Chris Dundee

Cristofo (Christopher) Mirena was born on February 23, 1908, in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/19/sports/chris-dundee-91-a-promoter-of-hundreds-of-boxing-bouts.html|title=Chris Dundee, 91, a Promoter of Hundreds of Boxing Bouts|year=1998|author=Charlie Nobles|website=The New York Times|access-date=2025-04-02}} He was the second eldest son of Philomena and Angelo Mirenda who had 11 children.{{cite news|title=Fighting off the ropes|author=Chris Lazzarino|newspaper=The Evening Sun|date =1990|page=68|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/367665008/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}}

As a young boy, he sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Philadelphia to New York.{{cite news|title=Boxing promoter Dundee dead at 91|newspaper=Daily News|date =1998|page=86|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/478628860/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}} Dundee dropped out of school and left home at 13. He later worked for a streetcar company alongside Frank Palermo, who became known as an associate of the Philadelphia crime family.

He changed his last name to Dundee as a teenager, following the lead of his older brother, Joe, who had taken the name of their boxing hero Johnny Dundee. To avoid revealing his boxing career to his parents, Joe adopted the name Dundee.

Inspired by his older brother, a South Philadelphia club fighter, he entered boxing in 1926.{{cite web|url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2011.56.3.6|title=Document of a biographical sketch of Chris Dundee|website=nmaahc.si.edu|access-date=2025-04-02}} Chris Dundee started managing and promoting boxers in 1928.{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12021195.chris-dundee/|year=1998|title=Chris Dundee|website=heraldscotland.com|access-date=2025-04-02}} Flyweight Midget Wolgast was his first world champion, whom he managed in 1930. Between 1932 and 1950, he promoted fights in Richmond, Washington, and New York.

He moved to Norfolk, Virginia, in 1932, discovering Ken Overlin. Overlin became world middleweight champion in 1940, giving Dundee his first national exposure. His stable of fighters in Norfolk included Phil Furr, Izzy Jannazzo, Irish Jimmy Webb, and Jimmy Bell.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j82to_obiGcC|title=Brief|website=books.google.ca|access-date=2025-03-22|year=1944}} Shortly after World War II, he pulled out of Norfolk.

His brothers joined him in the boxing business after returning from the war in the mid-1940s.{{cite news|title=Dundee out, not down|newspaper=The Washington Daily News|date =1972|page=66|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1043658434/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-01}} Angelo went to work for Chris in 1947, sleeping in his office at the Capital Hotel in New York.

His entry into South Florida boxing began in 1946 with two shows at the Coral Gables Coliseum (now Miami Coliseum).

He managed American boxer Georgie Abrams until his last fight in 1948.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sO2pBT9g9lwC|title=The Jewish Boxers Hall of Fame|publisher=Shapolsky Publishers|access-date=2025-04-03|year=1988|isbn=978-0-933503-87-8 }} Dundee also managed Ezzard Charles, world heavyweight champion in the 1950s. Dundee helped Charles claim a historic world title over Joe Louis in 1949.

In 1950, he moved from Philadelphia and established a headquarters in Miami Beach to make matches and promote boxing. That year, he began staging Tuesday night boxing cards at the old Miami Beach Auditorium (Jackie Gleason Theater), where he held exclusive promotional rights of boxing and wrestling. His cubicle in the auditorium had two desks, two telephones, and a wall covered in pictures.

Chris Dundee opened the 5th Street Gym in 1951 in Miami Beach, Florida. Less than two miles from the auditorium, he turned the second floor of 501 Washington Ave into a gymnasium.{{cite news|title=Fighting for a comeback|newspaper=The Miami Herald|date =2000|page=51|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/643813941/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}} The gym had a bare plywood floor, one ring, a few heavy bags, a light bag, and rubbing tables.

