Sugar Ray Robinson VS Jake LaMotta: The Way It Was
“The three toughest fighters I ever fought were Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Robinson. I fought Sugar so many times, I’m surprised I’m not diabetic.” —Jake LaMotta
It is no secret that I am a big advocate of watching fight tape.
Here is a great one, with commentary from the great Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta.
It is also no secret that I didn’t do too well in college (I was mostly swooping girls, surfing and learning “International Business” while “on the job”.)
However, I did do a paper on Raging Bull: My Story (the book) in I think some psychology class. (And I can tell you, LaMotta was a heavy, and I mean heavy cat).
I got an A.
Ray Robinson Jake LaMotta The Way It Was Part 1
The Way It Was – Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta look back on their rivalry 2/3
The Way It Was – Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta look back on their rivalry 3/3
Today is a sad day as G Manifesto Hall of Fame Member, Angelo Dundee passed away.
It is no secret that I am a big advocate of the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach. And I have had the pleasure of meeting Angelo Dundee on a few occasions, the first time when I was a young cub with my Father.
Angelo was always super cool. The last time I was at the 5th Street Gym, Matt Biamonte told me Angelo wasn’t feeling too well.
One of the things I most remember about Angelo Dundee was during the hype and build up of the Marvelous Marvin Hagler VS Sugar Ray Leonard fight when I was a kid. It was widely accepted that Hagler punched harder than Leonard.
But Dundee said, (I am paraphrasing here) “Leonard hits way harder than Hagler. Leornard has one punch knock out power. Hagler is more a fighter that needs to accumulate punches. He just isn’t going to get that kind of “accumulation” on my guy!”
Dundee was a true tough guy and a master of mental warfare.
They just don’t make them like Angelo any more.
Keep punching.
One of Angelo Dundee final interviews (one of the best interviews on youtube, period)
There was no way Angelo Dundee was going to miss Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday party.
The genial trainer got to see his old friend, and reminisce about good times. It was almost as if they were together in their prime again, and what a time that was.
Dundee died in his apartment in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday night at the age of 90, and with him a part of boxing died, too.
He was surrounded by his family, said his son, Jimmy, who said the visit with Ali in Louisville, Ky., meant everything to his Dad.
“It was the way he wanted to go,” the son said. “He did everything he wanted to do.”
Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.
“He was coming along good yesterday and then he started to have breathing problems. My wife was with him at the time, thank God, and called and said he can’t breathe. We all got over there. All the grandkids were there. He didn’t want to go slowly,” the son said.
Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.
More than that, he was a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.
“To me, he was the greatest ambassador for boxing, the greatest goodwill ambassador in a sport where there’s so much animosity and enemies,” said Bruce Trampler, the longtime matchmaker who first went to work for Dundee in 1971. “The guy didn’t have an enemy in the world.”
How could he, when his favorite line was, “It doesn’t cost anything more to be nice.”
Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.
Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.
“He was wonderful. He was the whole package,” Arum said. “Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That’s what Ali loved so much about him.”
Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the “Thrilla in Manilla.” Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.
Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, “You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it” when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns – a fight he would rally to win by knockout.
A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport’s great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.
“He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He was still working with an amateur kid, a possible Olympic kid, down here. When he walked into a boxing room he still had the brain for it.”
Dundee will always be linked to Ali as one of the most successful fighter-trainer relationships in boxing history, helping Ali become the first to win the heavyweight title three times. The pair would travel around the world for fights to such obscure places as Ali’s October 1974 bout in Zaire against Foreman dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle,” and Ali’s third fight against Frazier in the Philippines.
I just realized that this is The G Manifesto’s 1000th post.
Decent.
And what better way to celebrate that milestone than with a classic fight between two G Manifesto Hall of Fame Members Arturo Gatti and Angel Manfredy?
If you have never seen this fight, watch it. You can learn a ton about boxing and heart.
