The many lessons I’ve learned through the practice and competition of Martial Arts have taught me so much. Perhaps the greatest lesson I’ve learned is how constant evolution is absolutely necessary, not only for the fighter competing in the high stakes world of MMA but for each of us as humans trying to make our mark in the world.

MMA and the extensions of health, spirit and lifestyle are at the core of life. I hope to share my take on these things with you on my blog. MMA truly is a metaphor for life, and cliché or not, we are all fighting everyday in some way shape or form.

So this is my official welcome to the new KennyFlorian.com.

The fighter is in all of us.

For me, that realization came in the first round of the Gray Maynard fight. I had conditioned myself to think there was no way I was going to be taken down at all. When it happened I was so distracted by this that I lost all focus for pretty much the rest of the fight. It’s not that I hadn’t been taken down before. My brain stayed in that moment of being taken down instead of adjusting. There are technical mistakes that can be adjusted of course, but really it was the mental mistake that killed me.

Never was I more aware of the importance of not demanding perfection. The ultimate lesson learned was, don’t demand unattainable results, demand one hundred percent focus and effort.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight lightweight featherweight lightweight fighter (and now the co-host of “UFC Tonight”) Kenny Florian wants everyone to know that he was a clean fighter who did things the right way. He also wants everyone to know how passionately he disapproves of those who have traveled the more unsavory road of using performance enhancing drugs.

“As a clean fighter, the whole issue of performance enhancing drugs (PED) in MMA really pisses me off. This sport is about honor, technique and discipline. When did it become about who uses the better PED’s and who can pass the test better than the other guy? PED’s allow you to train harder, longer and recover faster. It absolutely gives a user a competitive advantage. This isn’t baseball, where you’re just hitting a ball. This is fighting. You’re hitting other people in the face. As a fighter, if you use PED’s, how does it feel good knowing that you won using them? The fans should be upset too. How many fights are the fans gonna miss out on due to pre and post-fight testing? Don’t do it, dummies. Random testing needs to be the remedy. This is gonna be the only way to crack down on cheaters in the longterm.”

He’s all for random drug testing, but his fellow fighters may not be so quick to join in that particular chorus.

I remember how ignorant I was about food back on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter”. I was literally putting cookies into my protein shakes to gain weight. I was trying to put on fat in my attempt to get close to 180lbs while I was fighting muscular 205lbers cutting down to the 185lbs weight class. Not good!

Since then I have done my best to slowly educate myself about how to gain the right weight and how to lose weight properly as well. More importantly, I have educated myself on the importance of eating real whole foods that are healthy, will aid in my performance and will make me look and feel good. I stopped thinking about what was just convenient and what tasted good and really started thinking about what foods were going to help me achieve my goals.

Anything that brought me further away from achieving my goals was deleted. Cookies taste great, but they weren’t going to get me to train better or longer. Instead, I traded that in for healthy fruits and vegetables that were gonna help me recover better, feel better and look better. I traded in the occasional soda with only drinking water or juicing actual fruits. I increased my consumption of water and just that alone gave me more energy for my two to three sessions of training per day. I started looking in to not only the foods that were going to help me but the timing of foods and how that will aid in my recovery and performance for the rigors of MMA training.

Like most things in life, you can’t cut corners with your nutrition if you want the good results. It comes down to consistency and getting a good balance of fats, proteins and high complex carbohydrates. Supplements and “diet bars” are not going cut it. You need real food as it is grown in nature to get the results you want. Don’t get caught up in fads, quick diets or taking medication to lose weight.

Everything you need to feel better and look better is offered to you in nature. Commit to it and you will not only feel and look better but it will have dramatic effects on your overall well being and life. Here on my blog I will offer recipes, nutrition tips and specific information on foods that have helped me tremendously.

This is why it is absolutely imperative to explore every nook and cranny of MMA. There is one reality in the fight game, you never know how a fight will play out. You have to be fully prepared for every eventuality. You have to be ready for a high level of wrestling, striking or submission. Furthermore, you have to be ready for an opponent’s explosiveness, speed, endurance, strategy etc. . .