Dundee promoted 43 boxing events at the Miami Beach Auditorium in 1955 and arranged fights in Cuba, selling tickets with airfare and hotel accommodations in Havana. By 1957, he had promoted 256 fights since 1950 and was making more than $20,000 a year, becoming one of two U.S. promoters with a consistent weekly program. Dundee credited James D. Norris of the International Boxing Club for "saving Beach boxing" by assigning 23 televised bouts to the venue.{{cite news|title=Chris Dundee: A Successful Fixture In The Tough, Transient Fight Game|newspaper=The Miami Herald|author=Edwin Pope|date =1957|page=78|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/618844453/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-04}}

His younger brother Angelo moved to Miami after spending four years in New York. Angelo handled the development, training, and management of most talent on Chris's weekly cards.

Chris Dundee negotiated a deal with businessmen from Louisville to bring Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, to train and fight in Miami. In the winter of 1960, Ali started training at Dundee's 5th Street Gym.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BtiBAAAAMAAJ&q=chris%20dundee|title=Muhammad Ali, who Once was Cassius Clay|publisher= Funk & Wagnalls|website=books.google.ca|access-date=2025-04-03|year=1968}} In the 1960s, the Miami Beach boxing promoter became the general manager of Muhammad Ali. He promoted Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, held at the 8,000-seat Miami Beach Convention Hall on February 25, 1964. The no. 1 contender, Ali, won the world heavyweight title with a knockout. The fight drew Miami into the national spotlight for boxing.{{cite news|title=Miami's Fading Fight Game|newspaper=The Miami Herald|date =1990|page=164|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/635681881/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}} At the time, Dundee had promoted close to 400 shows, including 50 nationally televised cards.

Chris Dundee convinced American trainer and matchmaker Moe Fleischer to relocate to Miami, Florida and join him in the 1960s.{{cite news|title=Trainer Moe has age on ropes|newspaper=The Montreal Star|date =1977|page=9|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/742325179/?match=1&terms=moe%20fleischer|access-date =2025-03-29}}

In 1961, Dundee promoted the Johansson-Patterson championship bout held at the Convention Center.{{cite news|title=Sports Journal Section H - Saturday, September 20, 1980|author=Terry Jones|newspaper=Edmonton Journal|date =1980|page=95|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/471670469/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-04}}

For years, Dundee's successful wrestling events kept him afloat as a boxing promoter. In 1967, he promoted 34 boxing events in Miami Beach.{{cite news|title=The Dundee Boys Are Big in Miami Beach|author=Robert Markus|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date =1968|page=56|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/376673404/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}}

When Jack Kent Cooke, then owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and entertainment mogul Jerry Perenchio sponsored the "Fight of the Century" in 1971. The fight was sold, and broadcast by closed circuit. Dundee, the long-time boxing promoter, secured the Miami-area closed-circuit rights from Chartwell Artists Inc.{{cite news|title=Ward to the Wise|author=Gene Ward|newspaper=Daily News|date =1971|page=88|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/463934596/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}}

In the 1970s, Elisha Obed, the junior middleweight world champion, was under Dundee's management. By the late 1970s, Dundee was Miami's leading boxing promoter. Dundee, alongside Madison Square Garden, co-promoted South Africa's Kallie Knoetze, the second-ranked heavyweight in the WBA, for his U.S. debut.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/23/archives/knoetzes-outofring-record-in-south-africa-stirs-protest-visa.html|year=1978|title=Knoetze's Out-of-Ring Record in South Africa Stirs Protest|author=Al Harvin|website=The New York Times|access-date=2025-04-03}}

In January 1972, the Miami Beach City Council denied Dundee's request for a 5-year extension to his exclusive boxing and wrestling contract at the Miami Beach Auditorium.{{cite news|title=Beach Rejects Dundee Contract Renewal|author=Fred Barger|newspaper=The Miami Herald|date =1971|page=107|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/625798602/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}} His contract expired on November 30 and he was replaced as the venue's promoter after 21 years, with Mel Ziegler outbidding him for the exclusive license. He and his brother rented office space in a Miami Beach bank building but continued handling bookings for Ali, wrestlers, and the 5th Street Gym.

