Sugar makes way for latest ‘great white hopeless’

As New York bade farewell to an icon, the world spun on and the city opened its arms wide for the most high-profile low-quality player the NFL has ever concocted

Angelo Dundee last month and now Bert Sugar. The old guard is really crumbling. I was very fortunate to meet Mr Sugar at a boxing press conference in Manhattan last summer. It was nothing but a brief and essentially insignificant encounter for that old doyen of this sporting life but it did mean my sycophantic bucket list was a tad lighter.

Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz were the fighters in the spotlight that hot morning near Times Square but Mr Sugar circled the room with a swagger that was infinitely more authentic, his star appeal fuelled by that unlit cigar and majestic fedora.