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Michael Katz on Dundee, Petronelli and Kelly
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In the span of a week, boxing recently lost three men who brought integrity, dedication, years of accumulated knowledge and love to a sport oft times devoid of all those attributes. Though I do my best to learn about the history of the sport I am not a historian. And sadly, I didn’t cover the sport when trainers Goody Petronelli and Angelo Dundee or referee Wayne Kelly first began in the sport much less when they were at the height of their powers. Luckily, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Dundee twice. As for the other two gentlemen, I never had the pleasure.
Each of these three men brought something special to the sport. To this writer, they deserved someone special to illustrate that to boxing fans everywhere. And so on a recent episode of leaveitintheringradio.com radio show, long time boxing writer Michael Katz joined my co-host David Duenez and me for a rare interview to eulogize all three men. From here, I will get out of the way of the master and let him do the talking.
“[Angelo Dundee] was not the greatest trainer in the world. Eddie Futch still holds that title as far as I am concerned,” began Mr. Katz. “I don’t go back to guys like Blackburn, etc. But he was without a doubt probably one of the finest men that the gam has ever been blessed with. He probably couldn’t train a flea in the gym. He was overrated I think as a corner man. But he was just boxing’s ambassador to the world at large. He was the nicest guy you ever want to meet. In a way he was almost too nice. You couldn’t get him to say anything bad about someone except maybe Mike Trainer because they had a falling out over Sugar Ray Leonard. But Angie was just . . . everyone remembers him for Ali and Leonard. But if Ali and Leonard had gone to Ray Arcel or Eddie Futch, Angie would still be one of the great trainers because he had Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles not to mention guys like Ralph Dupas and Willie Pastrano. He was an amazing man. He kind of just was always around. I can’t believe in my heart of hearts that he is gone. In a way, he will never be gone. All the people he influenced are going to be around for a long time. He was just a great guy. But I think he gets a little too much credit for being a ring tactician.
“For example: in Zaire, the Rope-a-Dope,” continued Katz. “There was Ali doing the most amazing thing possible, letting George Foreman hit him so he would get tired because Ali knew he didn’t have the legs to dance for fifteen rounds with somebody like George. And there was Angie yelling ‘Get off the ropes!’ That was Ali. That had nothing to do with Angie. The part where Angelo gets credit is after the 12th or 13th round in the Leonard first fight. Everyone remembers Angie saying to Leonard ‘You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it.’ Everyone remembers that because it was on TV and the microphones picked it up. But what is not known is that Ray Leonard was not listening so much to Angie as he was looking over his shoulder to the man he looked upon as a big brother, the trainer Janks Morton. But saying all this, saying that Angelo, a lot of his stories or myths or lore like ‘How did the gloves of then Cassius Clay get cut when he was knocked down by Henry Cooper in London, giving him many minutes to revive?’ I don’t think that’s true. Angelo once winked at me ‘How did that razor get in my hand? I don’t remember.’ I don’t think that happened. I think the glove was probably torn already and maybe Angie pulled it apart a little bit more to buy time. He was very clever. He was great. But I tell you the truth, if I had a fighter, I would love Angelo to be involved with him because there were very few people who were nicer, more honest and had more integrity. I knew my guy would be safe with Angelo. But if I had to pick a guy to train my fighter, it would probably be Goody Petronelli.
“And the problem with Goody is that he was a one hit wonder,” said Katz. “That is the way he is going to go down. Nobody else but Marvin Hagler walked into his gym. He could have had others if he had not stayed in a hick town like Brockton. Excuse me. It’s not a hick town but he could have moved to Boston or New York. He might’ve been lucky more than just the Marvin Hagler time. [Petronelli] was a marvel in the gym. I watched him and Hagler I don’t know how many times. And you could see not only the love but the obedience that Marvin had. And the confidence he had in his trainer. Goody was just unblessed not to have someone else come into his gym off the street and ask ‘Could you teach me how to fight?
“Actually it took Marvin several days of coming into the gym and just sitting there before Goody asked him ‘Would you like to learn?’ And then there was no stopping them,” recalled Katz. “They were a great team; one of the finest trainer/boxer combos ever. I’m just sorry that there weren’t more Marvin Haglers for Goody to train. I think he would have done a great job. He did a pretty good job with guys like Robbie Sims, Marvin’s brother. Tony Petronelli. But I think Goody needed, to me, he is hall of fame. There’s no question about how good he was. But he needed that second or third fighter to win a championship so he could be remembered as one of the truly great trainers. That’s one of the sad parts of this game is that you get judged sometimes not on what you do or what you know but by guys who could carry you. In a way, Angelo rolled into the hall of fame and boxing legend on the shoulders of guys like Ali and Leonard who might have been pretty good fighters even without Angie. Angelo might be most famous for letting Muhammad Ali be Muhammad Ali as Ali himself once said. But he was more than just a trainer or a manager. He was guy that represented whatever is good in this sport. He was Mr. Integrity. I can’t praise him enough. I am sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to any of these three.”
Finally, Katz moved on to referee Wayne Kelly, a quality but unsung referee out of New York who passed on the same day Dundee had.
“Wayne Kelly was at a time after Arthur Mercante, Sr. when there were very few good referees in the state of New York. Wayne was probably one of the best of them. One of the best things, if I remember correctly, was at the theatre at Madison Square Garden. Arturo Gatti was defending against Wilson Rodriguez; one of the great fights of all time. Gatti was completely out yet he came back. It was a fight I was calling to be stopped. You just don’t want somebody to be hurt. But Wayne Kelly allowed it to go on. And he explained later ‘I have seen Gatti fight. I know how he comes back.’ That fight in a way made Arturo Gatti the legend that he became. The other fights subsequent with Ivan Robinson and of course the trilogy with Mickey Ward, never mind. The Rodriguez fight was, I think, the basis for his growth as a great fighter. And Wayne Kelly was wise enough to realize that you don’t automatically do things. That there has to be a judgement call and that is the toughest call probably in sports; when to stop a fight. And I just love Wayne Kelly for that. Here is a fight I thought should have been stopped and he let it go and by God he was right and I was wrong.
“The thing is, Kelly prior to that had had I don’t know how many fights that he had handled Gatti and he just knew,” Katz explained. “You don’t stop a guy just because he looks like he is on the brink of disaster if you know a guy and know he can recuperate. There are guy that stop fights too soon and too late. I would rather a fight get stopped too soon. But Kelly proved that in a judgment game, he had fine judgment and he had that kind of judgement throughout his career. He was the kind of ref that if you had a fighter, you wanted Wayne Kelly to be the referee. And there are very few guys you can say that about especially in the state of New York. Once Joe Cortez moved to Las Vegas there was not really anybody at Kelly’s level. He was very much an underrated referee. Was he an Arthur Mercante? No but not even Arthur Mercante, Jr was Arthur Mercante. I think Wayne Kelly deserved a little more credit from boxing writers, if there is such a breed anymore.”
Goody Petronelli: October 12, 1923 – January 29, 2012
Angelo Dundee: August 30, 1921 – February 1, 2012
Wayne Kelly: November 19, 1948- February 1, 2012
May their souls rest in peace.
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