Dundee Muffled

Angelo Dundee, who coached 15 world champions in the squared circle, not counting Jim Braddock in Cinderella Man, has died at the age of 90. In his 60 years in the corner, Dundee was part cutman, part psychologist, part master strategist helping guide Muhammad Ali to the heavyweight title 3 different times, Sugar Ray Leonard to convince Roberto Duran he could take “no mas,” and George Foreman to become the oldest heavyweight champion of all time. Others in the stable were Carmen Basilio, Pinklon Thomas, Trevor Berbick, Ralph Dupas, Wilfredo Gomez, Jose Napoles, Willie Pastrano, Jimmy Ellis, Michael Nunn, Sugar Ramos and Luis Rodriguez. As is generally the case in boxing, not everything in his bag of tricks was entirely above boards. After Ali was knocked down in a 1963 bout with Henry Cooper, Dundee stretched a hole in Ali’s glove, buying time for Ali to recover. At the Rumble in the Jungle, Dundee noticed that the high humidity was causing the ring ropes to sag, so he used a razor blade to cut the ropes and then tightened them. Thus Ali was able to employ his “rope-a-dope” strategy, letting Foreman wear himself out while the ropes absorbed most of the energy from Foreman’s punches. For his efforts, legal and otherwise, Dundee was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994.