I had the pleasure of meeting both these cats. Both of the were total class acts. (I also met Ivan Robinson around the same time, who waged two epic wars with Arturo Gatti and lost to Angel Manfredy. Also cool as f*ck.)
Make sure you watch Angel Manfredy’s post fight interview (starts about 2:40 of the last video posted).
For all the people that doubted me in my life, and tried to stop me, all I have to say to you is what Angel Manfredy had to say to all those that bet against him:
Alright. Stop what your doing, because I’m about to ruin the image and style that your used to.
It is time again for The G Manifesto “Best of 2011” Awards.
Once again, these Awards are places or things that I have been to or experienced in 2011. So don’t get itchy if your local dive bar in Denver or favorite P.F. Wang’s in Poughkeepsie didn’t make the list.
Here are the rest of the Best of 2011, G Manifesto Awards:
Best International Nightlife City: Montreal, Canada. I am in love with this city. I am not sure of too many things, but this I am sure of: I will spend at least two months this summer in Montreal. Honestly, I think I can swoop a fly girl 8 out of 10 nights I go out there. It is probably closer to 10 out of 10, but I don’t want to sound like I am bragging. I almost slit my wrists for not coming sooner.
Honorable Mentions:New York City. I had too much success there in 2011 to leave it out.
Most Overrated US Nightlife City:Los Angeles. California has become a Police State, and Wessyde nightlife has gone down the tubes with it. California nightlife needs a whole new start like a person with a severed arm needs a tourniquet and a shot of tequila.
Best US Nightlife District: Brickell, Miami. Quality of girl is off the charts.
Best US Restaurant for Fly Girls:Cipriani’s. No single restaurant in America holds as many stunners.
Best International Nightclub:Andre Carne de Res, Bogota. I don’t get impressed by nightclubs any more. Well, that’s until I stepped into Andre Carne de Res in Bogota. Place is sicker than a cancer victim.
Best High-Action City:Abidjan , Ivory Coast. It went off the rope earlier this year. I hit a decent Cocoa trade playing the political takeover as well. To be frank though, the time I spent on the horn and researching that trade, it wasn’t that great.
Best Day Game City: Miami Beach. Lincoln road. No question.
Best Beach: El Sardinero, Santander, Spain is more breathtaking than northern California’s coastline. And more striking than La Jolla, California.
Best International Restaurant:La Taberna del Gourmet, Alicante, Spain. The food is so good it made old E-tab and Cocaine buzzes hit me. Seriously, my nose got sweaty while dining here. Ate here three nights straight at one point.
Honorable Mention: Toque and Au Pied Du Cuchon, Montreal. Both these restaurants are straight crack.
Best Trade: The Silver trade. I rode the silver miners up and sold out earlier in the year. And unbelieveably sold out of my paper silver near the top. Super lucky. Now I buy physical on the dips.
Best US Restaurant: Joe’s Stone Crab. Miami Beach’s answer to former G Manifesto “Best of” winner, Galitories. Illmatic. I even got a table on the last day of Stone Crab season with two fly Latinas.
Best International Hotel: Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastián, Spain.
Best US Hotel: The Plaza Hotel, NYC.
Worst US Hotel: Shore Club, Miami Beach. Place has slipped. The service is a joke compared to Las Vegas. Place kind of made me edgy. And that is not easy to do.
Quote of The Year:“It’s so crazy. I am in America. The country that I represent, the Red, White and Blue. I make money in America. I feed the American citizens, I feed the people that are less fortunate in America. Even when I make it rain, I am still throwing money to Americans!.”By Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the post Victor Ortiz Fight presser.
That quote would have been hilarious alone as a joke. But the fact that Floyd was dead serious when he said it not only makes it the “quote of the year” it makes it the funniest thing said all year as well.
Best Movie:The Business. Finally a real International Playboy in a movie. Of course, it wasn’t a Hollywood movie, but that is to be expected.
