Donald Naazim Richardson passes, 54.

A former amateur boxer from North Philadelphia, he was a protégé of English "Bouie" Fisher and took over training Bernard Hopkins when Fisher predeceased him in 2011. He achieved his greatest renown as the chief second for B-Hop (along with latter-career Shane Mosley, and Steve Cunningham) but toiled in yeoman's obscurity for years coaching Philly youth and personally was proudest of his work bringing along his extended family (cousins Michael and Karl Sharif Dargan and sons Rock, Tiger, and Bear Allen).

His age is being misreported in some places as 55 (lazy journalism; he was born in 1965 but his actual DOB, 11/ is harder - but not impossible - to dig up, so I think people are just subtracting the years and calling it a day). "Brother Nazim", as he was known, played an integral part in two glove tampering exposures (of Félix Juan Trinidad García versus Hopkins, and Antonio Margarito Montiel versus Mosley) and was a colorful personality during both press conferences & interviews (among his more famous quotes being a prediction that "Shane’s going to come out and hit Floyd in the mouth and Floyd is going to sprout a tail, grow wings, draw fans and claws and turn into a dragon in the ring, and start spitting fireballs") as well as motivational speeches in the corner (similar in tone if not content to contemporary Teddy Atlas', whose monologues always seemed like constructs meant for the camera while containing little substance; Atlas, incidentally, was a vocal critic of Richardson's and once dismissed him as just a one hit wonder based on Mosley vs. Margarito, which is laughably ironic coming from the guy that stood by and held Michael Lee Moorer's towel ), overshadowing his proven cred as quite a good x's-and-o's pugilistic tactician.

As salāmu ʿalaykum, Bro Naz. (be advised that using the Judeo-Christian expression "RIP" as is popular in most of Western civilization is actually not permitted by Islam and thus considered disrespectful when used to refer to particularly devoutly observant Muslims, which the late Naz was).

 

@Rumsfeld

 

Seems to be the consensus opinion from everyone in the biz. Yet to see a statement from his relatives but huge outpouring already from many other fighters and industry folk on social media.

My first thought was maybe COVID-19 but apparently he was struggling with some undisclosed illness for a long time. His family appears to be keeping the cause private for now, as is their right. He did have a stroke in the later part of the previous decade, not sure if that was a factor.

 

...except Naz personally would have been, and I don't find that especially unreasonable. I don't like when people say "God bless you" when I sneeze, and though I understand people are well intentioned with it (and it just never occurs to most of them someone might not believe in their deity) it does cause me to cringe when that is used in place of something more secular and universal like "gesundheit".

To someone of Naz's beliefs, the concept of resting in peace is anathemic. Saying it about him, when the point of the gesture is to pay respect to him, just because that is the phrase you are most comfortable with and used to hearing in your geocultural bubble, seems like an incongruously and needlessly disrespectful act.

...and this is coming from a MAJOR lifelong critic of Islam. "Hate the sin, not the sinner", as the Christians say, right? Well...his religion may not be to my liking but I respect the man and won't use a phrase directed towards him that, if alive, he'd probably object to based on his personal beliefs.