After losing his license, he toured through Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean, as general manager and financial coordinator for Muhammad Ali.{{cite news|title=Dundee body shop still in business|author=John Crittenden|newspaper=The Miami News|date =1972|page=35|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/302607424/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee|access-date =2025-04-03}}

In the mid-1970s, the Miami Beach Auditorium closed and Dundee moved his cards to the Miami Beach Convention Center.

He recovered from throat cancer around 1978 after undergoing 34 cobalt treatments and resumed promoting a wide range of events. He even staged wrestling and boxing events on a barge until Dusty Rhodes fell into Biscayne Bay.

Dundee later sold the once-famed 5th Street Gym to promoter Felix "Tutu" Zabala in 1982 but remained as its operator. He had been forced to make the sale and scale back his fight promotions in Miami.{{cite web|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/09/26/Chris-Dundee-Stays-Active-in-Boxing/1059401860800/|year=1998|title=Chris Dundee Stays Active in Boxing|website=upi.com|access-date=2025-04-02}}

In the 1970s and 1980s, Chris Dundee Enterprises promoted Championship Wrestling from Florida at the city's convention center. Dundee, who had promoted pro wrestling on Miami Beach since 1951, began to gross over $300,000-$400,000 a year from wrestling by 1977.{{cite news|title=Pro wrestling's real to its millions of fans|newspaper=The Miami News|date =1977|page=16|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/302365943/?match=1&terms=chris%20dundee%20dusty%20rhodes|access-date =2025-04-03}} Among his local promotions was an April 7, 1976, exhibition at Miami-Dade Community College's North Campus featuring Dusty Rhodes. After the show, a fan filed a lawsuit alleging assault by Rhodes, naming Dundee as a co-defendant.{{cite news|title='Gentleman' Wrestler Dusty Not Too Gentle, Fan Claims|author=Joe Crankshaw|newspaper=The Miami Herald|date =1977|page=99|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/627352218/?match=1&terms=dundee%20dusty%20rhodes%20miami|access-date =2025-04-03}}

As Ray Minus's sponsor, Dundee played a key role in his 1989 and 1990 title defenses and traveled with the Commonwealth bantamweight champion to Glasgow's Bellahouston Sports Centre in June 1989.

Dundee remained active in boxing until he suffered a stroke in January 1990 at 83 years old. The stroke struck as he drove to a dinner in Miami Beach, causing him to veer off the road. It affected the left side of his brain, impairing his speech and mobility.

Dundee's iconic 5th Street Gym was torn down in 1993.

Chris Dundee was among the four older brothers of the famous trainer Angelo Dundee, who was 15 years younger. In the 1940s, he and his wife, Geraldine Dundee, had a son Michael, and a daughter, Suzanne Dundee Bonner.

Chris Dundee died on November 16, 1998, in Miami, Florida, U.S. He passed away at the Miami Jewish Home at 91 years old.

Dundee promoted eight world championship fights, managed nearly 300 fighters, and staged more than 1000 bouts over four decades. Among the renowned boxers Dundee promoted were George Foreman, Sugar Ray Robinson, Archie Moore, Jake LaMotta, Sugar Ray Leonard, Kid Gavilan, and Ezzard Charles.

Chris Dundee was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994.{{cite web|url=http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/nonparticipant/dundeechris.html|title=Chris Dundee|website=ibhof.com|access-date=2025-04-02}}

His leather Everlast portfolio is preserved in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.{{cite web|url=https://www.si.edu/object/portfolio-owned-chris-dundee%3Anmaahc_2012.123.6|title=Portfolio owned by Chris Dundee|publisher= Smithsonian|website=books.google.ca|access-date=2025-04-03}}

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Category:1908 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:People from Philadelphia

Category:American boxing promoters

Category:American boxing managers

Category:American people of Italian descent

Category:International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees