TEDDY DINNER ALERT: Tonight, Boxing People Reminded of What’s Really Important

For most of the year, he is like most of us, he concentrates on working to make his ends meet.

Then, once a year, he goes into hyper over-drive, planning the gala which raises the money to keep his Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation afloat, and doing so much good for so many.

So, of late, Atlas, the Staten Island based analyst/tutor/Harry Nilsson fan, has been getting Tim Bradley ready to beat Brandon Rios and then also pondering what is likely to happen on Saturday, when Miguel Cotto tries to re-prove that wisdom that the comparatively aged can better a more youthful, bodily fresher foe, in Canelo Alvarez.

And throughout those efforts and times, he’d take calls, about planning the gala, which unfolds this evening. There would be discussion of the list of celebs, who was a yes, who was a know, who was a diva, backing out with a lame excuse at the last minute…

And there’d be discussions about requests for aid. The Foundation helps out hundreds of folks a year, most in that Staten Island and nearby region. People like that lady who had her leg amputated, from diabetes, and because she’s on a fixed income, wasn’t able to afford a chairlift. The Foundation helped. Like the man who had a stroke, and whose wife was panicked. How would she get him in their house, as he’s now wheelchair bound. No insurance, they would maybe have to sell the house, as their savings were tapped. Medicaid said no..the Foundation said yes, and built a ramp so he can get into his house, and she can breathe easier. Then the Foundation helped the young woman who was found to have advanced MS. She’s blind now, and doing chemo, and fighting. The Foundation paid for their house to be tweaked, so she can get to a bathroom easier. She’s at 70 pounds but fighting like a pro, and the foundation has helped make the family fight a tiny bit easier.

I will attend the dinner and try to do my part, spread the word about the good deeds Atlas does, how he with the Foundation lifts more downtrodden and panicked and depressed and demoralized people than I dare say anyone else in the boxing community. Floyd can boast about being “TBE,” but what if him, and Manny and the other guys who make silly sums, throw a load at the foundation, where it will be put to good use? No, it won’t be used to buy luxury cars, to be bragged about on Instagram, as proof of worth and success.

Back to boxing; tonight he will ask humbly for the good people to write checks, so hundreds more can fall into a safety net. Then, tomorrow morning he will fly to Vegas, to talk Cotto-Canelo for ESPN.

Hey, how does Teddy Atlas see that fight playing out?

“Originally, Mike, I thought it was very simple..Canelo is too young, too big, too strong…then I watched a fight I was sent, Canelo against Erislandy Lara. He was giving Canelo trouble..he has slow feet and if Cotto can move, and yeah, he doesn’t move as well as Lara but he can box a little…

“I think in his mind and that of his esteemed trainer Freddie Roach, Cotto will have to move those feet..and he don’t have to be Pernell Whitaker or Lara.. as Mayweather showed, too, you can expose Canelo..his feet are slow, he’s a little one dimensional. So, this isn’t as easy as I thought. If Cotto can box, move his feet, just at a decent level, it’s going to be tougher for Canelo than I originally envisioned. I see Cotto getting ahead 4-5-6 rounds, then maybe age, size, pressure to the body by Canelo will make it a tighter fight. At the end of day I still stick by my original prediction, that youth and strength will win…but it’ll be a very tough and close fight, and I see Alvarez in a come from behind win.”

And we will be all over that fight, and are quite intrigued by the style clash…but today, and tonight, I will make sure to remind myself what is really, truly important, in a grander scheme of things. It’s the sort of stuff that Atlas Foundation does, lifting up real people who have been knocked down too many times and need the intervention of a sage who cares.

Feel free to kick a donation to this most worthy cause here: http://dratlasfoundation.com/donations/

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