How would Iron Mikes career have panned out had he had Teddy ‘Hitman’ Atlas in corner from the start of his career to the finish? Teddy was one of his first trainers up in Catskills New York
More or less the same. Maybe Teddy could have taught Mike how to adapt to being older? But so could others. So I'm skeptical it would make a difference. It would also require Mike to be willing to be more patient to deal with Atlas. No matter the trainers, Mike seemed to be married to that flawed peek-a-boo style. It only works when you have tons of speed and energy. Even then, not all the time. It's a young man's style. Even at 58, we saw him training and trying to fight like he did when he was 19. Given Mike's physical stature, as he got older he needed to learn to fight more relaxed, to pace himself and set up the punches. I would have started teaching him to have a bit of that James Toney-like style once he hit 30.
Can’t be the same, I reckon he would’ve been even better, up to the Spinks fight he looked invincible with Kevin Rooney and co. as trainer. Once he got rid of him, it all started to go downhill. Teddy would’ve made a huge difference especially then
Tyson and Rooney was the combo,without Rooney,Tyson was never the same fighter again.Atlas could not have done better than Rooney. Tyson and Rooney had a very good bond until King got into Tysons head and the rest is history .
Based on personality's alone Mike and Teddy were never going to stay together. Teddy obviously did a good job to help Mike hone his natural abilities as a youngster.
Bobby and atlas would have been great mostly because they knew the system/methods cus used with tyson. They had the knowledge of knowing how tyson trained as opposed to being tremendous coaches. Although maybe that knowledge qualified them as being tremendous coaches. Who knows. There stock went up because of that but even more so because i reckon tyson never really had a coach after that point. People we,re employed to coach....but tysons days of dedication ended after bobby. No coach in the world would have got that much out of him at that point including bobby or atlas. He went downhill after bobby some of that because the new coach didnt train the same way but the bigger part of the problem was he stopped being coachable. Wouldnt turn up....or left during sessions. Cut corners. Lost interest. Turned to partying and stopped caring about boxing. The real question should probably be mike tyson if he stayed coachable/dedicated instead of mike tyson under atlas. When he hit the big time he was over it. Atlas, bobby or even cus wouldnt have changed that imo.
I've always wondered why he didn't try and fight like Joe Frazier once his explosiveness and combinations had started to wain. I suppose he didn't have the stamina or the resolve to fight like that, instead it was just **** or bust, throw everything you have got for a few rounds and if that fails, accept defeat and/or foul.
I think the question is more whether Mike Tyson could have stayed disciplined mentally and physically. If he had done so, I think he would have defo beaten Buster Douglas at least. He declined pretty rapidly after he left Rooney/Atlas. Holyfield is always a tough stylistic match up for Tyson.
Teddy Atlas is mentally unhinged and the very worst boxing trainer. He's set back or ruined many boxers: Lalonde, Briggs, Grant, Gvozdyk, Povetkin, etc. When Foreman became the oldest HW champion in history, Atlas was in his opponent's corner, screaming like a maniac. This content is protected
One slight problem: Teddy Atlas absolutely ****ing despises Tyson and even if Tyson had Emmanuel Steward, Angelo Dundee, and Eddie Futch all in his corner, no trainer, no matter how skilled could stop Tyson from self-imploding. It's not the trainer's job to babysit their fighters and make sure they stay disciplined and mind their Ps and Qs. Tyson's downfall was his own doing and we should accept that his losses cannot be blamed on other malefactors in his life, Tyson was a grown man and his decisions were his own, not his trainers'.
