ARUM MOURNS PASSING OF ANGELO DUNDEE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 03 Feb 2012
Angelo Dundee.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was having dinner here in San Antonio Wednesday night when he was informed that his close friend and trainer of Muhammad Ali, Angelo Dundee, had passed away at the age of 90 in Clearwater, Florida following a heart attack.
Arum told the Manila Standard and ABS-CBN after dinner that "It was a painful thing but its mortality because there will come a day for all of us."
He said Dundee "lived a great life. It's very, very sad that he's passed away. He was a very good friend of mine and the reports I get is that he complained about his throat hurting, closed his eyes and he died. There was no suffering, no drama. He died the way he lived without making waves."
Arum recalled how Dundee saved Muhammad Ali in his first fight against Henry Cooper and then against Joe Frazier in the "Thrilla in Manila" and said he was "a great, great cornerman and a great motivator."
In a ten round non-title fight in London's Wembley Stadium in 1963 Cooper dropped Ali in the thread round with a patented left hook but Dundee sued for time as he showed the referee a rip in Ali's gloves and when the officials scrambled to bring in another set of gloves Ali had more than enough time to recover and ultimately cut Cooper so badly the fight was stopped.
In the "Thrilla in Manila" when Ali reportedly wanted to quit after taking a beating in the middle rounds it was Dundee who ignored him, shoved him on his stool and convinced him to continue and in the end he forced a badly battered Frazier's trainer Eddie Futch to stop the bout at the end of the 14th round as Frazier's eye was closed and he couldn't see the right hand of Ali who ripped into him.
Arum said "the only thing that is sad is that in those days they never had microphones in the corner so you couldn't hear how brilliant he was. I was close enough to listen to him. If I was a fighter there is nobody I would want in my corner better than Angelo Dundee."
When heavyweight champion George Foreman made a comeback and "could have had anybody in his corner because somebody else trained him," Arum said Foreman "he insisted on hiring Angelo and having him work his corner."
The world's leading promoter who was in Manila for the "Thrilla in Manila" with Dundee when Dundee was the trainer of Ali said his strength was "watching every moment of every round for three minutes and then communicate and motivate in that one minute. He doesn't waste time."
We were assigned as the liaison officer for Ali and got to know Dundee quite well. He was a simple, straight talking, down to earth individual and we were both featured on a recent BBC Radio program "Live" in which we recalled special moments with Ali in Manila as the BBC paid tribute to Ali on his 70th birthday.
Dundee attended the celebration in Louisville, Kentucky and arrangements had been made by Arum who has been asked by the Lou Ruvo Clinic to bring in former fighters for the February 18 event at the MGM Grand. Dundee had agreed but unfortunately he won't make it.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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