Luis Sarria (1911-1991) was a Cuban-American boxer who went on to become a trainer, masseur, and

cutman A cutman is a person responsible for preventing and treating physical damage to a fighter during the breaks between rounds of a full contact match such as a boxing, kickboxing or a mixed martial arts bout. Cutmen typically handle swelling, nose ...

. He was born on October 29, 1911 in

Cumanayagua Cumanayagua () is a municipality and town in the Cienfuegos Province of Cuba. It is located in a valley near the Guamuhaya Mountains (usually these mountains are referred as Escambray Mountains, east of Cienfuegos, the provincial capital. Histor ...

, Cuba, and died on November 19, 1991. He was posthumously inducted into the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013.

Career

Sarria was a member of Muhammad Ali's entourage for almost the entire duration of Ali's career. Prior to working with Ali, Sarria had worked with several prominent boxers including

Luis Manuel Rodríguez Luis Manuel Rodríguez (17 June 1937 – 8 July 1996) was a Cuban professional boxer. Known as "El Feo", he began his career in pre- Castro Havana. In Cuba, he twice defeated the ill-fated future welterweight champion Benny Paret. He held the W ...

, Florentino Fernández, Angel Robinson Garcia, and almost all boxers trained by

Angelo Dundee Angelo is an Italian masculine given name and surname meaning "angel", or "messenger". People People with the given name *Angelo Accattino (born 1966), Italian prelate of the Catholic Church *Angelo Acciaioli (bishop) (1298–1357), Italian Rom ...

up till then. Ferdie Pacheco called Sarria "the dean of masseurs", and a "guru of fitness." According to Pacheco, Ali had handed over his body, and consequently his health and career, to Sarria. In an interview with ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'',

expressed his appreciation for Sarria's professional competence which, according to Dundee, resulted in enhancing Ali's physical fitness and "added years to Ali's boxing life." According to Gary Smith, it was widely believed that Sarria's fingers were able to dissolve fat on Ali's body. Commenting on the times when he was a part of Ali's entourage, Sarria had observed:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarria, Luis 1911 births 1991 deaths American boxing trainers Sports masseurs Cutmen Cuban emigrants to the United States