LOUISVILLE–They are 20 years apart in age and still have the unique rapport built while teaming up to capture the world heavyweight championship a record three times. Trainer Angelo Dundee is 90 and often confined to a wheelchair. His main man, his greatest champion Muhammad Ali, turns age 70 on Tuesday and Saturday night they held an evocative lovefest of a birthday bash for him at the nifty Muhammad Ali Center on the shores of the Ohio River in this, the champion’s hometown. Dundee came to the event, mentally sharp and still with the chipper personality which always made him a favorite of sports journalists, but his son, Jimmy Dundee, and his “minder,” a nice fellow named Mark Grismer, had to transport the Hall Of Fame trainer from his Galt House hotel quarters nearby to the All Muhammad, All The Time museum with the wheelchair. I’m not sure if my idol and longtime friend Ali walked into the facility under his own power but I doubt it as he departed the too long tribute in a wheelchair also. Earlier in the day, I chatted with the sagacious boxing head about the abject failure of the Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. camps to put their big fight together. Not surprisingly, Dundee is just as disgusted as so many Manny and Floyd fans worldwide are. “It is foolish,” Clearwater, Fl., resident Dundee said. “They’re talking each fighter getting something like $40 million and they cannot come to terms?
