Dr. Ferdie Pacheco

By Ken Hall

Ferdie Pacheco is nicknamed "The Fight Doctor" and with good reason. He was Muhammad Ali's personal physician for 17 years and was in the corner for some of Ali's greatest epic battles: the "Thrilla in Manilla" (against Joe Frazier), the "Rumble in the Jungle" (against George Foreman), both Sonny Liston fights and many others in what was a storied career for "The Greatest."

Pacheco also carved out a nice little side career for himself as a boxing analyst -- for NBC, Showtime and Univision, copping two Emmy Awards in the process. He was also NBC's official boxing consultant for ten years. And HBO will air a documentary on his life before the end of the year titled "Ferdie Pacheco: The World of the Fight Doctor."

At 77, Pacheco is retired as a doctor. His free time now is devoted largely to a hobby that was once his first passion: art. He began drawing pencil and pen-and-ink sketches at the age of five, mostly caricatures and cartoons. By fourteen, he had already set his sights on a medical career, but his art never left him. In fact, Pacheco helped finance his medical education by selling his cartoons to national publications.

In his free time, Ferdie visited art galleries and read up on fine art. Following med school, he moved from the Tampa area -- where he was born -- to Miami, where he established two medical practices. One was in Overton, the other on SW 8th Street, not far from the fabled 5th Street Gym, a breeding ground for some of the top boxers of the day (including Ali). A chance visit there led to a keen interest in boxing. Pacheco went on to work as a cornerman for twelve world champions.

It wasn't until he turned fifty that Pacheco took up art in a serious way. His wife, Luisita, a former Flamenco dancer and today Ferdie's business manager and biggest fan, convinced him to give oil painting a try. "For me it was the easiest thing in the world," Pacheco said. "Essentially, I'm a narrative painter. I tell a story. And color and design are everything. All that I paint is related to the human form. It's what got me interested in medicine and it's what I started drawing as a child.

"I like to paint historical figures," Pacheco added, and Mohandes Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas have all been subjects. But he's also tackled the Civil War, Ybor City, Fla. (his home town), jazz musicians, Cubans in exile (his father was the Cuban-born son of a Spanish consul on the island) and, of course, boxing.

Through medicine, Pacheco studied the human form, which in return has given his art anatomical integrity. As a painter, he uses color and design with much imagination, and his aggressive use of vivid, slashing, colorful patterns exude a sense of strength. His motifs have been affected by art-historical influences: Vincent Van Gogh, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, George Grosz, Oscar Kokoscka, Thomas Hart Benton and Fletcher Martin.

His work has not gone unnoticed. Pacheco was commissioned by Verizon to illustrate the cover of Tampa's Yellow Pages (2000-2001 edition). Art collector Joe Morrissey of St. Louis commissioned Ferdie to paint four large battle sequences, each measuring 12' x 6' (at a price of $40,000 each). They depicted Pickett's Charge, The Alamo, Custer's Last Stand and Marshall Ney's Charge at Waterloo.

Many of his works, like the man himself, are larger than life. "My wife told me to paint big if I was going to paint at all," he said, adding, "Luisita was the one who really got me committed to painting seriously. I used to paint for fun and give my stuff away. She said, 'Don't downgrade your stuff.' So I took her advice and have been a professional artist ever since." Luisita, herself a pretty good photographer, manages Ferdie's art and types and edits his manuscripts.

Pacheco has never taken an art lesson in his life, a fact of which he is quite proud. "Art is inside of you, not the other guy," he said. "I don't want to know what the other guy knows. I want to know what's inside of me." He considers his artistic journey part of a personal evolutionary growth process, one that continues as he keeps on applying brush to canvas.

His paintings are in the collections of many leading personalities and celebrities, including Andy Garcia, Evander Holyfield, Budd Shulberg, Shirley MacLaine, Ernest Borgnine, Petula Clark and Dan Duva. One of his works was chosen to be placed in permanent collection at the State Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., in the House of Representatives. Another commission, for the West Tampa Library, will be installed early next year.

A new work is about to be undertaken, prompted by the recent death of his last living cousin, Gus, Jr. "I remember when Gus was given a couple of baby chicks one Easter when he was a kid," Ferdie recalled. " Those chicks grew up and multiplied and before you know it he had a whole back yard full of chickens. Gus used to sell those chickens' eggs door-to-door. I'm going to paint a scene of Gus selling chicken eggs to an old lady at the front door, like a Norman Rockwell painting. That will be a nice way to remember him."

Fans of Ferdie Pacheco may visit him online at www.ferdiepacheco.com.

Dr. Ferdie Pacheco (left) was Muhammad Ali's personal physician for 17 years. Ali has appeared in several of "The Fight Doctor's" paintings.

"I like to paint historical figures," said Pacheco, who was born in Tampa, Fla., and now lives in Miami.