Angelo Dundee at 100: The calm heart of Muhammad Ali’s boxing career

It would have been trainer Angelo Dundee’s birthday this week. His gentle cool helped many fighters reach their potential as world champions, writes Ben Wyatt

Muhammad Ali has his hands bandaged by manager Angelo Dundee before a bout of sparring at the Royal Artillery gym, London in 1966 ahead of his meeting with Henry Cooper. Picture: George Freston/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty

Of all of boxing’s trainers, there’s arguably none greater than Angelo Dundee. Monday would have been his 100th birthday, but the man who coached Muhammad Ali in all-but-two of his fights also had qualities away from the ring worthy of remembrance. For, like all great cornermen, the advice that helped hone 15 American world champions across six decades was maybe at its best when applied to the world outside of the ropes.

After serving in the Second World War as an aircraft inspector, Dundee’s boxing obsession drew him from his native Philadelphia to the famous Stillman’s Gym in Manhattan to reimagine his own identity.