#406 – Teddy Atlas: Mike Tyson, Cus D’Amato, Boxing, Loyalty, Fear & Greatness
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2023
⏱️ 136 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/teddy-atlas-transcript
EPISODE LINKS:
Teddy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeddyAtlasReal
Teddy's Instagram: https://instagram.com/teddy_atlas
Teddy's Website: https://teddyatlas.com/
Atlas: From the Streets to the Ring (book): https://amzn.to/48uIQBj
Teddy's Podcast: https://youtube.com/THEFIGHTwithTeddyAtlas
Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation: http://dratlasfoundation.com/
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OUTLINE:
Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) - Introduction
(09:47) - Lessons from father
(19:53) - Scar story
(40:31) - Cus D'Amato
(50:43) - Mike Tyson
(2:08:39) - Forgiveness
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Teddy Atlas, a legendary and at times controversial |
| 0:05.1 | boxing trainer and commentator. |
| 0:08.2 | When I was going to this conversation with Teddy, I was ready to talk boxing. Styles, matches, techniques, tactics, and his analysis of individual fighters like Mike Tyson, |
| 0:18.5 | Michael Moore, Klichg, Ussick, |
| 0:21.0 | Pavekin, Lomanchenko, Triple G, Canela, Mohammed Ali, Shaggy, Konella, |
| 0:24.5 | Alish, a great Leonard, Hagler, Duran, Floyd, and on and on and on. |
| 0:29.4 | Like I said, I came ready to talk boxing, but I stayed for something even bigger. |
| 0:36.6 | The Shakespearean human story of Teddy Atlas, Costamato, and Mike Tyson. It's a story about loyalty, betrayal, fear, and greatness. It's a story |
| 0:48.8 | where nobody is perfect and everybody is human. To summarize, in the early 80s, young trainer Teddy Atlas worked with his mentor Kustamato, |
| 0:59.0 | in training the young boxing prodigy, now boxing legend Mike Tyson. Mike was a |
| 1:06.3 | troubled youth arrested over 40 times and at age 15 he was sexually |
| 1:11.6 | inappropriate with Teddy's 11 year old niece. In response to this, |
| 1:16.1 | Teddy put a 38 caliber handgun to Tyson's ear and told him to never touch his family |
| 1:21.5 | again or he would kill him if he did. |
| 1:25.1 | For this, Kustamato kicked Eddie out. |
| 1:27.8 | Why? |
| 1:28.8 | Well that's complicated. |
| 1:30.6 | In part, I think, to help minimize the chance of Mike Tyson, who Kuss legally adopted, will be |
| 1:36.7 | taken away by the state. |
| 1:39.2 | And with him the dream of developing one of the greatest boxers of all time. Of course, of course that summary doesn't capture the full complexity of |
| 1:47.2 | human nature and human drama involved here. For that you have to listen to |
| 1:52.2 | this conversation. The things said and the things left unsaid, |
... |
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