Angelo Dundee, inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 and one of the greatest and most popular boxing trainers of the 20th and 21st Centuries, died Wednesday night in his apartment in Tampa, FL. According to the Associated Press, he’d recently returned from the hospital after recovering from a blood clot. The report quotes his son, Jimmy Dundee, as saying much of the family had gathered at the apartment when they knew he was close to death.
Angelo Dundee was the trainer of 15 World Champions, including the great Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali for most of Ali’s career, as well as great Welterweight Champions “Sugar” Ray Leonard and José “Mantequilla” Napoles. He also trained “Big” George Foreman for his fight against Michael Moorer in 1994 which Foreman won by knockout to become the oldest World Heavyweight Champion in history. (The title Foreman won was the IBF.)
A short review of Dundee’s recently released autobiography, My View From the Corner: a life in Boxing, which he wrote with famed boxing journalist Bert Sugar, can be found on the Literacy and Education page of this site.
To view exerpts of the book and purchase it click here.
A profile of former Middleweight contender Michael “Silk” Olajide, Jr., who was briefly trained by Dundee, can be found by scrolling down on the King of the Ring page.
To read a short summary of Dundee’s superstar Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali about his 2009 Irish-American Version of Hajj to Enis, County Clare, when Ali made his first trip to the town where his matrilineal great grandfather was born, scroll down this page.
To read a story where Dundee’s superstar Welterweight Champion, Sugar Ray Leonard, talks to Boxers and Writers Magazine and recommends his favorite books, scroll down one story from the one on Muhammad Ali. To read Leonard’s assessment of Manny Pacquiao, Why he destroyed Hatton and why he’s so dominant, click onto the King of the Ring Page and scroll down to the 2009 article.
By Mark Connor
© Copyright 2012, Mark Connor
