Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49400 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
In "Atlas", Teddy recounts his incredible life, from juvenile delinquent, to his induction into the legendary Cus D'Amato's Boxing Camp and his first major challenge - training 14-year-old Mike Tyson. An amateur boxer trained by D'Amato, Atlas captured the Adirondack Golden Gloves title at 139 pounds in 1976. Forced out of competition because of injury, Teddy turned his talents to training fighters, including Mike Tyson, Barry McGuigan, Tracy Patterson, Joey Gamache, Simon Brown and Donny Lalonde. In 1994, in a memorable performance as trainer and corner man, Teddy inspired Michael Moorer to beat Evander Holyfield for the world heavyweight championship. Teddy has also employed his talents outside of the ring appearing in 2 films and choreographing fight scenes for the television series "Against the Law". "Atlas" is the remarkable story of all of these achievements, told in Atlas' completely inimitable voice. As you'd expect from a boxing memoir, it pulls no punches.

Customer Reviews

One Atlas who never shrugs.
The problem with autobiographies is that the subject (almost unavoidably) always tells you only what (s)he wants you hear. Add to this the figure of the "ghost writer" and you may often have further problems.

Nevetheless, Teddy Atlas' book is one riveting read. How honest is Atlas being? I suspect he's generally taken very little poetic licence, even if the Donny Lalonde murder plot does seem a little too eye-brow raising to be convincing. His tales of youthful crimes and misdemeanours, rehabilitation in Cus's Catskills hideaway, and subsequent fame and respectability are all gripping, not least of all because of the humanity they contain. If I have a criticism, it's that it isn't detailed enough. One gets the impression Atlas has so much more to say, though whether he wants to delve deeper, one can only guess.

Overall, this book smacks of an honesty, not necessarily regarding events and encounters, but in describing the character of a flawed but well-intentioned individual, intent on being the best person he can be, despite some obvious personal demons. Teddy's black and white philosophy towards life, work, morality and relationships may irk some, but there's no denying the man's logic and reasoning: In life you must do what is right, which is not what you necessarily want to do. If Mike Tyson (for one) had followed Atlas' credo of discipline, he might be remembered as the greatest heavyweight of all time, instead of as a rapist thug who squandered much of his immense talent.

All in all, a terrific book that is thoroughly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in the fight game and the psychology of those who live it.

Fact or Fiction?
First of all, I really like boxing and have always thought Teddy Atlas to be a great commentator and had read he was a former boxer and trainerof a champion. However when reading this book I became aware of a fishy smell. What was this, Atlas going out to kill Donny Lalonde over a professional decision that only fell into Lalondes lap by sheer virtue of his skin? It seemed insane. . .and Lalonde has came out and said it is bull. If it is true Mr Atlas needs to follow his own advice and peer deep inside to find his moral fibre. Quite a good read apart from obvious the very mental problems Atlas suffers from.

A Classic of its type
Boxing as a sport has, more than any other, produced a body of literature disproportionate to the number of genuine fans. Although it's easy to find a of hack jobs amongst these volumes that can safely bear comparison with that generally most facile of sports books, the footballer's autobiography, when boxing writing excels, more than any other sporting genre, it can lay claim to genuine literary quality. When did an author of the stature of Norman Mailer last pen a volume dedicated to any other sport?

Happily, this is one of best boxing books that you'll ever read.

As with most memorable sporting biographies, the book isn't really about boxing. Rather, it covers the most enigmatic of themes; one man's redemption.

Anyone who is familiar with Teddy Atlas as the rather colourful, stereotypical New York commentator and fight game "character" gracing the trans-Atlantic boxing "reviews" found by accident on various UK cable channels will be familiar with a scar enveloping roughly half of his face. Be assured that this was inflicted completely without anaesthetic during a childhood and youth spent running wild in the type of neighbourhood found only in Hollywood B movies and certain parts of the New York.

Atlas's survival of this knife wound owed much to the fact both that he had some friends close at hand and the fact that they acted sufficiently promptly to staunch the blood flow. The fact that he managed to find himself in this situation at all also seems somewhat mystifying in that his father was not either absent or a thug, but the neighbourhood physician.

Amazingly, Atlas's wake-up call came not in the form of his attacker's blade, but in the intervention of Cus D'Amato and his boxing camp in the Catskill Mountains.

D'Amato, like a number of characters in this story, was truly larger than life. One part Svengali and, depending on who you believe, three parts charlatan, D'Amato was famed for having found and developed Floyd Paterson into a world heavyweight champion and was shortly to do the same for Mike Tyson. D'Amato was also notorious for his strict disciplinarian approach and "code" of honour, which Atlas swallowed hook line and sinker. In fact, the main difference between the two was that the old man was perfectly capable of bending the rules when he thought it was necessary. Atlas wasn't, and it's the resulting searing honesty that blazes through this account of his life and serves to make him extremely likeable, even when some of the actions he is describing are impossible to condone. In a world of knives in the back, you'll know when Atlas is coming for you and you'll be sure to see him when he does.

In addition to an unerring perspective on events, Atlas had the good fortune to be in a number of interesting places at the right time. He is probably best known as one of Mike Tyson's first trainers and his insight and views on Tyson, at odds with many others, are fascinating, as is his description of an infamous gymnasium confrontation with the teenage future champion. One of Atlas's other main claim to fame was as the trainer who took Michael Moorer to the heavyweight title, largely by dint of a particularly unorthodox motivational technique in the title bout, one which proves wholly consistent with the trainer's controversial views on human nature, or at least what he thinks it should be.

Although the majority of the book is located in a boxing context, as noted above much of this is really incidental; its true subject is people and Atlas's own unique perspective. As such, it traverses the human condition from humour to tragedy. Atlas's description of his own dysfunctional family, and in particular the tragic death of his grandmother, is at times intensely moving in the same way that his description of his wife's behaviour when facing down a street thug is at the same time somewhat profane but hilarious. The book may also serve as something of an eye opener to one of Atlas's former protégés, the Canadian light heavyweight Donny Lalond. After they split on terms that offended Atlas's code, it wasn't a knife that Atlas went after him with, but it is to both men's advantage that Lalond wasn't to be found.

Overall, highly recommended; this is a book that will be of particular interest to boxing fans but has also more than enough to satisfy anyone who is interested in human motivation.