It’s no surprise that we often make mistakes when we see something for the first time. Driving down a new road, being asked an uncomfortable question or being spooked in the dark. All these things get us to react in ways we are not used to. Doing this in the fight game leads to mistakes that are often responsible for losing you the fight.

It is rare that you will respond correctly the first time you encounter something so all these “encounters” must be experienced many times in training. To do this, you must be willing to get out of your comfort zone and train in situations that are new, unfamiliar and difficult. Essentially, you must get comfortable with the uncomfortable. If you understand the boundaries of your comfort zone and explore them thoroughly you will create discomfort for your opponent. This exercise allows you to respond correctly when you experience a specific challenge in the cage.

I’ve always enjoyed training with different sparring partners and going to new locations. These experiences recreate that feeling of having butterflies before a fight. When I would train with the same people day in and day out, I would get comfortable training with them, because I understood their style of fighting. I would figure out their strengths and weaknesses.

When going with someone for the first time, you don’t have that luxury. Even training in an unfamiliar environment has it’s advantages. You have different mat surfaces to deal with, new faces watching, new training rules etc… All these things that are uncomfortable to you at first, but they allow you to evolve mentally, physically and technically.

‘The Answer’, who fought valiantly, just didn’t have one against Henderson, who proved too be too big for Edgar in the long run. Henderson, a huge lightweight with tree trunk sized legs, used a combination of punches and kicks that did some serious damage to Edgar’s left eye (as evidenced in the photo above) and his body. One perfectly placed up kick from his back to the bridge of Edgar’s nose towards the end the second round seemed to be the momentum changer in this one.

Up to that point, Edgar appeared to be in control using constant movement and different angles to effectively strike on Henderson. He also used an approach of catching all of Henderson’s round kicks to the body then throwing punches with his free hand and countering with round kicks of his own. However, in the end Henderson’s size, as Edgar should truly be fighting at featherweight (145 lbs.), proved too much for the game former champion. Henderson now follows Carlos Condit as former WEC champions who have won titles in the UFC; albeit Condit’s title is an interim one.

Speaking of former champions, former light-heavyweight (205 lbs.) champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (32-10, 14 KO’s 7 subs) returned to Japan where he was once a star during the Pride Fighting Championships. Unfortunately, The Prodigal Son’s return was not a good one for Jackson as he was manhandled by contender Ryan ‘Darth’ Bader (14-2, 6 KO’s, 3 subs). Bader used his former All-American collegiate wrestling skills to consistently take Jackson down, control him and ground and pound a unanimous decision victory.

Bader has now come back with two wins in a row, including this big one against a former champion, after suffering his only losses back to back last year to Jon Jones and Tito Ortiz. Jackson meanwhile, always a fan favorite, continues to show his lack of evolution when it comes to the ground game and his deficiency against wrestlers. In his defense, he did come into this fight with a knee injury sustained during training. Nonetheless, I believe his days as a contender are long behind him.

Stocked heavily with Japanese fighters, eight in all, UFC 144 disproved a theory had by MMA fighter Phil Baroni. He states that the reason Japanese fighters have not faired extremely well in the octagon is because of the long trip they have to endure to fight in the states. Japanese fighters went (4-4) on the night although one of those fights did feature two Japanese fighters facing off against each other.

Of the Japanese fighters on the card, featherweight Hatsu Hioki (26-4-2, 4 KO’s 12 subs), was clearly the homegrown star with his second consecutive win in the UFC. Hioki put on a dominating performance against Bart Palaszewski (36-15, 17 KO’s 11 subs) earning a unanimous decision and putting himself in the discussion as a possible opponent for featherweight champ Jose Aldo. Although Frankie Edgar, when asked after his fight by Joe Rogan if he would consider a drop to featherweight to challenge Aldo said, “I don’t know; that’s something I’m not thinking about right now.”

