Rios Trainer Garcia Slings Arrows At Bradley Trainer Atlas

Tim Bradley isn’t much of a yapper, and as Brandon Rios has gotten older, his propensity to trash talk has lessened.

So the lead-up to the Saturday, Nov. 7 welterweight clash between WBO champ Bradley and Rios has not featured much in the way of heated rhetoric.

But Rios trainer Robert Garcia upped things a notch with some remarks re: Bradley and his new trainer, Teddy Atlas.

“The only thing they have controlled is the message on why Joel Diaz was dumped and how great a team they have become,” said Garcia, referencing Bradley’s decision to dump Joel Diaz in favor of the New Yorker, who mainly works as a TV analyst these days. “We’ll see how long that lasts. I give it three rounds before Tim Bradley goes back to his corner and finds Teddy Atlas sitting on his stool doing his act.”

Ouch…solid one-two there.

Garcia is referring to Atlas’ method of dealing with then charge Michael Moorer, battling Evander Holyfield and seeking Holy’s heavyweight crowns, back in April 1994. Atlas stole Moorer’s seat after a listless round eight. The trainer explained to writer Tim Kawakami, after the fight.

“I did it because I thought the fight was getting to the mode where Michael was satisfied just to be there and he was doing enough to lose some rounds, just trying to survive,” Atlas said after Moorer had his hand raised. “And I wasn’t going to cooperate with that. It just came to me. I had to do something I thought very dramatic. I know Michael, so whereas it might be extra dramatic to someone else, it was necessary and urgent to me. If it continued to go that way, it would just be a matter of time before Holyfield realized it and didn’t allow him to survive. I just sat on the stool and said, ‘You don’t want to fight. You don’t want to win this damn thing, so I’ll fight. Get outside, give me the water and I’ll take your place.’ And I made him say to me that he wanted to fight before I would get up. I said, ‘You don’t want to fight.’ He said, ‘No, I do.’ Thank God.”

Garcia isn’t impressed with that effort, it seems…

“Maybe I’m old school,” Rios’ tutor, an ex champ himself, continued. “But I was taught that the fighter always comes first. Every story coming out of the Bradley camp has been about the trainer. Let’s see who takes OWNERSHIP of the loss Brandon pastes on them Saturday night.”

Most folks I talk to see Bradley as having a clear edge headed to the tangle, which unfolds on HBO; what say YOU ALL?

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