Dr. ‘Ferdie’ Pacheco, at 89, Muhammad Ali’s ‘Fight Doctor’
MIAMI — Dr. Fernando “Ferdie” Pacheco, known as “The Fight Doctor” for his role as Muhammad Ali’s ringside physician, died in his sleep Thursday morning at his Miami home, his daughter Tina Louise Pacheco said.
Dr. Pacheco, who was the lone surviving member of Ali’s training team and who would go on to a career as an author, painter and Emmy-winning boxing analyst for NBC, was 89.
“He’s a cool guy, a cool Florida guy,” his daughter said.
Born to a Spanish-Cuban immigrant family in Ybor City in Tampa, Dr. Pacheco died in the Baypoint neighborhood of Miami that he had lived in since the 1950s. “That’s a long time. And he stayed in Florida even when he worked with NBC. They wanted him in New York but he didn’t want to leave,” his daughter said.
The Fight Doctor was so proud of his adopted Miami home he once said of Ali: “Cassius Clay was born in Louisville. Muhammad Ali was born in Miami.”
When Dr. Pacheco’s medical practice at Northwest 10th Street and Second Avenue in Overtown burned to the ground during the McDuffie riots in 1980, he donated the land to the local church and quit medicine. He figured he would never top the memories he made there.
For example, there was that time when Ali, who died in 2016, agreed to visit Dr. Pacheco and his patients inside that Overtown medical practice.
The Fight Doctor had one simple request of The Greatest: Be low key. Don’t be, well, Ali.
“Come to my office and when my patients come in, don’t try to give them money, don’t make any promises to them. Just be nice to them. Just see if you can stay there from 9 to 1. I don’t want you to announce that you’re there because I don’t want a riot,” Dr. Pacheco said he told Ali as he reminisced with the Miami Herald in 1990.
But this was silver-tongued Ali, whose fists and footwork were only outmatched by his mouth.
Naturally, Ali alerted the media. When Dr. Pacheco pulled up to his office, a big ABC News truck sat outside, running cables into his clinic. Ali couldn’t help but razz Dr. Pacheco over the shabby condition of the waiting-room furniture.
“This is why my people can’t get quality care,” Ali sniffed before the cameras. “Look at this place.”
Dr. Pacheco pulled Ali aside. “This is the waiting room,” the physician told the pugilist. “This waiting room is made so my customers feel comfortable coming in here and sitting down. You notice that back there, where the medical work is done, is clean.
“This office is here so people in this neighborhood can come from work and don’t have to go to some Miami Beach doctor’s office and stand in the waiting room because they’re afraid to sit down,” Dr. Pacheco continued counseling his photogenic boxer. “Go ahead, sit down, I can wipe off the leather. These are people that might work 12 hours in the sun. I don’t want someplace where they’re afraid they can’t sit down next to someone because they might smell.”
Ali tossed that around in his head for a bit, then sheepishly told his doc, “Oh, I didn’t think of it that way.”
Dr. Pacheco, whose father J.D. was a physician, started his medical practice after earning his medical degree from the University of Miami in 1959. He served as a pharmacist in the Air Force during the Korean War.
“The big important thing for him was helping people,” his daughter said. “He wanted to be a good doctor and cure people.”
Later, he joined boxing trainer Angelo Dundee’s corner at the famous 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach.
The Greatest trained there for his history-making match against Sonny Liston at the nearby Miami Beach Convention Center in 1964, when the-then Cassius Clay defeated the favored Liston and won his first heavyweight championship title.
Sports Illustrated called the bout one of the five greatest sporting events of the 20th century. Clay would soon convert to Islam and change his name to Muhammad Ali. As Ali, he faced pressure from his new community to make changes among his team. He chose to stick by Dr. Pacheco and the Dundees.
Dr. Pacheco served as Ali’s cornerman and personal physician from 1962 to 1977. The gym, which Dr. Pacheco called “our earthy equivalent of the kingdom of Oz,” was torn down in 1993.
Dr. Pacheco kept the gym’s rubbing table.
He became almost as famous as Ali. He never had to wait for a table at Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach. NBC hired Dr. Pacheco to do boxing analysis on television, a role he played for 19 years following his retirement from ringside in 1981. He won an Emmy award in 1989 for his production, writing and commentary on the special, “February 25, 1964: The Championship.”