As for the fight everyone would like to see besides Edgar vs. Aldo, lightweight Anthony Pettis (15-2, 6 KO’s 6 subs) has laid his claim as the logical next opponent for new champ Henderson. Pettis continued to live up to his nickname ‘Showtime’ as he scored the knockout of the night, a beautiful left round kick to the face of Joe Lauzon (21-7, 4 KO’s 17 subs) in the first round. Joe Rogan called it “a perfect shin to the chin shot.”

The former and last WEC champion, who won the belt from Henderson in a five round classic back in December 2010, which featured the now legendary kick off the cage heard round the world, is primed and ready for another shot at the now UFC champion. With both of these exciting young fighters in their primes and at the top of their games, I think this fight would rival any of the other exciting fights fans are clamoring for. The UFC definitely went back to the land of the Samurai in a big way.

Fighting out of his hometown of East Los Angeles, California, this up and coming prospect is currently (3-0, 2 KO’s) as a professional; but don’t let his experience or his age, only 20 years old, fool you. This kid was practically born for boxing. To hear him tell it, “My dad always had me in gyms since I was little.”

I guess that’s what happens when your father, Jose Luis Tapia, is a former fighter himself who had his first pro fight in Tijuana, Mexico at the tender age of 14. Thus, it was no surprise that at age seven, Roy would have his first encounter in an actual boxing gym. “My father used to take me to a park in East L.A. where I would run laps, get in shape and learn the basics. It was so when I got to a gym I wouldn’t look dumb.”

Apparently it worked because he caught the eye of trainer Clemente Medina who asked his father if he could work with him. That relationship lasted throughout Roy’s entire amateur career which spanned over 90 fights and included numerous titles. Part of that resume includes Bronze at the 2006 Junior Olympics Regional tourney, Silver at both the National Blue & Gold and National P.A.L tourneys and three time champion at the Desert Showdown. “Clemente was like a second father figure to me,” Roy said.

Everything seemed in order in Roy’s life till an incident, which forced the deportation of his father back to Mexico, turned his life upside down. He said, “My father provided everything for me, so when he was gone I lost my head for a while.” Forced to move to Corona to live with his mom, he suddenly lost boxing; that lasted about a year. He then went to Vegas for another year where he was working, but had no interest in the gym. All told, he was out of boxing for nearly two and a half years.

Then one day realizing he was going nowhere he confided in a mentor he knew since his childhood, Albert Vasquez, a former boxing trainer himself that he wanted to get back to the gym. Not wasting anytime, Vasquez introduced him to promoter Gary Shaw and before you knew it, Tapia was training for his first pro fight which took place last September. “It was crazy, one day I was working in Vegas and literally the next I was in California training for a fight.”

Just when everything seemed back in order in his life, Vasquez had to leave the scene as he was heading back to El Salvador. However, realizing he was an advisor of sorts to Tapia, Vasquez gave Roy a phone number; he told him to call a former fighter of his named Cesar Garcia and to not worry that Garcia would become the advisor he was. When I asked Roy how he felt about trusting a stranger, he said, “I’ve known Albert practically my whole life, so I trusted his judgment. Once he told me Cesar was okay, I knew I could trust him as well.”

“That was in June 2011 and to date,” Roy says, “I can honestly say I have not had one bad experience with Cesar.” When I asked Cesar the same question he said, “Developing a relationship, we hit it off right away. Once I saw his determination and commitment, it was easy for me to back him. Plus, the reason I knew he was going to be good was because my former trainer recommended him and he’s always had an eye for talent.”

However, the business of boxing is a shady one; first came the business of finding a trainer. After discussing it with his advisor, Tapia decided on Ramon ‘Yuca’ Morales of the Maywood Boxing Club. He said, “I just felt I needed a new school as there is only so much you can learn under one person.” Then came an even bigger decision to make; what manager to entrust your career with?

Garcia, being a former professional boxer himself, knew what to look for. He advised Tapia to find out what the manager will do for him besides schedule fights. After interviewing four or five different boxing managers, Tapia said, “They were different, yet all of them seemed like the stereotypical manager.” That’s when Garcia suggested an old contact he knew from small MMA shows he used to attend back in 2005 and 2006. “I was able to talk to Ed Soares of Black House back then and I knew he used a different managerial system for his fighters,” Garcia said.

