By Michael Marley
And now there are just two of them.
Famed trainer Angelo Dundee and "Fight Doctor" Ferdie Pacheco are the only surviving members of Muhammad Ali's boxing corner with the death on Ali's 70th birthday (Tuesday) of quiet man Wali "Youngblood" Muhammad.
A funeral service was held at Unity Chapel in his beloved Harlem on Saturday. Muhammad was age 82.
They say his first name before he turned to Islam was Walter but everyone in boxing circles knew him simply as "Blood." In an entourage full of attention seekers, Youngblood stood out for his quiet demeanor.
In Ali's training camps, he usually assisted Ali sparring partners and played timekeeper for sparring sessions.
Dundee, who turns age 91 come August, lives in Clearwater, Florida, while Pacheco, who either quit or got fired by Ali the day of a 1977 Madison Square Garden bout against fierce puncher Earnie "The Acorn" Shavers, lives in Miami and is 84 years old.
Besides maker of champions Dundee, the most popular member of the Ali corner group was colorful Drew "Bundini" Brown, who coined "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Nobody got fired by Ali and then quickly rehired as many times as the highly emotional Brown did.
When Brown died in September of 1987 in Los Angeles, he was jsut 57 years old.
Brown was headed for a potter's field burial until a silent contributor came along to pay for a proper burial in Brown's hometown of Sanford, Florida.
That man was promoter Don King.
