My View from the Corner

by Angelo Dundee

Book Overview

Boxing's greatest trainer reveals all"The book is written in a highly conversational tone, and by the end the reader will know precisely what it is like to listen to the Bill Walsh of boxing hold... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007147739X
• ISBN13: 9780071477390
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

great

Im a former Boxer & had the pleasure of using the Main st Gym a few years after it open, Mr Dundee (Angelo) was young & was just starting in the fight Game (early 50s) as I. Im so happy that I read this Book & it is the most Interested & honest picture of the Boxing World. He tells it like it is. Hi brother Was a great man & help me out with one of my 1st Bout (4 Rounds) Being a not to well known @ the time. Beleave me, this Bio is the best. Thank you Regards Norman Gautreau Inducted to the canadian Boxing Hall Of Fame 1987

Angelo Dundee Shares His Boxing Memories

Angelo Dundee is famous for being the trainer for Muhammad Ali and for Sugar Ray Leonard. But he also worked with Carmen Basilio, Willie Pastrano, Luis Rodriguez, and later with George Foreman. The book is alternately humorous and inspiring, as Dundee spins yarn after yarn from his years as an illustrious trainer. The bulk of the book is about his years with Ali, and he clears the air as to what really happened between the fourth and fifth rounds of the fist Henry Copper fight, as well as what was up with the loose ropes in Zaire in the 1974 Ali-Foreman fight. Ali fans will have heard all this before, and Dundee doesn't give you an unbiased opinion of the Ali years. He still thinks that the second Leon Spinks fight was a vintage Ali performance (when in fact, Ali looked terrible and Spinks was worse). Dundee rarely has a bad thing to say about anyone, but he did have problems with Leonard's manager Mike Trainer, who was always trying to withhold money from Dundee. And it sounds like Dundee didn't get paid as much for his years with Ali as a person might have expected. Bert Randolph Sugar helped Angelo to write this book, and it shows every time the text tells us that someone "beat the bejabbers" out of another guy (a favorite and overused expression by Sugar). But the book is nostalgic and fun and a recommended read! Long live Angelo Dunde!

Excellent

I started getting into boxing about year ago and this is by far the best book on boxing I've ever read.

And in this corner

Boxing trainer Angelo Dundee is on my list of people I would most love to sit in a saloon with so I could just listen to them talk. He always seemed like one of those guys who can tell a story, and then another story, and then another story each one better than the last until the bell rings for last call and you get up off your bar stool and make your way home. And that is the feeling I got reading Dundee's "My View from the Corner: A Life in Boxing." This is or has the feel of an `as told to' book with famed boxing writer (and great story teller in his own right) Bert Randolph Sugar. We have Angelo Dundee talking to Bert Sugar about boxing, the universe, and everything and the result is a book that makes you feel as is you really were sitting next to Dundee and Sugar in your local bar. The book is roughly divided into three parts. In the first, we hear about Dundee's youth and introduction (through his older brother Chris) into the world of boxing and his early stable of fighters, most notably light heavyweight Willie Pastrano. The second and biggest part takes us through Dundee's years with Muhammad Ali, from his days as Cassius Clay, through his last days as a fighter. The third and final part covers Dundee's post-Ali years with Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman (during his second stint as the lovable, heavy, old timer). Dundee's style is conversational and reads more like the transcript of his conversations with Sugar than it does a conventional piece of writing and I think this works perfectly. It isn't pretentious or smug; it is just Dundee being Dundee and that's pretty darn good. Dundee's discussion of his relationship with his fighters, particularly Ali, is the heart of "My View from the Corner". I don't think any reader will be disappointed. Dundee was extraordinarily loyal to the fighters under his care and it shows. However, he doesn't shy away from discussing the flaws of those same fighters, including Pastrano, Ali, and Leonard. He is one of life's realists who knows that even our sporting heroes can have feet of clay so when he talks about some of those flaws it doesn't come across as bitter or angry. It simply comes across as a glimpse of a real human being. Dundee, as you would expect, also gives a great account of his view of some of the great fights of the last 50 years including the two Ali-Liston fights, Ali-Frazier I and III, Ali-Foreman, and the two Duran-Leonard bouts amongst others. I've been watching fights since the days of the Gillette Friday Night Fights and just about all of the big fights that Dundee describes. For me, Dundee brings a view of his fighters' famous and not so famous bouts that I just never would have seen as just a fan even those I've watched time and time again. I think any boxing fan, even readers with just a passing interest in the sport, will love this book. L. Fleisig

A KNOCKOUT COMBINATION!

As a longtime boxing fan and recreational boxer, my heart skipped a beat ... just like when you see that hard right hand quickly heading toward your nose ... when I saw this wonderful book on the bookstore shelf. And what great timing. I have long imagined what Dundee, along with the great boxing writer and historian Sugar, would put together ... and it's a book I read with utter fascination. Dundee's years with Ali are the highlight of the memoir, but his beginnings in training and his life working with other fighters, famous and not so famous, are just as satisfying. Here's a man who devoted nearly his entire life to training the finest athletes in the world ... professional boxers ... and the result, knowing he's retired now, is a beautiful and bittersweet rendering of his life in the gym and in the corner ... and the lives of those who won a lot because of Angelo Dundee. Hell, I personally know how hard it is just to land one solid punch in three rounds of sparring. Now here's a book that wins you over on every page. What a treat. What a boxing education. Thanks, Angelo and Bert. You both get your arms raised by me. Reviewer Todd Sentell is the author of the wildly irreverent and hilarious social satire, TOONAMINT OF CHAMPIONS