February 4 - 10, 2012
Sports International
TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
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Angelo Dundee helped a young Cassius Clay transform himself into the world heavyweight champion. Here he tapes the renamed Muhammad Ali’s hands as a training session ahead of a 1966 bout with British champion Henry Cooper.
Famed boxing trainer Angelo Dundee dies
LEGENDARY cornerman Angelo Dundee, the man who helped motivate Muhammad Ali and many other boxing champs, died Wednesday, a source close to Ali said. He was 90. Dundee died Wednesday in Florida from natural causes, Dundee’s son Jimmy Dundee told CNN affiliate WFTS. Dundee, known for being a supreme motivator, was inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992. His biography on its website reads like a who’s who list of boxing royalty. He was hired to be Ali’s trainer and cornerman in 1960 back when the brash-talking, quick-jabbing boxer went by the name Cassius Clay. Dundee was there through Ali’s historic name change, his brawls with George Foreman, “Smokin” Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Leon Spinks. He was there all the way toward the end of Ali’s career in his punishing loss to Larry Holmes in 1980. After watching Ali get battered for round after round, Dundee stopped the fight after the 10th round fighting off objections from others in the corner and the bruised and puffy-eyed Ali. Loquacious sports analyst
Howard Cosell described the scene in the corner this way. “This fight should be stopped. Angelo is telling the referee to stop it. He would not give in. Angelo Dundee. He cared about his fighter too much.” Dundee was also in the corner of Sugar Ray Leonard giving sage advice during some of Leonard’s most memorable fights. During Leonard’s 1981 battle with Tommy Hearns, Dundee uttered the emphatic phrase that some say spurred the listless boxer to a dramatic comeback. Sensing that Leonard was behind on the judge’s scorecards before the 13th round, Dundee leaned close to Leonard and said in a fatherly tone: “You’re blowing it now son! You’re blowing it.” Leonard snapped out of it and knocked Hearns out in the 14th round to gain another welterweight championship. Dundee started his career training Hall Fame boxer Carmen Basilio and also trained champs Jimmy Ellis, Luis Rodriguez, Sugar Ramos, Ralph Dupas and Willie Pastrano. “Dad lived a great life, and he did a great job living it,” Jimmy Dundee told WFTS. (CNN)
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are ready for the new season.
McLaren team reveal new car for 2012 Formula 1 season MCLAREN have unveiled the car Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button hope will win one of them the drivers’ title. Hamilton described the MP4-27, unveiled at the team’s Surrey base, as “the finest-looking car we’ve had for some time”. The car features a notably tightly packaged rear end, after the fashion of the Red Bull that has dominated Formula 1 for the last two seasons. “We’re excited. I’m sure every team is a little apprehensive,” Button said. Among other notable features, the car does not have the platypusstyle nose that is expected to feature on many designs this year as a result of a change in the rules requiring a lower nose height. Lewis Hamilton won the drivers’ world title in a McLaren in 2008, with Jenson Button winning the championship in a Brawn a year later. But Red Bull have won the last two constructors’ championship, with Sebastian Vettel securing the
drivers’ title in both seasons . McLaren have not won the constructors’ title since 1998. Button added: “This is a beautiful car - many you will see will not be. “There are some good rule changes giving the engineers and aerodynamicists something to really think about. “Everyone seems positive, we will see how it is when we get out on to the track.” McLaren have also abandoned the distinctive L-shaped sidepods that distinguished the 2011 car, reverting to a more conventional shape. Hamilton said: “The back of the car is much neater, it’s much tighter. The focus was on getting it as tight as possible for aerodynamics. “It’s about dropping drag and we have tried to get as much downforce back as possible with the banning of the blown diffuser [where teams directed exhaust gases along the rear floor of the car even when the driver was off the throttle].” He said that the rule change had made an obvious difference
to the way the car feels, having already driven it in the team’s simulator. Hamilton added: “It’s a lot trickier to drive now than it was but I’m sure, as we get into the season, we’ll get that back.” Both men said they were looking forward to the challenge of the new season, which features six world champions for the first time in F1 history. Kimi Raikkonen has returned to F1 with the Lotus team after two years in rallying, to join fellow champions Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton and Button. “We love to have the competition and we love to have the great drivers out there,” Hamilton said. “We hope there are no world champions added to [the list]. “It’s great for the fans and the sport and hopefully we’ll be able to put on a good show. We do have a good looking car and, when a car looks good, it generally is good.” (BBC)
Former No. 1 Wozniacki fires coach after two months
Caroline Wozniacki slipped to fourth in the WTA rankings.
FORMER world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki has fired Spanish coach Ricardo Sanchez after just two months and decided to return to working with her father Piotr. The Dane slipped to fourth in the WTA rankings after a quarterfinal exit at the recent Australian Open, where she once again failed to secure
a first grand slam title. Troels Christensen, a journalist with the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, told CNN how Sanchez had struggled to penetrate the close bond Wozniacki enjoys with her Polandborn father. “Caroline and Piotr are mentally very tight,” Christensen said. “It’s
very hard to break into the circle. He is not the first one has experienced that. “It was more Piotr’s idea than Caroline’s and I don’t think she ever got used to him. They had agreed that they should sit down after the Australian Open and discuss the situation.” (CNN)