On September 23rd, the legendary 5th Street Gym of Miami Beach, Florida will be resurrected. The famous gym of Chris and Angelo Dundee was the training site of choice for world champions such as Carmen Basilio, Willie Pastrano and The Champ himself, the one and only Muhammad Ali. On Thursday evening, 8CN spoke with Angelo Dundee?s prot?g?, Matt Baiamonte. He spoke enthusiastically about the reopening of the new 5th Street Gym.
8CN: Hello, Matt. How are you doing this evening?
MB: Good. How are you?
8CN: Doing well, thanks. I know you?re getting ready for the reopening of the famous 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach. Talk a little bit about the history of the gym, and what the new gym will be like.
MB: Oh wow. The history of the 5th Street Gym, I mean, you have all of Angelo Dundee?s champions there. You have Carmen Basilio, Willie Pastrano, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Luis Rodriguez and just a number of fighters that trained there. Sonny Liston trained there. It was just a great time for Miami Beach when Angelo had the gym. You know, all the celebrities that used to hang out there. You had The Beatles coming in. You had Frank Sinatra. As for the new gym, we want to kind of bring the nostalgia of the old 5th Street Gym back, but obviously times have changed. We?re going to try to do exactly what Angelo did, but we?re [also] going to give it a new twist. We?re going to have Cardio Boxercise, which is really hot right now. So we?ll have the white-collar people coming in at night and have the pros training during the day like Angelo used to have.
8CN: When will the opening take place?
MB: The opening will be September 23rd through the 26th. Thursday night is the first night, the 23rd, which is going to be a VIP night, and then the next night is family and friends and also VIP, then Saturday and Sunday is open to the public, like an open-house. We have a lot of big names coming in on the 23rd. Obviously, Angelo Dundee is going to be there, Muhammad Ali, Ferdie Pacheco, Emanuel Steward?s going to come and we just got confirmation that Don King will be there. It?s really going to be great to have all of those great fighters and promoters and managers all in the room at the same time. Those guys haven?t been in the same room in I can?t tell you how many years.
8CN: Of course, the original gym was opened by the Chris and Angelo Dundee, and Angelo?s also involved with the new project. What will be his involvement?
MB: Angelo?s actually a partner. He?s one of the owners. He?s going to be making appearances as much as he can. He lives in Tampa now, so he?s a little bit far away, but he wants to come down. He?s just the best. You know, he just turned 89 on Monday, and the guy is as sharp as a tack. He?s just incredible.
8CN: Yeah, I?ve seen him on documentaries here and there, and you?re right. He?s still just as sharp as he can be.
MB: Honestly, I think he remembers more stuff than I do. You can name a fighter and he?ll tell you the guy?s record. He?ll tell you where he met him, the conversation they had over a cup of coffee, and what year it was. It?s just incredible.
8CN: I know that you have trained some very famous clientele. Can you talk about that?
MB: I?ve worked with Matt Damon for his past two movies, Invictus and then his upcoming movie, The Adjustment Bureau. He?s a really great guy. I told him that my first fight that I ever worked was with Angelo in Vegas, and I told Matt, ?You know, the first movie that I?m doing is with you, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman.? I said, ?For me, it?s all downhill from here.? He said, ?What do you mean?? I said, ?My first fight that I worked the corner was with Angelo in Vegas, and my first movie is with you guys. How does it get any better than this?? He just started laughing. He?s a really great guy. I also worked as an assistant, not only with Angelo, but with Luis Lagerman who is also another prot?g? to Angelo. You know, Angelo has a couple of prot?g?s out there, like Bruce Trampler, who just got inducted into the Hall of Fame. Then you have Luis Lagerman, and myself. I trained Attila Levin, David Estrada, Sultan Ibragimov, Timur Ibragimov, all with Luis and Angelo. I?ve really got to work with some great fighters, and had some great mentors. I?ve also worked with a gentleman named Jeremy Fedoruk who?s probably one of the best strength and conditioning guys out there. I mentored also under him. So, I got to work with a lot of great people. I?m actually working with a female Indy Car driver now, Carmen Jorda. She is just awesome. She?s 22 years old, and she?s probably going to be one of the hottest drivers on the circuit in a couple years.
8CN: That?s great, man, and who better to learn from than the great trainer of Muhammad Ali, Angelo Dundee?
MB: You know, I look at some of the others, and I?m not taking anything away from the others. There?s a lot of great trainers out there, but if you look at the fighters that Angelo had, they all have to be in the top 5 of their weight class, if not number 1.
8CN: Exactly. He?s done so much for the sport, and he continues to at 89 years old.
MB: He sure does, and he really taught me a lot about boxing, but the thing is, I wish everybody knew how he is outside of the ring. I mean, everybody knows he?s great inside of the ring, but he?s such a gentleman outside it. He has a famous saying: ?It doesn?t cost nothing to be nice?, and I tell ya, he goes above and beyond. I remember one time we were driving through a toll-booth, and I just gave the lady the money. He started yelling at me. He said, ?Why didn?t you say hello to her?? I said, ?I don?t know. I just gave her the money and that?s it.? He goes, ?The poor lady?s in the booth all day. Nobody says hello to her. You gotta say hello to her and put a smile on her face.? He?s just that type of a guy. Now every time I go through a toll-booth, it?s like; ?Hey, how you doin??? You know, I got people behind me honking their horns. But, he?s right. You gotta be nice to everybody because it?s the fans who make you.
8CN: Have you heard from any professional boxers and MMA fighters who plan to start training at the gym?
MB: My partner, Dino Spencer, handles the MMA part of it. I can?t give you any names off the top of my head. He?s dealing with the MMA stuff, but I know that Emmanuel Steward wants to come down and do a camp. We?ve talked to Freddie Roach about coming down and doing a couple camps with his fighters, so yeah, we have a bunch of people that want to come and train. I know that once the doors open it?s gonna be a mad house. We?re getting letters from fighters all over the place that want to come down. It?s great to get the younger crowd to look up the history of the 5th Street Gym and see how important it was.
8CN: This is an opportunity for people of all ages to train at a legendary site.
MB: Yeah, sure! I?m glad you brought that up. Rachel Charles, she?s one of our PR people with Pitch Ink PR, she and I are working on a kid?s program, along with Mel Dick of Southern Wine and Spirits. He actually approached me about a kid?s program. Speaking of age, Mel Dick was actually Sugar Ray Robinson?s best friend. He?s a huge boxing fan. He just turned 74 back in June, and I?ve been training him now for about 4 years. He?s a huge boxing historian. He?s actually helped write a few books with his knowledge of Sugar Ray Robinson. They just had a new book come out called ?Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson?. He actually gave input on the book. He?s a great guy, and for him and Rachel to be working together to help underprivileged kids, it?s going to be a great opportunity for us.
8CN: Okay, Matt. Do you have any final words for those who are interested in becoming members of the gym?
MB: Just come down. We want everybody to come in and feel at home. We just want to be one of those commercial gyms. Come in, sit down, hang out at the counter, have some espresso and go workout. All ages, men, women and children, it doesn?t make a difference. As Angelo said, it doesn?t cost nothing to be nice. We?d love to have everybody come down and check out the gym, whether it?s to sign up with us for a year, or they?re just in town for a day or two, just come by and see us.
8CN: Alright, man. You have a great evening, and thanks so much for talking to me.
MB: Thank you, sir. It?s my pleasure.
