[THREAD] In this clip, you won’t miss the distinctive shouts of an African-American man directed at Muhammad Ali. His name is Drew Brown Bundini. Bundini has been at Ali’s corner for all his fights – during his triumphs and when his body gave away and couldn’t fight anymore 1/
Bundini’s constant task: shouting encouragements and reminders to Ali and psyching him up before and during fights. He was a friend, a corner-man, a trainer, and a booster to Ali during his entire boxing career. He came up with phrase “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” 2/
In 1964, when a 22 years old Cassius Clay took on the fearsome champion Sonny Liston, Bundini was the only guy who believed Ali could win, shouting throughout the fight, “the world is watching”, “sting him”. Ali shocked the world by beating Liston to claim world championship 3/
In the clip above, Ali is fighting Joe Frazier in their second fight. Frazier was the toughest fighter Ali ever faced. He beat Ali once and they had to fight three times to establish who is the best. You can hear Bundini shouting “All night long” when Ali has good moments 4/
When Frazier hit Ali, Bundini would shout “It’s okay, champ”. In other matches I saw, Bundini would shout “keep dancing, champ”. There was one match where for entire hour, Bundini shouted “Fight like Sugar Ray”. [Ali and Bundini were admirers of the great Sugar Ray Robinson] 5/
Sometimes, because of his overzealousness, Bundini would annoy Ali’s coach Angelo Dundee. Sometimes Dundee wouldn’t need to say anything to Ali during rounds breaks because Bundini would have shouted everything that needed to be said 6/
In life, everybody need a Bundini. Who is your Bundini? Tag your Bundini. Appreciate your Bundini. Be a Bundini to someone 7/7 