In July 2010 during an interview I had conducted with Ed Soares, I asked him if he would entertain the thought of managing boxers. He told me, “I love combat sports, so it is something I would like to do in the future, though it is not my forte.” Nonetheless, the model Black House has used for their MMA fighters was good enough for Tapia to buy into and Vice versa as Soares felt this young prodigy was the perfect fit to be the first and only boxer under the Black House stable.

The result has been three wins in five months with the most recent coming last Friday February 17. Tapia finished his opponent, who had previously gone the distance in five pro fights, in a little over two and a half minutes of the first round. According to Tapia, “The plan is to fight once a month if I can and if so, my goal is to be 10-0 by the end of the year.” The way I’ve seen this kid throw a left hook to the body and the head, I wouldn’t bet against it.

Roy Tapia would like to thank Albert Vasquez and Cesar Garcia. Also, his girlfriend Griselda and her family along with all his friends and fans.
I want to thank both Roy Tapia and Cesar Garcia for their time during this interview and Mike Ramirez of Black House for his assistance in setting it up.

He’s made a six-month commitment to the new series, which premiered on Jan. 3 as a part of the seven-year, $90 million a year deal reached between UFC owners Zuffa and the Fox Sports Media Group.

Florian, who has graced the octagon since 2005 and is the only fighter to compete in four of the UFC’s weight divisions, has also been hired by Zuffa to provide play-by-play analysis for live UFC events on Fuel and FX, another cable network owned by Fox.

This sudden flood of opportunity has come at a good time for Florian, and he knows it. Since November, when a steady tingling started in his right leg while he was sitting on an Aerodyne bike in his Brookline, Mass., gym, Florian hasn’t been able to think about another fight, let alone train for one.

Florian has had injuries before — no professional fighter goes without them — but this time was different. “This time I had a few doctors say I should stop fighting for good,” said Florian, who was diagnosed with a herniated disk.
The doctors, an orthopedic surgeon and a neurologist, also encouraged Florian to undergo surgery, but when no one could guarantee the procedure wouldn’t cause spinal-cord damage, Florian opted out, hoping his body would recover on its own. “My greatest fear is not being able to walk,” he said.

So, for the next few months, Florian will stop chasing titles and focus on sharpening a different weapon: his rhetorical skills.

It’s not an unfamiliar role for Florian, who holds a communications degree from Boston College. Since 2007, when UFC matchmaker Joe Silva suggested that he sit alongside Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan to provide color for the Roger Huerta-Clay Guida classic at The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale, Florian has been earmarked as the promotion’s alternate analyst when either regular is unavailable.

In 2008, Florian called his first pay-per-view event with Goldberg at UFC 83 in Montreal. He’s juggled more assignments between his fights ever since, and Florian’s pragmatic, mature delivery hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Seeing his general appeal with MMA fans, ESPN hired Florian in May 2008 for its MMA Live news show alongside host Jon Anik and another rotating analyst. Florian manned the desk with Anik for three-and-a-half years until Zuffa poached both in December to make another two-man broadcasting team for its FX and Fuel broadcasts.
Florian isn’t the first fighter to fill a commentary position with the world’s No. 1 promotion. Former UFC champions Randy Couture, Frank Mir, Jens Pulver and Frank Shamrock have all called the action from cageside, to name a few. But with Florian, it’s always felt like he was being groomed for the role.

Not that Florian minds that. There are unique challenges in keeping engaging dialogue flowing during live play-by-play events or in delivering condensed, concise and on-point opinions in the taped studio setting.
Florian’s greatest test, though, has been the aspects that make him feel like he’s drifting further away from his identity as a fighter.

“I hated it when I got critiqued as a fighter,” he said. “So much goes into a fight that people never see, the countless hours of training, the diet, dealing with injuries. The worst feeling in the world, for me anyway, is to lose. Knowing how I felt, it’s been hard for me to rip apart a guy after his fight.”

Still, it’s part of the job description, and Florian’s gotten encouragement to call it as he sees it from a surprising source.

After UFC Tonight’s first episode, the promotion’s president, Dana White, visited the set in Burbank, Calif., and pulled Florian aside.

“He said if I needed to rip into guys or how they fought, I should do it,” Florian said. “It’s what I needed to hear. [The talk] gave me more confidence and motivation to take on the job completely.”
He’s no Skip Bayless yet (and hopes he’ll never be), but Florian said he’d settle happily for fair, balanced and unbiased.

The latter label has already been a struggle. During the UFC’s first live event on Fuel TV last week, Florian found himself holding his tongue. He wanted to mention that he’d trained briefly with Jake Ellenberger, who fought in the night’s welterweight main event against Diego Sanchez, a few weeks prior. Florian also wanted to share that he’d shown Ellenberger the very move the Nebraskan fighter used to escape Sanchez in the fight’s final seconds. Right or wrong, Florian questioned if revealing these details would show a conflict of interest in his analysis.

Fighters have used their training experiences with other fighters to flesh out their commentary before; the 48-year-old Couture often uses it expertly to great effect. However, Couture has trained with other fighters less and less as his own career winded down to retirement last year. Florian still has designs to train with and coach other fighters, possibly starting with a candidate from scratch.

“I love seeing guys do well,” Florian said. “It’s like giving someone a recipe and having them call you up later and say, ‘Man, that’s so good and I made it all by myself.’ I’d like to share some recipes now.”

Of course, concerns of conflicting interests can be tabled, at least temporarily, if Florian returns to active duty. By May or June, depending on if the pain has subsided or not, Florian will make the final decision about his fighting career.

If he comes back, he will fight at lightweight, hands down the division where he felt the best as a competitor. Florian’s excursions in the other three weight divisions have all come out of necessity: He fought at middleweight to get on season one of The Ultimate Fighter and moved to welterweight when Zuffa suspended its lightweight division from 2003-05 because it didn’t have enough pay-per-view slots to satisfy the contracts.

After two unsuccessful attempts at the lightweight championship (against Sean Sherk in 2006 and B.J. Penn in 2009), Florian squeezed out every last drop of body fat to fight at featherweight.

When he started his drop to 145 pounds, Florian’s sports psychologist told him to get used to the fact that he wouldn’t be at his best no matter how hard he tried.

“You never do feel your best, but this was a hard thing for me to get my mind around,” Florian said. “This was my sports psychologist telling me this, and all I wanted to do was go out there and win the title.”

Florian got a shot at UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 136 last October. The day before the fight, Florian climbed into the hotel’s sauna to lose his final seven pounds. He lost track of the time, but knew he was overdoing it when he counted four fighters from Greg Jackson’s camp enter and leave without him.

“I’d never felt pain in a weight cut until then,” Florian said. “My liver hurt; my kidneys hurt. I’d never wish that feeling on anyone.”

Florian forced Aldo into the championship rounds, but couldn’t score enough on the multi-talented Brazilian to earn the decision. It was his third loss in a title fight.

Is someone trying to tell Florian something? The pragmatist in him understands why people would come to this conclusion. But the fighter in Florian is still resisting.

“The worst thing has been moving away from the schedule of training two or three times a day,” Florian said. “I wouldn’t know what day it was, but I always knew what time I was training, like clockwork. I loved the routine. I fell in love with this way of life. It was my identity.”

Being a fighter consumed very aspect of Florian’s life, he said. If he were told that ladies had stopped by his apartment, he’d still choose the gym every time.

“I wouldn’t walk, I’d run. I wouldn’t even think a second about it,” he said. “It wasn’t a contest.”

During his free time, Florian devoured one war-related book after another to get into the killer mindset. There was no other reading for him.

“I had this cold place in my heart,” Florian said, “but I’m slowly starting to reconnect with people and the world outside fighting. I just have to stay moving. My dad’s a surgeon and he retired a year ago, but somehow he’s still performing surgeries.”

In three short months, Florian knows there’s a possibility that he’ll continue on as a commentator only. He gets sad for a moment, but then he looks back to where he started and to the fighters who’ll retire with no other recourse than to walk away. The future doesn’t seem that bad without fighting in it, Florian admits.

