TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Dundee Still The Sweetest

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

Hall of Fame boxing trainer Angelo Dundee talks about his career.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 11, 2008

OLDSMAR - You always hear that boxing is dying.

Forget about it. It has Angelo Dundee in its corner.

The sweet science has never had a sweeter ambassador. The legendary trainer has worked a rumble in the jungle and a thrilla in Manila. The Beatles once visited his Miami Beach gym to see someone really famous, his star pupil: Muhammad Ali.

"That was fun," Dundee said.

He's local treasure, having recently moved to Tampa Bay. And nearly every night in their Oldsmar home, Helen Dundee wonders why her 86-year-old husband is screaming at the fights on TV. Her Angelo will point to a boxer and shake his head. Marone, that guy's in trouble.

"I always try to figure out how I could help," Dundee said.

In a sport that often slithers, you won't find anyone to say a bad word about this warm-hearted paisan, whose boxing career is 60 years young and going strong.

"You're as old as you want to be," Dundee said. "Thank God I've worked with young people all my life."

Hundreds of fighters have climbed through the ropes with Angie Dundee behind them. Fifteen have climbed out world champions, including Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman and "the kid," as Dundee calls the 66-year-old Ali.

Dundee still trains fighters. He and another boxing icon, writer Bert Randolph Sugar, recently co-wrote a book on Dundee's career, "My View From The Corner." The other day, former world champion Hector "Macho" Camacho, 45, visited with Dundee. Camacho is trying a comeback. There's no deal or anything, but they were going to the gym, Macho to work, Angie just to watch.

"If it's there, I'll find it," Dundee said.

"He's like a saint," Camacho said.

St. Angelo's first commandment?

"What does it cost to be nice? It's cheap. I tell that to all my guys."

Learned From The Greats

He was born Angelo Mirena in Philadelphia in 1921. His father, from Calabria, Italy, drove home railroad spikes. Angelo's brother Joe fought under the name Joe Dundee, and brother Chris became a top promoter. Angelo followed them into the fight game. The name Dundee stuck.

When Angelo Dundee talks about his New York days, you see cigar smoke rising in hard, sharp Runyon-esque places. Dundee learned from the great trainers, then scrambled to work four-round prelims at Madison Square Garden. One night at Toots Shor's, he met a model named Helen. That was the thunderbolt. Marone, what a beauty, Angelo thought. They unified the title, man and wife, 56 years ago.

The Dundee fight family eventually moved to Miami Beach, to a gritty second-floor walk-up that had been a Chinese restaurant. They called it the Fifth Street Gym. Today it's a bank. A plaque out front speaks to its history and bears the Dundee name. It's where champions trained.

The greatest of them came into Angelo Dundee's life in 1957. Dundee was sharing a Louisville, Ky., hotel room with Willie Pastrano, a future light heavyweight champ. The phone rang. Dundee picked up.

"I'm Cassius Marcellus Clay, I'm Gold Gloves champion.'"

There was nothing on TV, so Dundee told the kid to come up.

Muhammad Ali was 15 at the time.

And so it began.

"I always liked the kid," Dundee said.

Muhammad Ali now divides his time between his home in Michigan and Arizona, where he receives treatment for Parkinson's disease. Angelo always phones on Muhammad's birthday.

"We've always had fun together. He's my friend. I check up on him."

Dundee turned Sugar Ray Leonard into a world-beater, too, helping him past Duran, Hearns and Hagler. But they parted after Leonard paid Dundee less than custom demanded - Angie Dundee, who loaned broken boxers money, knowing he'd never get it back. Dundee never speaks badly of Leonard, or anyone else.

What does it cost to be nice?

The other night, Dundee was watching TV ("I watch everything") and a replay of Leonard-Hearns II was on, a Sugar Ray fight Angie didn't even work. He couldn't take his eyes off it.

"I got all juiced up. That's what makes you survive. You've got to get your kicks."

Could Teach A Dead Rat

Dundee taught Will Smith to box for the title role in the film "Ali" and taught his friend Russell Crowe to fight for "Cinderella Man."

"I could teach a dead rat to be deader," Dundee said.

Now Macho Camacho, his latest legal troubles behind him, wants to fight again at 45 - 45. Maybe that sounds sad, but then you see Angie.

"Let's see what he has," Dundee said.

Helen Dundee has beaten cancer, and battles on. "She's my main important fighter," Dundee said. Their boy Jimmy, an optician, lives in Dunedin. Daughter Terry, a teacher, lives in Land O' Lakes. Jimmy and Terry's father insists that Tampa Bay is his final home.

"I got the cemetery plots right around here. That way the kids won't have to go too far to say, 'Hey, Pop, how you doin'?'"

Like that's happening anytime soon.

It was off to the gym.

Macho Camacho says he'll be champ again.

Angie Dundee smiled.

If it's there, he'll find it.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT