Ferdie Pacheco

Early life

Dr. Pacheco was born in the immigrant community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, to J.D. and Consuela Pacheco. He is of Spaniard-Cuban descent, and bilingual. His father was a pharmacist, and Ferdie sometimes helped out in the neighborhood drugstore owned by his father, sparking an interest in medicine. In his early teenage years, Pacheco got a job as a waiter at the Columbia Restaurant.

Boxing was a popular sport in Ybor City, with amateur matches regularly held at the Circulo Cubano de Tampa and other clubs and venues around the neighborhood. Though not a boxer himself, Pacheco took an early interest in the sport and attended many bouts. He also developed an early interest in art, which was inspired by a trip to the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota with his maternal grandfather, Gustavo Jimenez.

Pacheco graduated from Tampa Jefferson High School, then earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and a medical degree from the University of Miami.

Career

After graduation, Pacheco set up a medical practice in the Overtown community of Miami. In the late 1950s, he regularly attended boxing cards arranged by local promoter Chris Dundee. At one of these events, Pacheco met Angelo Dundee, the promoter's brother, a boxing trainer who ran the 5th Street Gym. Angelo Dundee offered the doctor free tickets to matches if he would "help stitch up my fighters", beginning a partnership that would last many years.

Muhammad Ali

Pacheco met Muhammad Ali in 1960, when Cassius Clay (as he was known at the time) came to the 5th Street Gym to train with Dundee. Pacheco became Clay's cornerman and personal physician from 1962-1977, working the corner for some of boxing's most iconic fights, including all three of his successful title bouts. Pacheco described Ali as the most physically-perfect human being he had ever seen. When Clay joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964, members of the Nation reportedly wanted his to replace Pacheco, Dundee, and the rest of his support staff. Ali vehemently refused, preferring to continue working with the team of people who had helped him become heavyweight champion.

By the mid-1970s, Pacheco observed that Ali's reflexes had slowed, and expressed concern that the veteran boxer had sustained brain and kidney damage due to years of punishment in the ring. After Ali won a decision against the notoriously hard-hitting Earnie Shavers in September 1977, Pacheco recommended that he retire. When Ali refused, Pacheco left the fighter's camp. Pacheco later explained that "The New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough." Ali fought four more matches (losing three) after Pacheco left his team before finally retiring in late 1981.

Despite their disagreement, Pacheco and Ali remained friends. The two were reunited in person for a final time in 2002, when Ali, who was by then suffering the acute affects of Parkinson's syndrome, told his former doctor, "You was right."

Post-Ali

Pacheco moved on to become a television boxing analyst, working for NBC and Univision. He became Showtime's featured boxing analyst in the early 1980s and continued his association with that network until his retirement from TV in the late 1990s, covering many memorable fights along the way. Pacheco speaks Spanish fluently, and translated in real time for audiences when bouts featured Latino fighters.

Pacheco is the author of several books, plays, screenplays, and short stories. Many of them are set in the Ybor City neighborhood where he grew up. Among his works, he has written a memoir (Ybor City Chronicles), an autobiography (Blood in My Coffee) and a cookbook (The Columbia Restaurant Spanish Cookbook, co-authored with longtime friend Adela Gonzmart).

Pacheco is also an award-winning self-taught artist, primarily inspired by Norman Rockwell with influences of Diego Rivera's use of bold colors. As with his writing, the subjects of many of his paintings are boxing and his youth in Ybor City.

Pacheco was portrayed by Paul Rodriguez in the 2001 film Ali. A biographical film, Ferdie Pacheco: The World of the Fight Doctor, was released in 2004.

Family

Pacheco resides in Miami with his wife, Luisita, who has co-authored a number of his books and is his official photographer and manager.

Pacheco has three daughters and one son: Dawn Marie, Tina Louise, Evelyn, and "Astrologer to the Stars," Ferdie J. Pacheco.