Teddy Atlas is a trainer, author and boxing commentator for ESPN. Atlas also is the founder of the Dr. Theodore Atlas foundation which is a charity that was started in memory of his father. In part 1 of my interview with Teddy Atlas, he speaks in depth about the foundation and what programs it supports. Atlas also talks about Timothy Bradley’s recent fight with Manny Pacquiao and if he thinks they would of done better with more time working together. Here is what Teddy Atlas had to say.

(Full 44 minute interview audio with Teddy Atlas, click play to listen)

Robert Brown: Teddy, you started the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation in memory of your father and his effort towards the community, can you tell me a little about what the foundation does?

Teddy Atlas: I started the foundation to remember him and the spirit and the way he lived. What we do is we take care of people that otherwise would fall though the cracks, people that don’t have the ability to get the proper treatment programs for a sick child with cancer, we step in and we pay for it. If they have to fly out of state, we fly them out of state. If they have to stay in a hotel while they’re out of state, we pay for the hotel and the airfare.

If they need handicapped ramps put up, we put the handicap ramps up. If they need a machine that they can’t afford to buy for a sick child, we step in and we pay for it. If there’s a family where maybe it’s a single mom with four children and she’s struggling and her utilities are going to be shut off in the middle of the winter, we step in and we make sure that we pay the utility bills, whether it’s the gas or the electricity.

If the family is going to be put into a shelter, we step and make sure the don’t get put into a shelter because the shelters are very unsafe and not the right environment for children. We’ve done it for twenty years now, we do it every day of the week and we also do social programs.

Robert Brown: It’s been a couple of weeks since Bradley-Pacquiao III, what were your thoughts on Bradley’s performance?

Teddy Atlas: I’m proud of him as a human being. I know him as a person, I know him as a father, I know him as a father of five children, I know him as a husband to his wife and I know how he treats other people and what matters to him and what he cares about in life. All of that was encompassed in my statement, that I’m proud that he dealt with one of the best fighters of the last decade, one of the greatest talents you’re ever going to see, just pure talent.

Forget about technique and all the other things, but the pure combination of speed and power, Pacquiao is a freak. There’s very few athletes that can combine those kinds of abilities and he does, so to face that for a third time, it takes a lot of courage, it takes a lot of skill, and a lot of will. I was expressing that, even though we didn’t get the job done and I wish that I had found a way to get us there in the way that I was responsible to. But I was letting him know that at the end of the day, I’m proud to be with him.

Robert Brown: If you had more years with Tim, would the fight have ended in a different result?

Teddy Atlas: Yeah I think so, and I’m not making any excuses. First of all, Pacquiao is a tremendous fighter, so I’m not taking anything away from him but you’d always like to have more time.

I would hope that we’ve improved things, that’s my job and if I’m worth my salt as a trainer who’s been around this business for forty years, I sure as heck better know how to improve things — that’s what I’m supposed to do, I’m supposed to be able to teach and to give something to the fighter that I’m involved with and impart some knowledge. I think I’ve done that and I hope I’ve done that, and part of that in a simple way is to make your fighter harder to hit, make him as clever as possible, as elusive as possible and solid in the fundamental ways so he can use his ability to the utmost.

I’m also supposed to make my fighter understand the mental dimension of it and to be able to help him in those areas. I feel we’ve done that and I feel good about that. I wish we could have gotten it done a little bit more so in the fight with Pacquiao. I think it was a closer fight than the judges had it but that’s another thing. At the end of the day, you’d always like to have more time but you deal with the hand that’s dealt to you and you deal with what you have to deal with, and that’s what we’ve done.

Follow link to donate to the Dr. Theodore Atlas foundation