It would appear that WBO welterweight champion, Tim Bradley’s new trainer Teddy Atlas, has taken the lion’s share of headlines ahead of tonight’s HBO clash with Brandon Rios, though Bradley claims he is more than fine with that and fans will see the fruits of their labour in the ring.
It was following June’s fight with Jessie Vargas – in which Bradley was badly buzzed in the dying seconds – that ‘Desert Storm’ dropped long-time cornerman, Joel Diaz, in favour of the limelight-friendly Atlas, who famously overshadowed Michael Moorer’s hard fought 1994 victory over Evander Holyfield with his animated words between rounds.
The two have placed an emphasis on tightening up Bradley’s defence, making him less hittable and more ‘ring-smart,’ though in the short time they have had together it’ll be interesting to see what benefits will be evident in the fight with Rios, who himself claims he will draw Bradley into a war against his wishes.
“I made a promise to myself and I made a promise to Teddy that we’re not just going to be tough. We’ll be tough mentally as well and be smart,” Bradley said in response to the Rios comments.
“Teddy’s been constantly drilling me about following the game plan and implementing good habits that will transfer to the ring. You drop your hands during training camp, I’m pretty sure you’ll drop them in the ring during the fight.
“You limit your mistakes,” he added. “That’s what we’ve done. Teddy don’t skip a beat at all. He’s a teacher, a motivator, a great person. You can’t get better than Teddy.”
While some rightly question just how much Atlas can have taught Bradley at 32 years of age, and in such a short time, the trainer himself says it rather depends on the willingness of the student to learn. Something Bradley has shown plenty of.
“If somebody’s smart and wants to learn I don’t care how long they’ve been doing it, they can learn,” Atlas said.
“[Tim’s] made it easy for me. He’s done the hard work and implemented it into sparring. Now we have to execute it on Saturday night. I feel very good.
“You need somebody willing and intelligent and Timmy was both of those things, and you need the person to trust you. It’s a big responsibility because you don’t want to let the person down. That’s a lot of pressure,” he added.
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