Atlas Promises 'Same Old Teddy' During PBC's ESPN Run

By Victor Salazar

ESPN's Friday Night Fights (FNF) was a weekly staple for boxing fans. During its season, it was a weekly avenue for boxing fans to get their fix for 17 years. Saturday is the dawn of a new era as Friday Night Fight’s replacement, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on ESPN, makes its debut from Tampa, headlined by Keith Thurman (25-0, 21 KO’s).

FNF's expert analyst Teddy Atlas was as much a staple as the Friday Night Fights program was through the years. His voice that resonated with the series. So for him it also begins a new era. But with the new series, it’s the same old Teddy Atlas.

“I don’t think much will change about us besides the bells and whistles and drum rolls that PBC brings,” Atlas told BoxingScene.com over the phone. “But it makes no difference on how me and Joe (Tessitore) will call the fights. I try to tell people what happens in the ring and give them a blueprint of what the sport is about. It’s boxing, I’ve been around it my whole life and in the end this sport is about the fans. I’m here to add a little more to the broadcast and the viewership and help those fans have a good night.”

It’s a transition for those accustomed to watching fights weekly on a Friday to go to once a month on a Saturday.  It’s also a transition to Atlas

“A lot of people are anxious about the transition going from something that was once a week to only once a month,” explained Atlas on the change in schedule. “You know Friday was a tradition to them and they made it a point to be around their television on a Friday night, week by week to now once a month.”

But if the fights are better than the transition should be smooth says the outspoken commentator.

“My hope is that it is better and that we get the marquee names fighting the marquee names. Even though Friday Night Fights had its share of marquee names, we also introduced guys to the public. A lot of guys made their bones on our air, now we’ll have guys that have made their bones.”

The critics are abound for the PBC series, seemingly on the opposite sides of the spectrum. Atlas on one hand likes the series because it brings relevancy to the sport of boxing.

“I like the idea because it’s making boxing more relevant,” Atlas says of PBC. “I think it’s been doing that. The timing of PBC coincided with the so called fight of the century (Mayweather-Pacquiao). Because of that, it got people paying more attention to boxing. The sport deserves to be more relevant. Fans can see their fights in primetime and on free television, back to where is used to be.”

On the other hand the fights need to deliver as well.

“What the road will hold for PBC remains to be seen,” stated Atlas. “But to quote The Field of Dreams and Kevin Costner, ‘if you build it they will come.’ People will come out if it’s A Class fighters fighting A Class fights. If it’s A vs. B, that’s ok too. If PBC puts competitive fights on, people will come. If I can make an argument for both sides winning than that’s great. It’s on them to put a consistent product in the ring to keep the fans coming. But it gets tricky when you have 200 fighters and how you match. I do like what Al Haymon is doing so far.”

Atlas has always been known to be outspoken and always delivering his opinion, whether popular or not. It was something the fans that tuned into Friday Night Fights always expected. Whether it was lashing out at a bad decision by the judges, or ripping a matchmaker for putting on mismatched, his opinion was heard.

In terms of rankings, Atlas wants to stay away from the traditional alphabet sanctioning rankings and instead he says, “I only want to use the Transnational Boxing Ranking Board’s ratings, and they at PBC said that’s what we’re going to use. I hope they follow through on it.”

A lot of complaints on PBC broadcasts around the series of networks was that a voice like that was missing. With that being said, many wondered if that would change the way Atlas called fights and voiced his opinion.

“That’s an honest question to ask,” Atlas said. “We are tempted by things at the end of the day in terms of what makes sense from one side to the other, and making a living. I got a track record on making my own decisions. I am in control of my decisions. I have myself and my children to answer too. I don’t always make the right decisions though.”

To Atlas speaking the truth is what he has lived by throughout his history in the sport of boxing.

“In this industry if you’re going to be respected you have to speak in what you truly believe, without the influence of your employer,” continued Atlas.  I’ve walked away from a lot of money and fighters. I’m not going to use the bullsh*t cliché about making decisions, ‘As long as I can look at myself in the mirror’, because we all do bad things to the people we love and still look at ourselves in the mirror. The truth works. You get smacked around and costs you money. It works for me and my family.”

Atlas has done such things, most notably walking away from Alexander Povetkin because he felt Povetkin needed more fights before he was ready to take on a Klitschko. Atlas feels he’s ok with telling it like it is on any level in boxing.

“Only way to make things right is to say what needs to be said because you have the trust of the fans,” stated Atlas. “I have an obligation to tell the truth like it is in fights. I told my fighters the truth even if it led to breaking relationships. If I don’t say what needs to be said, we won’t have an audience to follow us or believe in us. If I told you a fight was good plenty of times and I lied, would anyone believe me very long? If that at means they’ll have a problem then we’ll see then. I’m here to tell the truth with what happens in the ring. I hope Haymon and company can understand that.”