Brendan Mooney
Angelo Dundee was scheduled to bring America’s young Olympic boxing team to Cork back in 1999 but the visit never materialised as a result of the untimely death of another legendary boxing trainer, Sunnyside’s Albie Murphy.
The pair had struck up a relationship at the Seoul Olympics when Albie Murphy was coach to the Irish team which included one of his protégés, Kieran Joyce.
Practically every morning we would assemble for coffee at the Olympic Park and the “quick” cup of coffee that would drag on for at least an hour and, after many cups, we would end up rushing to take care of our various assignments.
Both men were what you could in all truth term great company regaling each other with enthralling tales of great fights, success, failure and fear.
It was easy to become detached from the enormous task that is a day’s work at the Olympics in that cosy corner enthralled by an insight into Ali or Sugar Ray Leonard — a boxer who had endeared himself to us all on his visit to Cork in 1985 as part of Shawn O’Sullivan’s entourage.
Shawn’s father came from Bantry and his mother from Armagh but he regarded himself as an out and out Corkman. He fought Tony deLoughrey at a sell-out show in the Twilight Zone in Fermoy before the Los Angeles Olympics and we all stood up and shouted “foul” when he lost to Frank Tate in the Olympic final in LA. Despite the fact he had given Tate two standing counts in the second round, four of the five judges gave the American the round. And, co-incidentally, O’Sullivan’s manager, attorney Mike Trainer, who brought Angelo Dundee into the Sugar Ray camp.
Dundee was born in Philadelphia but, after living in New York for a time, he learned the skills of the cornerman serving as the bucket man to the likes of Charlie Goldman, Ray Arcel and Chickie Ferrera. He was in charge of the corner when Carmen Basilio defeated Tony DeMarco for the world welterweight title to give him his first world champion.
He would later be the cornerman in all of Ali’s fights except Tunney Hunsaker in 1960 and Jimmy Ellis in 1971. When Ali came to Dublin to fight Al ‘Blue’ Lewis in 1972 he arrived suffering from a bad flu or cold and, unknown to most, Dundee almost pulled him out of the fight.
He referred to Sugar Ray Leonard as a “smaller version of Ali” and was in his corner for his biggest fights including Duran, Hearns and Hagler. His comment during the first fight with Leonard is part of boxing folklore when, thinking Leonard was behind on points he yelled: “You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it” before the referee stopped the fight in the 14th round.
He trained Russell Crowe for the film Cinderella Man and appeared in it as Angelo the corner man. He will be sadly missed from the world of boxing. RIP.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/DhNDwkt0Osk/post.aspx
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