Legendary 5th Street Gym reopens its doors
Miami Florida’s legendary 5th Street Gym, home of the great Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali, and Luis Rodriguez, has opened its doors again.
Described as the “Notre Dame and Yankee Stadium of boxing all rolled into one,” the 5th Street Gym reopens today with new equipment and facilities. A celebration for the occasion commences
until Sunday.
A number of boxing’s A-listers are set to be on hand, including Ali, Dundee, Don King, Emanuel Steward and boxing historian Bert Sugar.
“It's an emotional time for me. I put my heart and soul into the gym with my brother Chris. I'm proud that's its reopening, and I hope they can catch some of the lightening in a bottle the way Chris and
I did back in the day," Dundee commented on the event.
The gym, which is on the corner of 5th and Washington in Miami, was opened in 1950 by Angelo and Chris Dundee.
Dundee’s son, Jimmy, will be involved in necessary licensing and memorabilia for the gym, which has been donated and accumulated over the years. The gym itself is rich with history. It brags of hosting
no less than the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Sean Connery for lunches in the downstairs area of the gym.
Tom Tsatas, who trained Fres Oquendo and Dino Spencer at the gym, will also have a hand in the opening. On planning for the occasion, he said: “We wanted to get Angelo on board first and get his and his
son Jimmy’s blessing before we did anything [...] We wanted to keep the lineage of Angelo with the gym [...] We waited 8 years for this moment and it all finally came together, the timing was perfect.”
He continued: “We met with the group [Angelo, Jimmy] and it was absolutely one of the best days of my life hearing stories from Jimmy and seeing all the original photos of the history in the gym. Angelo’s
team is a class act and number one in my book.”
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