Q: How did you get started in Boxing?
A. Dundee: Well I was a kid around South Philly. And I used to take care of myself cause I was a short fat kid and they called me porky and learned to fight. As a kid, well my brother was 15 yrs my senior and was in the profession way before me. But I never got into it till I went to
Europe
during the war. I met Joe Luis in 1944....I met the feather weight championship of
Europe
. I used to work the USO tournaments in the corner. God help those fighters that needed me because I didn't know what I was doing.....I went back to NY living across the street of the old Garden and Spellman gym was three blocks down the road. I met fight trainers who are great people and I learned from them ....those guys there taught me how to put the gloves on properly.....I was taught how to get a fighter ready psychologically when he was a nervous wreck, I learned how to keep a fighters nerves calm.....you cant be those trainers but I learned from them.
Q: Ali Foreman fight….were you confident going into that fight?
A. Dundee: I was very confident. How can you not be confident with a guy like Muhammad Ali, the greatest fighter that ever lived.. Going into a fight with him was like going into a party! In 19 years working with him we never had a bad word with each other. I just called him up for his birthday and he said to me "Weeee Will Return" and I said "I don't think I can!"
Q: Howard Cosell you have any stories about him?
A. Dundee: He as the nicest human being God put on this earth….I did a 2 minute interview with him and he never used a script, everything was in his head. He said to me if he ever had a kid boxing, the only guy handling him would be me.
Q: Phantom punch…. DID Ali Hit Sonny Liston?
A. Dundee: He didn’t hit him, he NAILED him ...and Sonny didn’t see the punch. The people who turned around didn’t see it either. My kid nailed him with a right hand to the temple and he was hurt. Sonny was the toughest guy on the planet and my guy disrobed him. There is no place to hide in the middle of the ring. And Liston who was the baddest fighter around all of a sudden became a normal human being and my guy’s the one that did it.
