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No similarities between Ali and Sugar Ray
ABC Sports Online
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Famed trainer Angelo Dundee worked with both Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and helped each of them to win their respective boxing championships.In an excerpt from an interview conducted for the Wide World of Sports 40th Anniversary Dundee tackled the issue of simliarites between Ali and Sugar Ray.
ABC Sports
Were there many similarities between Ray and Ali?
Angelo Dundee
None. None whatsoever. Different individuals. Ray had his own thing. Naturally, Ray liked Ali. Any fighter that didn't like Ali should have his head examined, because Ali did so much for boxing.
Different ballgame. Muhammad was very fond of Ray, by the way. When Ray announced one of his retirements, it was in Baltimore. He wasn't going to fight. And he made the announcement, and I told Muhammad he was going to have a press conference. He said, "I want to go." So Muhammad and I went to that press conference.
And he made that announcement, and I think Howard Cosell was there, and he let the public know that he wasn't going to fight. You're not going to see the fight, you know, but we did see the fight, and we didn't. Whatever was there it happened. But the point was, no similarity whatsoever. They're different fighters. I mean, I can't try to get into the intricacy of it, but that's the fun of it. You always deal with a different guy.
ABC Sports
They both had such great respect for the sport itself, right?
Dundee
I have such a great respect for Ray Leonard. You know what he did? That was a little welterweight that took up the void. Because after Muhammad, we had a void. Here's a little welterweight that picked it up because we needed that. See, we need a star at the forefront in boxing, for the public to stay interested. And if you lose that, you're in deep trouble. Boxing is quiet. And the worst thing in the profession is silence. You've got to have some noise, you gotta let people get excited. We don't have that right now. Ray Leonard handled it all by himself. He was great.
ABC Sports
That is great. That's exactly what he did. One of Ray's next fights, he had a vicious knockout of Dave Green. Did that power punch surprise you?
Dundee
The knockout punch was a perfect set. It's something I teach all my kids right now. It's a slide right, stick, stick, slide right, bang! Drop the right hand over, make an angle. This was a famous punch for Muhammad, too, with Liston. Certain things you teach guys, you can implement on other guys.
You can't make a fighter be like a clone of the other fighter, because it won't happen. The reflex is different, the balance is different, the approach is different, the height is different. So much goes into play there. And it's a complete study. But Ray had the perfect foil in front of him. God, he could make him stand out and look like a million bucks. You can show that picture over and over, but you can't live on one fight. You've got to go forward.
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