Teddy Atlas has been around boxing most of his life, but there is one man he thinks stands out as the most special he ever worked with.
Atlas has spent decades as one of boxing’s most direct voices. He boxed himself as an amateur but was forced to hang up his gloves with a back injury and became a trainer under Cus D’Amato in the late 70s and early 80s.
In that time, he worked with a teenage Mike Tyson before a famously ugly falling-out and later guided Michael Moorer to the heavyweight title before working with the likes of Timothy Bradley, then found a second career behind the microphone on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, where he became known for his blunt, unpolished analysis.
In an interview with The Ring Magazine, Atlas was asked about the best talent he ever trained and he didn’t hesitate to name Puerto Rican Wilfred Benitez.
“Sometimes you go to the Academy Awards and one movie wins all the awards. What are you gonna do? That would be Benitez. Anyone who could beat Roberto Duran, amongst many other great fighters, that’s a pretty good resume. I would say Benitez overall was the package. He was a special fighter.”
Having been a child prodigy who turned professional at age 15, ‘El Radar’ was the youngest world champion boxing had ever seen when he lifted his first belt at just 17 years and 176 days old back in March of 1976.
He was a skilled but aggressive fighter who won titles in the light welterweight, welterweight and light middleweight divisions and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.
He had a total of 62 fights, won 53 of them and 31 by KO before retiring in 1990.
