Teddy Atlas is never one to hold back his emotions or his true thoughts on a subject. On Thursday night, after an awful decision in the Oscar Encandon vs. Tyson Cave fight which saw Encandon win via a split decision, Atlas unleashed a lengthy rant against the sport.
ESPN’s online fan scoring saw the judges at home give all 12 rounds to Cave, while Atlas gave him 10 rounds in the fight. Yet, Cave won on only one of the three judges scorecards, 115-113, with Encandon taking the other two by 115-113, and even crazier, 117-111. Enough was enough, and Atlas was set to explode. Here’s the vitriol from Atlas:
That’s why this business needs a national oversight and a national commission, to investigate crimes. Yes, I’ll say it, crimes like this. This is why this sport, as great as it is, and as noble as those athletes can be, that’s why this sport continues to hurt itself. Continues to give itself a black eye, even when it’s become the cyclops, with no more eyes to blacken.
Somebody, some congressman, some senator, some assemblyman, somebody with some guts, with a little bit of integrity, come forward and help us with this sport. It is a corrupt sport. It is a sport which does not do justice to these great athletes. This is a sham!
(After a commercial, he continued…)
It’s been years and years of the same garbage, and same trash. I have no choice, I’ve been in the business for 40 years. I’m a lifer. Where am I gonna go? I’ve got nowhere to go. But if I did, I’d get the hell out of it! I’d get the hell out of it!
I’m sick and tired of watching these fighters who put everything on the line, they get in the ring and come out of the ring with less of themselves physically than they had when they went in.
And this gets done to them by a bunch of cowards at ringside who never took a punch in their life? I’m sick of it.
Love him or hate him, you know what to expect from Atlas. He’s real, and he cares deeply about boxing. He wants it to be better; he’s sick that it’s not.
That’s why I think he’d make the perfect head of that national boxing commission he mentions, a subject which doesn’t get much press these days. If anyone would be personally invested into trying to correct the corruption and other issues inherent to the Sweet Science, it’d be Atlas.
