Teddy Atlas Autobiography/Book
From the Streets to the Ring Reveals Much About Boxing Legend
In his autobiography, Teddy Atlas reveals the struggles, mistakes, and triumphs that have forged one of the most trusted names in boxing.
If you've spent any time listening to Teddy Atlas' expert analysis on ESPN's Friday Night Fights, you know that Atlas is passionate about boxing. In his book we discover that passion pervades his entire life, and he is unflinchingly honest about the mistakes his boiling passions have led him to. Alternately shocking for his graphic storytelling and comical for his ability to reveal the absurd truth in desperate situations, Atlas draws upon lessons learned from his own mistakes to forge this powerful book.
The greatest influence on Atlas' life was his father, a Staten Island physician, yet his influence wouldn't be felt, or understood, until after Atlas had tried to escape the boredom of middle-class life by becoming a small-time thug, a vocation that resulted in several nasty scars, some visible, some not.
From Rikers Prison to Hollywood
Rescued from Rikers Prison by Cus D'Amato, the legendary mentor to Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson, Atlas showed promise as an amateur fighter, but was forced to leave the ring when he was diagnosed with scoliosis, prompting a return to the street life he had so narrowly escaped. Eventually, D'Amato convinced Atlas to become a trainer, a career move that put fighters like Mike Tyson, Michael Moorer, and Donny Lalonde under his tutelage.
As one might expect, there is a lot of shady business being conducted under the Sweet Science banner, and that sort of shadowy maneuvering eventually drove him away from training fighters to color commentary on a full time basis. Outside the ring, Atlas gave dancer Twyla Tharp the mental toughness to return to the stage at age 42 and trained actor Willem Dafoe to box for his role in "Triumph of the Spirit" a story of a concentration camp fighter during World War II.
Murder In His Heart
A man with a fighter's spirit, Atlas is forthright about the scrapes he's been in; some of which occurred after he had achieved success. Notable confrontations include: A scrap with some good-ole-boys in Biloxi Mississippi the night before his fighter, Shannon Briggs, was to enter the ring against Mike Faulkner; a shoving match with former heavyweight champion George Foreman at a press conference leading up to Foreman's challenge to Michael Moorer's heavyweight title; and a chilling account of Atlas taking a gun to Donny LaLonde's apartment with his heart set on killing his former pupil.
Alphabet Soup
His commentary on boxing's major ruling bodies -- the WBA, the WBC, and the IBF, are at once sobering and hilarious. What these abbreviations stand for, according to Atlas' tongue-in-cheek (sort of) analysis, is: We Be Asking, We Be Collecting, and I Be Felonious.
The anecdotes come fast and furious, but his theme is clear: In every tough situation there is the opportunity to run away. In the long run, it is easier to stand and fight than it is to live with the knowledge that you quit.
Atlas,Teddy; Alson, Peter Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring: A Son's Struggle to Become a Man Harper Paperbacks
