My View from the Corner: A Life in Boxing

Dundee, a Hall of Fame corner man who has worked alongside 15 world boxing champions, recalls his life and times at ringside with the help of Sugar, renowned boxing storyteller and editor. Together they trace a corner career that has taken Dundee (born in 1923) from boxing's first televised bouts to the heavyweight pay-per-view spectacles of today. Dundee brings to the corner a unique and wide set of skills, acting as trainer, doctor, coach and psychologist all at once. Between tales of the last century's biggest title bouts, the authors provide an in-depth look at sparring, psyching out an opponent, closing and dressing cuts, the politics of weigh-ins and the science of opponent selection. Pulling no punches in this memoir, Dundee readily addresses rumors that he loosened the ropes before the “Rumble in the Jungle,” allowing Ali to pull off the now famous “rope-a-dope” victory against Foreman. He references legends like this in the same humorous and spirited voice with which he admits to spraying goo on his head to cover up his baldness, until it started to melt under the hot ringside lights and freaked out one of his fighters. This book's appeal lies in Dundee's colorful and punchy personality, as he enlivens the prose with entertaining, Yogi Berra–like jokes, tautologies and euphemisms. It's no surprise that Dundee helped Ali develop his famous rhymes. (Dec.)