Angelo Dundee
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Angelo Merena (born 1923), better known in the boxing world as Angelo Dundee, is a boxing cornerman who has worked with 15 world boxing champions, among them, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jose Napoles, George Foreman, Jimmy Ellis, Carmen Basilio and Luis Rodriguez.
Dundee learned many of the strategies used to act as a cornerman for boxers as a pupil of Lou Stillman. A native of Philadelphia, he went to New York and later to Miami, where his brother Chris Dundee opened the Fifth Street Gym.
Basilio was the first world champion Dundee acted as a cornerman for, when Basilio defeated Tony De Marco for the world welterweight crown.
Dundee shot into national fame when Ali won the world Heavyweight title from Sonny Liston. Even as Ali became a member of a radical, black Muslim group during that era, he refused to let Dundee, a white man, go. Some black Muslims, such as Elijah Muhammad, allegedly tried to pressure Ali to separate from his cornerman, but Ali and Dundee respected each other mutually, and their relationship transcended their job: they became friends.
Dundee travelled around the world with Ali, and he was the cornerman in all of Ali's fights, which also included Ali's bouts with Archie Moore, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton, and later, Leon Spinks. Dundee was accused by Foreman of loosening the ring ropes before his 1974 The Rumble in the Jungle fight with Ali, to help Ali win the fight.
After Ali's retirement, Dundee saw a future, emerging star in Sugar Ray Leonard, whom he has called "a smaller version of Ali". Dundee once again acted as cornerman for Leonard in many of his biggest fights, including those with Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns. In Leonard's first bout with Hearns, Dundee, thinking that his protege was behind on the scorecards, quipped the now famous words "You're blowing it, son! You're blowing it!" before the start of round 13. Leonard went on to score a fourteenth round win when the referee stopped the fight, causing longtime boxing blow by blow commentator Don Dunphy to exclaim, "They're stopping the fight. I don't believe it. Hearns is ahead on points."
Angelo later teamed up with George Foreman, including his 1991 Heavyweight title fight against Evander Holyfield and his 1994 Heavyweight title win against then undefeated Michael Moorer.
Dundee was enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994.
Most recently, Angelo Dundee was hired to train Russell Crowe for Crowe's characterization of James J. Braddock in "The Cinderella Man". To that effect, Dundee traveled to Australia to work with the Oscar winning actor.
