Bundini

Fifty years after he coined the iconic phrase “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” Drew “Bundini” Brown remains one of boxing’s most mysterious and misunderstood figures. His impact on the sport and the culture at large is undeniable. Corner man and confidant to arguably the two greatest fighters ever, “Sugar” Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, Brown lived an extraordinary American life. After a poverty-stricken childhood in Jim Crow Florida, he came of age traveling the world as a naval steward. After his discharge, he settled in New York City and spent wild nights in the jazz Joints of Harlem, making a name for himself as the charismatic street philosopher and poet some called “Fast Black.” He later married a white woman from a family of Orthodox Jewish immigrants, in dramatic defiance of 1950s cultural norms, and also appeared in films such as the blaxploitation classic, Shaft. In BUNDINI, Todd Snyder digs deep into Brown’s entire story, revealing how he became Muhammad Ali’s so-called “hype man” and boxing’s greatest motivator, as well as how he would come to serve as the prototype for hype men that followed—notably Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, but also for any exceptional motivator in any arena. Everyone should have a Bundini in their corner!

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