Angelo Dundee: The Trainer

Well he did have Willie Pastrano, Luiz Rodriguez, Ali and SRL and George Foreman later on...and he was a very important influence in many key fights...he was good at recognizing strengths and weaknesses and was key pushing Ali out of the corner with Liston and buying time with Cooper...In the Leonard vs Hearns he said "you are blowing it kid"....He came from a boxing family and was around some of the best so I am sure he had a lot of improvements but he also made his fighters feel like they were the better man

 

I might be wrong since I only remember reading it in "Four Kings" in passing, but I think Dundee didn't actually train and build up SRL, he just worked the corner.

 

he motivated well and had some of the best guys who ever fought in Ali and Leonard, who put him on the map. Other guys he had did not do so well obviously. I think he did well for what they expected of him. Be a smart guy in the corner and help market the fight. As an actual trainer, I don't think he was that great.

 

SRL gives Angelo a very mixed review in his book. Sounds like Dundee was a good matchmaker for Leonard, though not the big presence in camp that you'd expect. Angelo always seemed likable to me, but his open admissions of cheating kind of turn me off.

"I'm the chief second! I stop the fight!"........ a dramatic moment from Holmes-Ali

 

He seemed like a subtle yet extremely important and effective guy. Like he'd tell Ali during sparring matches that his jab is looking great just to actually GET Ali to start throwing it, since a direct order just wouldn't work with Ali and so on. I recommend his book "My View From The Corner: A Life in Boxing". One of my favorites.

He also worked with Carmen Basilio and Luis Rodriguez (WW champ, beat Emile Griffith)

 

Angelo knew the business inside out from his brother Chris, but he was a much nicer guy who could get along with kids, champs, pressmen, promoters and boxing folk alike. He was never afraid to keep learning. I would say Dundee was a great all rounder who knew how everything worked rather than a simply a genius coach. He was a great cheif second.

Dundee could spot a good fighter and he was sharp enough to think fast in a corner. I don’t think he ever pretended nurture kids from nothing into champions and develop their styles. what he did do was concentrate on the talent itself, iron out bad habits. He said in his book "a bad habit is something that don’t work" therefore he was against changing fighters into to all fighting one way. If it works, leave it alone.

This meant he could work with any kind of fighter. he did not want the reputation of only being a trainer of flashy boxers, or swarmer types because he was into concentrationg on what worked for each fighter.

A lot of great trainers can get carried away with an idea and clash with people. Angelo was happy for most of his fighters to work with conditioners and other trainers then take over camp in the last week and run the corner. He listened to people and knew what to do when he was in charge and that goes a long way. He was a lot brighter than a lot of more naturaly gifted people in boxing.

As a day to day trainer he was proberbly just very capable rather than great but as "cheif second" he was a real asset.

 

I worked with Dundee. He knows boxing. The great trainers dont really change fighters, they enhance what they have to work with and bring out their best attributes. Dundee could do that. Its not everyday a great fighter walks through the door of the gym, but he had a lot of them, so he knew how to bring out the best in people. Thats a great trainer. You see fighters that work under guys like Futch, Dundee, and Steward, and they dont all have the same styles.
Riddick Bowe didnt fight like Joe Frazier. Ali didnt fight like Basillio, Lewis didnt fight like Hearns, etc..

 

I wouldn't say he had the most technical knowledge but as said above he brought out the best in his fighters and made them believe in their ability. He was able to work with even the most difficult people without letting "ego" get in the way.

The likes of Pastrano and Dupas were not actually trained by Dundee, but it was he who could get them the big fights and paydays they needed. He took a lot of South American boxers under his wing also due to his ability to speak the Spanish language.

Probably one of his best projects was Jimmy Ellis, whom he convinced to put on weight and fight at heavyweight, guiding him to an unlikely heavyweight title win.

 

I'm not sure he could really keep up with Leonard to physically get in there and train him like he could do with Ali. He was in his 60s by the time he got Leonard and he was never like Emanuel Steward and kept very strong and active throughout his life, Angelo was more of an analyzer than getting in there and holding the mits by the time Leonard was training under him.

 

Angelo Dundee, has the same demeanour as, Lou Duva, in the corner. Very similar.

 

Except Duva doesnt know **** about boxing. Dundee could be calm and collected. He wasnt always a fireball. Duva seemed to only be yelling all the time. Duva was never a great boxing mind for sure.

 

what kind of work did you do with Dundee?

Angelo always did a lot of travelling and had a huge address book of contacts. A lot of managers brought their fighters, and a lot of fighters brought themselves to Angelo.

I remember Brian Hughes who trained kids in Manchester through amateur to pro saying that Angelo told him he could never do what he did working with just local fighters and taking them all the way through. He didn’t have the time. Dundee only ever took on a case that already had potential.

 

I worked with him during the mid 90's when he trained most of the Swedish olympic team that was brought over to the states to turn pro. Fighters like George Scott and Atilla Levin were the biggest standouts of the group, but none really went very far. Scott managed to win the WBU title, but Levin who was supposed to be the most promising fighter of the group got his ass kicked by Jeremy Williams in the Bahamas.

 

In the first Liston fight, Lou Duva would've probably ran into the ring claiming foul, gotten himself knocked out by Sonny and have a riot break out when Ali was claiming to be blinded. Dundee told Ali to sit down and take it like a man.

Whatever you think of his training ability, Dundee was definitely one of the great cornermen in boxing. Duva was not, obviously.