Angelo Dundee, the legendary Miami trainer who helped groom Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard into world champions and became one of boxing's most recognizable figures, died Wednesday at 90.
His family confirmed the news of his passing, saying he died at his home in Tampa.
His brother Chris Dundee opened the 5th Street Gym on Miami Beach in 1951, and Ali, guided by Angelo Dundee, made it a renowned boxing hotspot in the 1960s and 1970s, when Ali ruled the sport.
"He created it, and people heard about the 5th Street gym 'cause Muhammad was here," Dundee, then 89, said at the reopening of the gym in September 2010, 17 years after the original was torn down.
Dundee entered the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.
In addition to being Muhammad Ali's corner man in his greatest fights and working with Sugar Ray Leonard, Dundee helped George Foreman become the oldest heavyweight champion at age 45.
Dundee's son Jimmy says his father lived long enough to attend Ali's 70th birthday bash in Louisville, Ky., last month.
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"It was the way he wanted to go," Jimmy Dundee said. "He did everything he wanted to do."
Ali wrote in the foreword for Dundee's book that he allowed him to be exactly who he wanted to be and that he loved Dundee. In an age of boxing when fighter-manager relationships rarely last, Dundee and Ali would never split.