Best Actress: Don’t know. Probably some P0rn girl.
Best Hip-Hop Album: Oneirology by CunninLynguists
Best Hip-Hop Track: Pusha T- Don’t Fuck With Me (Drake Diss) Someone had to destroy Drake. And who better to do it than Pusha T?
“Rappers on their sophomores, actin’ like they boss lords Fame such a funny thing for sure
When n*ggas start believing all them encores I’m just the one to send you off, bonjour“
Best Break out Hip-Hop Artist: Action Bronson. Bringing back those hard New York Street bangers for your ear drums.
Best Soul Track and Album: Raphael Saadiq, Stone Rollin
G’s of The Year: Miguel Cotto and Nicolas Berggruen. Cotto is an obvious choice. If you are not familiar with Berggruen, you should be. This guy is the ultimate International Playboy/ Perpetual Traveler. Peep the Data Sheet on the cat:
Long before dabbling with blank-check companies, Berggruen had already made enough money to buy all of the trappings of the ultrarich: a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, a mansion on a private island near Miami, the Gulfstream IV and artworks by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. Berggruen says that living amid all of that luxury turned into a burden and didn’t make him happy.
Buffett Pledge
“I understand the human instinct to want to create a nest and possess things, to show them off,” he says. “But for me personally, it became less and less interesting.”
So in 2000, Berggruen sold his houses, put his art collection in storage and gave away or sold most of his possessions, including his car. He says his decision to live a rootless existence wasn’t a means of dodging taxes; he says he pays them in the U.S.
The investor, who signed a pledge promoted by fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to donate at least half of their wealth, says he’ll give away all of it eventually. “Everything I do now is about growing the pot to have more to give away,” he says.
He has never married and says he is not interested in having children. Berggruen has been photographed at charity and fashion events arm in arm with a series of actresses and models, including Gabriella Wright, a British actress.
It looks like his Wessyde Base of Operations is The Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. A place I am not all that unfamiliar with for knocking back some early night cocktails.
He still should bust a pocket square, but no one did it bigger and better than Berggruen and Cotto in 2011.
Already making heavy, and I mean heavy moves in 2012. Should be an even better year.
Joe Frazier, the hard-hitting boxing heavyweight who handed the legendary Muhammad Ali his first defeat, died Monday, shortly after being diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement.
The former heavyweight champion, who was 67, became a legend in his own right and personified the gritty working-class style of his hard-knuckled hometown, Philadelphia — a fitting setting for the “Rocky” film series, starring Sylvester Stallone as hardscrabble boxer Rocky Balboa.
“You could hear him coming, snorting and grunting and puffing, like a steam engine climbing a steep grade,” Bill Lyon wrote in a Philadelphia Inquirer column about Frazier, nicknamed Smokin’ Joe.
“He was swarming and unrelenting, and he prided himself that he never took a backward step, and he reduced the Sweet Science to this brutal bit of elemental math: ‘I’ll let you hit me five times if you’ll let me hit you just once.'”
Frazier’s family issued a brief statement about his death.
“We The Family of … Smokin’ Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing,” the statement said. “He transitioned from this life as ‘One of God’s Men,’ on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”
Muhammad Ali said in a statement that the “world has lost a great champion.”
I never got the chance to meet Joe Frazier (unlike Muhammad Ali, who happens to be the only person I have ever gotten an autograph from, when I was a kid), but I always loved his fights.
And his left hook was a thing of violent beauty:
The death of boxing great Joe Frazier on Monday night has touched millions, including a deep admirer of the sport’s history, unbeaten world welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.
On Twitter late Tuesday after hearing of Frazier’s death, Mayweather tweeted, “My condolences go out to the family of the late great Joe Frazier. #TheMoneyTeam will pay for his Funeral services.”
Mayweather has committed to such a gesture before, earlier this year paying for the funeral of a one-time opponent, Southland former world champion Genaro Hernandez.
