Theodore A. “Teddy” Atlas, Jr. is an American boxing trainer and fight commentator. The son of a doctor, Atlas grew up in a wealthy area of Staten Island, New York City, New York. His mother Mary Riley Atlas was a former contestant in the Miss America pageant system, as well as a model. His father was of Hungarian Jewish descent. Teddy spent summers in Spring Lake New Jersey, with his family’s friends.
Teddy Atlas trained as an amateur boxer with Hall of Fame trainer Cus D’Amato. He had some amateur fights but had to turn to training due to a back injury. Atlas was an assistant to D’Amato, although his role in the Catskill Boxing Club was short-lived. His duties included assisting in the training of D’Amato’s teenage protégé Mike Tyson. However, Atlas left the camp in 1982 following an altercation with the 16-year-old Tyson after Tyson had been sexually inappropriate with a 11-year-old female relative of Atlas’s (Tyson said he had grabbed the girl’s buttocks). Atlas put a .38 caliber handgun to Tyson’s ear and told him to never touch his family again or he would kill him if he did. This altercation between Atlas and a young Mike Tyson led to Atlas’ dismissal from the Catskill Boxing Club and he was told he was no longer welcome in D’Amato’s home or around any of his adopted children (his fighters whom he had legally adopted, Tyson included).
Atlas enjoyed his biggest success as head trainer to Michael Moorer, whom he guided to the world heavyweight title in 1994. He drew criticism for what some considered to be overly dramatic speeches in the ring corner, particularly during Moorer’s Heavyweight title fight with Evander Holyfield, and some felt he did this to draw attention to himself rather than help his fighter. During one such speech Atlas blocked Moorer from sitting on his stool and asked “Do you want me to take over?” Atlas has denied this, stating that he did what he believed the fighter needed based on his understanding of the fighter. Moorer went on to defeat Holyfield by a majority decision.
Atlas worked as a boxing commentator for NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
Atlas currently serves as commentator for ESPN, formerly for ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights and Wednesday Night Fights and currently for ESPN’s Premier Boxing Champions fights. In 2001, he won the Sam Taub Award for excellence in boxing broadcasting journalism, and was a contributor on fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco’s The 12 Greatest Rounds of Boxing DVD, on which he stated that in the first Ali-Liston fight the famous “blind round” in which Ali could not see after being hit by Liston’s gloves which had been smeared in a substance that temporarily blinded Ali. Atlas stated he would have refused to have cut Ali’s gloves off and would have simply sent him out with the advice to just “run”.
Atlas is currently married to Elaine, with whom he has two children: Teddy III and Nicole.
In 1997, he founded the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation to honor the memory of his father. The foundation awards scholarships and grants to individuals and organizations. Atlas published his autobiography, Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring: A Son’s Struggle to Become a Man, in 2006. The book covers many different periods of Atlas’s life, and compares his position as trainer to a role as a father.
World Liberty TV,Boxing Team was on hand @ The Manny Pacquiao VS Timothy Bradley 3rd Fight @ MGM Las Vegas in April 2016, at MSG NY Press Conference, Mr Atlas is the Trainer of Bradley in this mega fight, see what he had to say to world liberty TV, Boxing Channel.