“I started in this sport making $1,000 a month teaching private Brazilian jiu-jitsu lessons. I’d spend it all to go to a tournament or travel to Brazil and I couldn’t have been happier,” said Florian, who wanted to be like David Carradine, with his backpack.

“When I look back at the fight game, my goal was to train in the martial arts, to be involved in it,” he added. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be a champion, but I can continue to stay involved. I don’t have to fight. I’m one of the lucky ones.”

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/loretta_hunt/02/22/kenny-florian-broadcaster/index.html#ixzz1nDfElKrn

Yet, if I looked hard enough, I probably could find a photo of him with a spliff in his mouth though. Nonetheless, the timeless image of legendary actor Clint Eastwood playing the character ‘Blondie’ in the movie will do just fine to illustrate the many sides there are to this complex, but talented young fighter and individual.

Considering I just wrote about Nick Diaz last week and chastised him for his, more or less, spoiled brat behavior after his decision loss to Carlos Condit, I don’t want people to think I’m fighter bashing or even player hating. Truth is, I am a huge fan of Nick Diaz, always have been, when it comes to his fighting style. He not only brings it, but he’s extremely skilled; sadly though, that’s where it ends.

The news this week that Diaz was the one fighter to fail his post fight drug test after last weekend’s event solidifies my reasoning. I’m sure Nick Diaz supporters will argue that at least it wasn’t for performance enhancing drugs, thus he garnered no known advantage in his fight against Condit. They might even argue that even while under the influence of marijuana metabolites in his system, Diaz was able to put forth the effort he did during the fight. All that is fine and dandy, but it doesn’t make it right.

The bottom line is Nick Diaz was busted for a drug of abuse; one that is not only banned by the UFC, but is illegal to use in this country. That is unless you are from the State of California where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is allowed. Now Diaz is from California and although not official, may say that the use of marijuana helps him in some emotional way, which he has not said. However, when it comes to fighting in sanctioned mixed martial arts, it is considered a banned substance.

The good about Nick Diaz is he is an extremely talented fighter who is very popular amongst MMA fans. The fact that he shoots straight from the hip, no pun intended, when revealing his thoughts is considered noble; people appreciate the honest candor of a professional athlete who doesn’t sugarcoat everything with cliches and textbook responses. On top of that, his fighting style is appealing to those who enjoy action, skilled at the highest level, in the cage.

The bad is that he enjoys getting blazed. Like I said, I am not hating on Diaz or anyone else that partakes in smoking marijuana, but let’s call it for what it is; Nick Diaz likes puffing trees and as a professional fighter, that is a problem. This is the second time he’s failed a test in Vegas for weed, the first time being five years ago after his epic fight at Pride 33 against then number one in the world Takanori Gomi. He won that fight, but ultimately his failed test cost him the victory as it was ruled a no contest.

Finally, the ugly is that Nick Diaz is the type of athlete that walks to the beat of his own drum and does not do well with what he considers restraints on his personal viewpoints. Just like Ricky Williams in the NFL, he’d rather throw it all away rather than conform to the rules of the game. That’s why I said last week; he’s the kid in the playground that will take his ball home if he doesn’t get his way. If his attitude doesn’t make a sudden change, he’ll soon find that society and not MMA will be his biggest problem.

Sure he’s in his prime and at the top of his game now; thus, he has some leverage in terms of his power within the game. However, in a few years when he is no longer in demand as an athlete and he has to make it in the world outside of the cage, where the rules are a lot more stringent, how will Nick Diaz react? On one hand, you have a person who is disciplined enough to train himself for triathlons, yet on the other hand doesn’t have the discipline to say no to drugs. In a nutshell, that is the good, the bad and the ugly of Nick Diaz.

That of course could and would never apply to Guerino ‘Goody’ Petronelli and Angelo ‘Angie’ Mirena Dundee, two legendary former boxing trainers who, up until this week, were the last of a dying breed. That is because in an ironic twist of fate, both Petronelli and Dundee died this week, both of natural causes, within four days of each other. Petronelli was 88, while Dundee was 90.

