For all his talents as a trainer, Angelo Dundee had one trait that everyone who knew him admired.
Dundee was loyal.
Muhammad Ali sensed this immediately. When the young Cassius Clay angered white America by changing his name to Muhammad Ali, Dundee never wavered. When Ali refused induction into the military, and lost 3 ½ of his prime years, Dundee was there waiting for his return.
Dundee allowed Ali to be Ali.
"He let me be exactly who I wanted to be, and he was loyal. That is the reason I love Angelo," wrote Ali in a forward to a book on Dundee .
The legendary trainer died Wednesday at the age of 90.
Dundee worked the corner of almost all of Ali’s 61 professional fights. In his first battle with champion Sonny Liston, Dundee kept the 22 year-old calm when vaseline from Liston’s gloves seeped into the challengers eyes. He urged Ali on in his fights with Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Dundee traveled the world with Ali, helping him to be the first fighter to win the heavyweight title three times. In 1974, Ali faced the formidable Foreman in Zaire . A year later, they traveled to the Philippines for Ali’s epic third fight against Frazier. Rarely in this day and age does a boxer stay with one trainer. Ali and Dundee never split. Their mutual respect was obvious, as was their desire to win.
In 1980, Dundee willed Sugar Ray Leonard to his greatest victory. With Leonard falling behind on points late in his fight with Tommy Hearns, Dundee famously shouted, “You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it.” Leonard rallied to stop Hearns in round 14.
In 1994, the International Boxing Hall of Fame inducted Dundee into their Boxing Hall of Fame. In a sixty-year career, Dundee trained 15 world champions, including Leonard, Foreman, Carmen Basillo and Jose Napoles.
Dundee was born in south Philadelphia on Aug. 30, 1921. Dundee ’s older brother Chris steered him into a boxing career. In the late 1940’s, Dundee joined his brother in New York . Before long, he learned how to tape hands and handle cuts. The word soon spread that “Chris’ kid brother,” was a talented cornerman. Dundee had a joyful spirit and lifelong love and respect for the sport of boxing.
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