By Michael Marley
LOUISVILLE--They are 20 years apart in age and still have the unique rapport built while teaming up to capture the world heavyweight championship a record three times.
Trainer Angelo Dundee is 90 and often confined to a wheelchair. His main man, his greatest champion Muhammad Ali, turns age 70 on Tuesday and Saturday night they held an evocative lovefest of a birthday bash for him at the nifty Muhammad Ali Center on the shores of the Ohio River in this, the champion's hometown.
Dundee came to the event, mentally sharp and still with the chipper personality which always made him a favorite of sports journalists, but his son, Jimmy Dundee, and his "minder," a nice fellow named Mark Grismer, had to transport the Hall Of Fame trainer from his Galt House hotel quarters nearby to the All Muhammad, All The Time museum with the wheelchair.
I'm not sure if my idol and longtime friend Ali walked into the facility under his own power but I doubt it as he departed the too long tribute in a wheelchair also.
Earlier in the day, I chatted with the sagacious boxing head about the abject failure of the Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. camps to put their big fight together.
Not surprisingly, Dundee is just as disgusted as so many Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather fans worldwide are.
"It is foolish," Clearwater, Fl., resident Dundee said. "They're talking each fighter getting something like $40 million and they cannot come to terms?
"I just don't get it, that's what boxing is all about, what Muhammad was all about. Muhammad did not run way from Frazier or Foreman, he ran to them even when everyone thought Big George was an unbeatable, unstoppable monster.
"I think both of these camps are making a mistake. They may be misreading the boxing public and it could cost them. That fight has been a hot topic, a fight the fans really want, for a long time, for a few years now.
"But the public can be fickle. Maybe some new fighter or fighters come along and catch the public interest. Where does that leave Mayweather and Pacquiao?
"They need to sign the fight up and get it done. Six months from now, maybe the public won't care so much about them. That would be terrible but it's a risk they are taking. Again, I just think it's stupid and it hurts the whole sport."
Oddly, despite his mental acuity and public charm, Dundee was not asked to speak at the tribute which Ali's wife, Lonnie Ali, presided over in magnificent fashion.
