “This is the big one, daddy.”
Midway through the fifth, Clay’s eyes cleared and in the next round he took complete control, hitting the champion at will. At the start of the seventh, Liston failed to get off his stool, claiming a damaged shoulder. Although victory made Clay a world star, Liston was still made favourite for the rematch in Maine, 13 months later, by which time Clay had converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
This fight lasted little over a minute before Liston was sent crashing heavily by an Ali punch so quick that most spectators never even saw it. Inevitably, rumours persist that the fallen champion took a dive, although Dundee himself had no doubts: “He [Ali] hit him so quick the cameras couldn’t take it. He bat him with a shot Liston didn’t see. They’re the ones that knock you out. The ones you don’t see.”
Dundee travelled the world with Ali, and was in the corner for his fights against Floyd Patterson; the famous trilogy of bouts against Joe Frazier; “The Rumble In The Jungle” against George Foreman; and for his rare defeats against Ken Norton and, later, Leon Spinks.
After Ali’s retirement, Dundee saw an emerging star in Sugar Ray Leonard, whom he described as “a smaller version of Ali”. He acted as cornerman for Leonard in many of his biggest fights, including those with Wilfred Benítez, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns.
In Leonard’s first bout with Hearns, on September 16 1981 in Las Vegas, Dundee, thinking that his fighter was trailing on the scorecards before the start of round 13, famously reprimanded him with the words: “You’re blowing it, son! You’re blowing it!” Leonard duly unleashed a barrage of blows and was awarded victory in the following round.
Dundee later teamed up with George Foreman and was in the corner for his losing world heavyweight title challenge against Evander Holyfield on April 19 1991, and for his memorable clash against the undefeated Michael Moorer in Las Vegas on November 5 1994, which saw Foreman sensationally reclaim the title at the age of 45 with a 10th-round knockout.
Describing what he looked for in a fighter, Dundee said: “Balance is a must; so is great co-ordination of hands, feet and body. But I guess the most important ingredient is desire: the desire to be a fighter, the desire to win and the desire to be the best there is.”
Angelo Dundee was inducted into boxing’s International Hall of Fame in 1994. Last month he attended the party to celebrate Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday.
With his wife, Helen, he had a son and a daughter.
Angelo Dundee, born August 30 1921, died February 1 2012
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