Dundee Has an Ali Moment and It’s Among the Greatest

Since they first fought 33 years ago today in Miami Beach for the heavyweight championship, Muhammad Ali has boasted that he never feared Sonny Liston. That’s not true, says Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee. Ali did fear Liston. Once.

It wasn’t on the day of the fight, which Ali won when Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round. Neither was it on the day of the weigh-in, when a doctor measured Ali’s pulse at 120, twice his normal rate, and declared that the young boxer known then as Cassius Clay was either “in mortal fear or emotional.”

Anyone who knew Ali would have diagnosed the latter. He had worked himself into a lather with weigh-in ceremony taunting that since has become cliched in the sport.

Even then, Liston had already heard it all. Ali had stalked him from city to city until Liston agreed to fight him.

Dundee, who was in Los Angeles to supervise promising flyweight Arthur Johnson’s fight against Sammy Stewart at the Forum Monday night, said it was during one of those encounters that Liston scared the hype out of Ali, albeit temporarily.

“We followed him out to Las Vegas and found him in the Thunderbird Hotel, playing dice,” Dundee said. “Muhammad started his, ‘Hey, you ugly, ugly bear, get out of town’ act, drawing people from all over the casino. Next thing we knew, Liston pulled a pistol from his pocket and fired it twice at Muhammad’s head. Man, we hit the floor in a hurry.

“We found out later that Liston heard we were coming and loaded his gun with blanks to scare Muhammad. It worked. Muhammad told me, ‘I act crazy. He is crazy.’ ”

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Dundee has a prominent role in “When We Were Kings,” the documentary currently in theaters about Ali’s 1974 victory over George Foreman in Zaire, but won’t see it. “I have the real pictures in my head,” he said . . .

Predicting that the Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson rematch will end the same way as Ali-Liston II, with a victory for the champion, Dundee said, “Tyson is made to order for Holyfield. Certain guys beat certain people.” . . .

Encouraging Tyson to retire, Dundee said, “Incarceration took the fabric out of him.” . . .

Retirement for Dundee, who turns 76 this year? “That’s a dirty word,” he said. “I’ll be in somebody’s corner even when they need an escalator to get me there.”

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If the media know so little about basketball, as Portland Coach P.J. Carlesimo claims, why is it that the sportswriters got this week’s college basketball poll right and the coaches didn’t? . . .

The USA Today/CNN poll, selected by the coaches, has Arizona 13th and UCLA 14th, despite two losses to the Bruins by the Wildcats. The Associated Press poll, selected by the dumb writers, has UCLA 10th and Arizona 15th. . . .

While the Bruins are lobbying for a high seeding in the NCAA tournament, USC would be happy just to be there. The Trojans will make it if they win their four final games against beatable opponents. . . .

They also are a good bet for second place in the Pacific 10, now that the conference’s player of the year, California’s Ed Gray, is out for the season. . . .

Area high school players selected for the McDonald’s All-American game on March 29 in Colorado Springs, Colo., are Baron Davis of Santa Monica Crossroads, Chris Burgess of Woodbridge, Eric Chenowith of Villa Park and the Collins twins, Jarron and Jason, of Harvard-Westlake. . . .

George Mikan was at the Forum Sunday to promote his autobiography, “Mr. Unstoppable,” that will be released this week. . . .

Mikan has been honored as one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players, but he could barely put one foot in front of the other when he started at DePaul. His coach, Ray Meyer, changed that by enrolling him in dancing lessons. . . .

Trainer Richard Mandella says it was his decision to enter Gentlemen in Sunday’s Santa Anita Handicap, even though he’s also racing later in the month in Dubai. . . .

That, however, surely didn’t displease one of the horse’s owners, R.D. Hubbard. He was a force behind the $3-million bonus for the horse with the most success in the Santa Anita Handicap, June 29 Hollywood Gold Cup and Aug. 9 Pacific Classic at Del Mar. . . .

If Gentlemen finishes first Sunday, Hubbard won’t be the first Hollywood Park chief executive to win the main event at Santa Anita. Marje Everett did it in 1975 with Stardust Mel.

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While wondering why the Portland Trail Blazers are barely above .500 if Carlesimo is so smart, I was thinking: the Philadelphia 76ers should be better than they are, no one gets less out of more talent than Michigan’s Steve Fisher, Mikan’s number should be on the wall of the Forum instead of the Target Center.