“Ever since Angelo has been here, there’s a new energy floating in the air, you know?” De La Hoya said from his training camp in Big Bear City, Calif., when Dundee was there for a week earlier this month. “The fact that we have a legend in the sport of boxing here in the gym ... it’s like a breath of fresh air having Angelo. The stories that he tells you, the Sugar Ray Leonard days, the Ali days and the little tricks up his sleeves.”
Between appearances at book signings, charity events, celebrity galas, baseball games and movie sets, Dundee has been keeping plenty busy.
He taught Will Smith to act like Ali, Russell Crowe to fight like James J. Braddock in “Cinderella Man,” and he helped Catherine Zeta-Jones for the upcoming film “The Rebound.”
“He’s had his hands in every aspect of boxing,” said former world heavyweight champion Pinklon Thomas, who also was trained for a time by Dundee.
Dundee still looks at fighters and gives recommendations. He’s far removed from the everyday training preparation for fights, but the legends of the sport still look to him for answers.
He’s already picked up several tips to pass to De La Hoya. For instance, he said he sees a flaw from Pacquiao that he also noticed to help Leonard upset Marvin Hagler.
“I noticed Hagler, as great a fighter as he was, had to step before he punched,” Dundee said. “Now this kid Pacquiao does that same thing. Oscar will tear him to pieces if he does that.”
He even offered a prediction: De La Hoya in a decision.
|
The aging trainer has long been a source to get over-the-hill fighters back on top. He helped Ali reclaim the heavyweight title in 1974 over Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle” fought in Zaire. He later helped Foreman capture the title at age 45 over Michael Moorer.
But how does boxing make a comeback?
“We need more American fighters,” Dundee said. “The public needs to know who the guy is that’s fighting. What the heck are they going to go to the fight for if it’s some Russian guy?”
Dundee is hoping for a boxing upsurge before his own time is up, but he knows that doesn’t leave much time.
He’s already picked out a final resting place near Tampa. He purchased a mausoleum — an above ground plot — for he and his wife, a point to prove that even after death he isn’t going away.
“Even when I’m dead,” he said, “they’ll never bury me.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM OTHER SPORTS |
 Other sports Section Front |
| Add Other sports headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links