Was Luis Sarria the real, secret trainer of Muhammad Ali?

@klompton2 has been making this claim, out of whole cloth, on the Willie Pastrano thread but I thought it was worth a wider discussion:

This is a bold discovery that basically changes boxing history entirely. Probably worthy of a book.

Angelo Dundee, per @klompton2, was only there to do interviews to throw off the press about the real power behind the throne.

@klompton2 cites the following sources: he’s seen film of Sarria near the ring during media workouts while Angelo is doing interviews. So he extrapolates from this that Angelo never did anything but interviews and Sarria handled all day-to-day training, all work on boxing technique, oversaw all sparring, etc.

History says Sarria was Ali’s conditioning coach (an important role, but not head trainer) and masseuse.

The following sources say differently:

Sarria: In interviews when he was alive, Sarria says he met Ali (who was already working out in Miami under Angelo Dundee at the Fifth Street Gym) when Ali approached him one day and asked (though Dundee, as Sarria did not speak English) for a massage. He never, in any surviving source that I can find (nor does @klompton2 cite any after being challenged several times) claims to have been Ali’s trainer.

Ali: Calls Dundee “one of the greatest” trainers of all time. He never once seems to have ever said Sarria was his trainer. He says Dundee “coached” him.

Ferdie Pacheco, who was Ali’s personal physician and who was around from the start of Ali’s career until he left near the end, says Sarria was conditioning coach and masseuse.

Dundee, for his part, was Sarria’s employer at the Fifth Street Gym and says Sarria was an exceptional trainer (with other fighters) and a valuable part of Ali’s team — as conditioning coach and masseuse.

And Hubert Mizell, who covered Ali in Miami as his beat for the Associated Press, who spent a lot of time at the Fifth Street Gym and was employed to cover Ali as his job with the world’s largest press agency, wrote about his experience in his later years: He says Angelo Dundee was Ali’s trainer and talks about how after workouts Ali would go into a side room and lay on a massage table and Sarria would give him a massage. (He never once mentions Sarria having any role in Ali’s boxing workouts in any form.)

So there we have it: Klompton’s deductions from press conference film vs. all the people who were around at that time.

What do you think? Has Klompton stumbled upon the biggest, best-kept secret in boxing history? Has the Master Researcher who wrote a self-published book, but who cannot cite a single source to back up his assertion, cracked the code and uncovered a conspiracy to make it look like Dundee (who also handled Sugar Ray Leonard, Willie Pastrano and more world champions than you can count on all your fingers and toes) was an actual boxing trainer while the true mastermind stayed hidden in the shadows and never uttered a word about it in his entire life?

What say you all?

 

Just as you know about Igor, someone would know about it if Sarria was Ali’s trainer. The most publicized, most written-about, most-photographed, most-filmed fighter in history — the man with the most attention and most people around him since the very beginnings of the sport and yet not one person has ever uttered this great secret?

No way.

Was he more than the rub-down guy? Absolutely. His conditioning role was hugely important. So is every strength coach for every NFL team. But that doesn’t make them the secret head coach. We might as well say Bundini was the one who taught Ali how to box.

I pressed @klompton2 again and again for proof or sourcing and he literally pasted a bunch of clips (not entire articles, like one or two paragraphs from articles) that all basically said, ‘He doesn’t speak English.” I mean, that’s his source.

I hate to think how much fiction is in his self-published Greb book if he took a paragraph that says a guy can’t speak English and deducted from that source that the guy trained Ali.

 

I have asked the mysteriously absent from this thread @klompton2 these questions — repeatedly — and he has scurried away like a cockroach when the light comes on:

1) Do you have a single source supporting the idea that Sarria was Ali’s head trainer (as opposed to his conditioning coach and masseuse)? So far the answer is NO.

2) Can you explain why Ali never once mentioned Sarria as his trainer in his entire life?

3) Can you explain why Sarria never claimed to be Ali’s trainer?

4) Can you explain why no one but YOU has ever made this claim?

He literally says a couple of clips saying Sarria did not speak English proves he was the real trainer.

(And this guy actually wrote a book?)

 

I think it’s a topic for debate.

Trolls and alts might take it over just to cloud reality.

If someone has so much as a quote from a bystander who claims Sarria was running things — Fifth Street Gym had fighters and trainers and tons of press people and even spectators who could watch Ali train by paying 50 cents at the door — I’d like to see it.

I’m convinced he did not (beyond skeptical) but if he did, he deserves credit. And the mystery of how the world didn’t know who really trained Ali needs to be solved.

I can’t even find a mention of Sarria by Ali in any manner but maybe it’s out there somewhere, even if he just called him a good masseuse.

 

Here are some photos of Sarria with Ali, all of which I can find seem to show him giving the champ rub-downs rather than doing anything that resembles coaching:

https://neilleifer.com/portfolio/ali-with-his-masseur-luis-sarria/

https://www.google.com/search?q=muh...ECBQQAQ&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=aQbQfH1DfO651M

https://www.google.com/search?q=muh...ECBQQAQ&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=Z6fgeiIgTB3o4M

And some of Dundee with Ali in the gym:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ang...w&biw=1024&bih=653&dpr=2#imgrc=kfvP97b_r0tGuM

https://www.google.com/search?q=ang...w&biw=1024&bih=653&dpr=2#imgrc=gCiJc6hoKtqK6M

https://www.google.com/search?q=ang...w&biw=1024&bih=653&dpr=2#imgrc=PcmtvFbF_rk5CM

 

There’s a pretty famous photo of Ali in the gym with the Beatles.

You can tell if you look deeply into Ringo’s eyes that he’s the one who had just finished going over basic footwork with Ali.

 

I didn’t say Ali was looking into his eyes, I’m saying you can when you view the photograph:

Ringo was a lawn bowling expert and he taught Ali how he could take out four guys at once if he lined them up correctly for the right hand:

https://www.beatlesstory.com/blog/2018/04/27/the-greatest-when-the-beatles-met-muhammad-ali/