Besides their claim to fame in boxing, both Goody and Angie shared some other similarities as well. Both were of Italian descent born in boxing rich tough Eastern cities, Brockton, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, PA respectively, and both served their country proudly during World War II. Of course there was one more thing they shared, multiple world champions.

Goody Petronelli, like his childhood friend Rocky Marciano, began boxing while he was in the Navy. Petronelli had a successful amateur career, while Marciano went on to win the heavyweight championship of the world. The difference in success levels had nothing to with Petronelli’s lack of ability, but rather his reality. He viewed boxing as a long shot in terms of his future as a fighter and actually tried to convince Marciano of the same when after returning home from the war Rocky told him, “I’m thinking about turning pro.”

Upon hearing this, Petronelli actually tried to talk Marciano out of it, according to his nephew Tony. “You know Rocky, it’s a real tough game,” Petronelli is quoted as saying; just imagine if Marciano would have listened. Nonetheless, Petronelli would enter the game, but not as a fighter, rather as a trainer. Along with his brother Pat, who handled the managerial duties, they opened a gym in Brockton in 1969.

Not too long after a young amateur transplant from Newark, NJ named Marvin Hagler came through the doors and the rest as they say is history. Besides Hagler, Petronelli trained former world champion Steve Collins, USBA champ Robbie Sims, along with numerous other regional champions who contended for world titles. As for heavyweights, he is best known for training both Peter McNeely and Kevin McBride, who both had the distinction of fighting Mike Tyson; the latter ending Tyson’s career in 2006.

Meanwhile, Dundee made his bones in the boxing game in a different fashion. After the war, he had a couple of older brothers Chris and Joe who were working as a promoter and fighter respectively in boxing. Angie decided to join Chris as his assistant while the three of them adopted the name Dundee, so their parents wouldn’t know about their work in boxing.

Dundee enjoyed working in the corner so much he traveled to gyms in New York and Miami to work under fabled trainers such as Ray Arcel and Chickie Ferrera, cutting his teeth as a bucket boy. However, the grunt work proved its worth when Dundee started to use the knowledge he had garnered and coupled it with his uncanny ability to motivate. It was that trait that caught the eye of a young Olympic champion named Cassius Clay.

Clay had met Dundee in a chance meeting in 1959, the year before he won the gold medal, and once he turned pro, he already knew who he wanted as his professional trainer. Together the two would enjoy great success as Clay, who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali, went on to become “The Greatest.” That same type of accolade would follow Dundee as the mastermind behind the fighter.

Dundee was not just known for his motivation and master strategy, but for his ability to think outside the box (no pun intended). It was Dundee who decided to make an existing hole in Ali’s glove even bigger in his fight against Henry Cooper, when he saw his fighter needed an extra blow to regain himself. He did the same for Ali, when he was ready to give up in his third fight against Joe Frazier, the famed ‘Thrilla in Manila’, when Ali told him he couldn’t continue because of exhaustion.

He would go on to use these same techniques with his other legendary champion Sugar Ray Leonard. Calling Leonard a young Ali, coming out of the ’76 Olympics, Dundee was in Leonard’s corner against some of the greatest fighters in history,which included such opponents as Wilfred Benitez, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran. It was against Hearns during their first fight in 1981 that Dundee would utter the now famous words to Leonard before the 13th round, “You’re blowing it kid, you’re blowing it.” Leonard would go on to score a 14 round TKO.

In 1987 Dundee worked with Leonard again, this time in the “Superfight” against none other than Marvelous Marvin Hagler. That meant that he was in the opposite corner of the aforementioned Goody Petronelli. The fight was about as close as you can get with Leonard pulling out a split decision that is still argued among fans to this day.

Granted the fight lived up to the hype because of the two champions involved; but it also had a lot to do with their trainers. Both are legends in this sport that made their way during the glory years of boxing, when it was on top of the sports world. More importantly, they were genuinely regarded by all that knew them as gentlemen. They truly were the last of a dying a breed.