Angelo’s Angles: R.I.P. Angie Dundee

by Angelo Vecchio

Prime Time. When they were young. No names needed here.

February 2, 2012. It’s a busy news day, ain’t it?  I mean, the oceans’ tides froze in place as the world stopped when Donald Trump announced he is supporting Mitt Romney for President—-Trump promises to spare us running himself if only the GOP is smart enough to nominate Moderate Mitt.

In other news, Billy Ray Cyrus signed a contract with Amazon.com.  The singer of “Achy Breaky Heart” and father and former co-star of Miley Cyrus has a memoir, “Hillbilly Heart,” coming in spring 2013. (No, I didn’t make that up.) Finally, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers reunited recently for the first time in 30 years, sitting down for the Thursday episode of Somers’ “Breaking Through” Web series.  Three’s not company with a dead John Ritter. I bring all of this vital news to your attention, because lost in the shuffle is a piece of news that really matters to me:  Iconic boxing trainer Angelo Dundee died at the age of 90. Angelo Dundee wasn’t only a great trainer, with his two biggest stars, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard making boxing headlines from the early 1960s through the mid 1980s:  In the opinion of many boxing insiders, he was simply a very decent man.  The fight game was and is a dirty business.  The lying/cheating promoters, the purses never paid in full, the fixes—must be hard for a “decent man” to make it big in this sport.  But Dundee, famous for saying (and I paraphrase slightly) “It doesn’t cost any extra to be nice.” was as big as trainers ever become. He was hand picked by a group of “investors” to mentor Ali (Cassius Clay at the time).  What a perfect fit.  Dundee’s calm demeanor was a nice compliment to Ali’s “slightly outgoing” personality!  When Ali played up his intentions to destroy his opponents, Dundee was in the background, smiling.  When Ali became Heavyweight Champion of the World, stunning the heavily favored Sonny Liston, Dundee wasn’t eager to give interviews—-he wanted his fighter to have the spotlight.  When Ali was banned from boxing for refusing induction into the military at the height of the Vietnam war—-”dodging” the draft, but not running away—-Dundee avoided the public statements that would have been so easy to make—you know the ones “The kid is making a mistake—-he’d never go to the front lines anyway—-he won’t leave stateside.”  All of this was assured to Ali—-but his objection to the war (on political and religious grounds) stood and Dundee was still in his corner.  Dundee rode the ups and downs with Ali—he was there in Ali’s corner for every fight.  He coaxed a tired Ali to perhaps his greatest triumph, the 1975 win over rival Joe Frazier in ”The Thrilla in Manilla.”  Ali was ready to quit.  Dundee wouldn’t let him. Dundee was also there in 1974, when Ali regained his title over another heavy favorite, George Foreman.  Dundee didn’t like what he was seeing—-Ali’s “rope a dope” didn’t make sense to Dundee at first—-it wasn’t their fight plan—-and Ali was a stationary target for the power punching Foreman.  But by the middle rounds, it was apparent that Foreman was exhausted.  His power was gone.  Between rounds, Ali told Dundee that he wanted to now toy with Foreman, embarass him—-and Dundee replied “Don’t you fool around in there, go finish this!”  And yes, years later, Dundee was there to throw in the towel when an old and worn out Ali was battered, sitting on his stool after the 10th round—against the in-prime Larry Holmes.   Ali would have come out to fight—-Dundee didn’t let him.  You see, Dundee seemed to know when his fighter needed coaxing to have the courage to continue—-but he also seemed to know when HE, Dundee, needed to have the courage to tell “The Greatest” that it was time to quit.  He loved Ali and the feeling was mutual. He told Sugar Ray Leonard “You’re blowing it Kid” when Leonard was behind against Thomas Hearns.  Leondard came back to win by a KO.  Sugar Ray Leonard was instrumental in making the lower weight classes every bit as impactful as the Heavyweight division.  In the 1980s, Leonard, along with Hearns, Hagler, Duran—-were the best.  Larry Holmes was controlling the heavyweight division, but the aforementioned fighters were very competitive against each other and made their lower weight class a big ticket item.  Dundee was there for that—-helping make Leonard the biggest star, the biggest draw, the highest paid. Dundee was a great ambassador for boxing.  He could make us forget the sleeze—at least for a while.  Oh, and the Ali-Liston rematch:  Conventional wisdom is that Liston took a dive—the fix was in.  I watch that fight—me, the world’s biggest Muhammad Ali fan—and I see how it’s easy to come to that conclusion.  I watch it—-and it seems impossible that one barely visible punch from Ali could knock out the powerful Sonny Liston so early in the fight.  I saw Dundee interviewed about this once.  He swears there was no fix—-it was a “legitimate” knock out.  It was Ali’s “Phantom” punch.  Dundee points to the area of Liston’s chin/jaw where the punch landed and mimmicks the punch. Would Dundee lie?