Looking back at the time Teddy Atlas threatened to shoot Mike Tyson

Teddy Atlas is one of the most decorated boxing coaches in the sport and is known for his fiery and passionate approach. Many times, he has cornered fighters and given heartfelt speeches during the break whereby he’s inspired his fighters to victory. In short, his passion is rarely matched and it’s fair to say that he’s a real character.

However, sometimes this passion can sometimes go too far and lead to seriously bad consequences. Perhaps the most famous example of this could be seen in one particular scenario involving a young Mike Tyson during a training session.

Teddy Atlas pulls a gun on Mike Tyson

At the time, Teddy Atlas was coaching a young Mike Tyson. Although Tyson had been boxing for a few years at this point, he was still only 15 years old. According to Atlas, Tyson inappropriately touched the behind of his 11-year-old sister-in-law so he pointed a gun at Tyson in the car park.

During this episode, Atlas was 10 years older than Tyson and was certainly a grown man. Apparently, this was the only way to truly threaten Tyson and defend himself. As ever with these scenarios, there’s a lot of context to unpack.

Mike Tyson had a crazy childhood

To put it nicely, Mike Tyson had a childhood from hell. His biological father was never in the picture from his birth, his mother died aged 16 and Tyson also admitted to being molested as a child. He was also arrested over 40 times by the time he was 13. In other words, saying Tyson had a tough childhood would be a huge understatement.

Obviously, boxing was his escape but he still behaved like a street kid during his teenage years. At the same time, this still doesn’t justify his behavior – but it certainly explains why he acted out of control.

Teddy Atlas couldn’t fight Mike Tyson

Although Atlas had ten years on Tyson and was a solid enough boxer, he wasn’t exactly a match for a 15-year-old Mike Tyson either. This may sound crazy to hear but it’s completely plausible that a 15-year-old Mike Tyson could have destroyed a 25-year-old Teddy Atlas in a fight. The reason for this is that Tyson had raw power and natural ability. Aside from this, he was well into developing through puberty at this point, so it wasn’t like he was a child. Sure, a typical 15-year-old would lose in a fight against a grown man in his 20s. However, Mike Tyson certainly wasn’t your average 15-year-old and was a physical specimen at this point.

From this perspective, Atlas was simply defending himself and his relative. It may sound extreme to pull a gun and point it at someone but given the context, this may have been the only solution to make a young Mike Tyson listen. Regardless of your thoughts on the morality of doing this, it certainly seemed to work. At the same time, Tyson would go on to feud with Atlas and the pair would go years without talking to each other.

Interestingly, had this whole incident been reported to the police then the chances are that Tyson would have gone to a juvenile detention center whilst Atlas may have ended up in jail too. Both parties stayed quiet and ultimately both avoided involving the law.

Teddy Atlas planned to murder Donny LaLonde

In case you hadn’t noticed by now, Teddy Atlas isn’t exactly a stable person by any means. In his autobiography, he once mentioned how he genuinely intended on murdering Canadian boxer Donny LaLonde in the 1980s. In one passage he wrote, “If he had opened the door, he was dead,” Atlas wrote. “I would have pulled the trigger, turned around, and walked away.” However, there was no answer.”

So, what happened? Basically, LaLonde begged Atlas to coach him and after reluctantly agreeing and coaching him for years, LaLonde eventually ditched Atlas as his coach. Instead, he opted for Dave Wolfe as his manager.

Shortly after, LaLonde would go on to fight Sugar Ray Leonard which would have earned Atlas a purse of $600,000 had he managed LaLonde for the fight. Instead, he got nothing and was incredibly bitter. Thankfully, LaLonde never got shot and Atlas eventually calmed down. Nonetheless, it gives a chilling insight into the mind of Teddy Atlas. Thankfully, these days he seems less dangerous.

Are Mike Tyson and Teddy Atlas friends?

Since the gun incident, Teddy Atlas and Mike Tyson have not been friends. It’s important to remember that even though Atlas only trained Tyson for a total of 2 years of his career, these years were when Tyson had just started boxing. In other words, he had a pretty big influence on his technique.

Obviously, after this Mike Tyson went on to achieve brilliant things. Nonetheless, this never seemed good enough for Atlas. Often, he would make disparaging remarks on Tyson’s boxing skills – claiming that he lacked heart.

This comment often seems odd considering of all things, Tyson seemed to certainly have the heart of a fighter. Regardless, it’s fair to say that Atlas was never satisfied with Tyson and has always been quite critical. At the same time, it’s important to note that Tyson did apologize in person years later. Apparently Atlas respected this gesture but it seems they’re still distant from each other which is understandable. In other words, the two aren’t friends but since then, Tyson has clearly matured and mellowed as he’s got older. If the two met, then it may be a bit frosty but it probably wouldn’t lead to a physical fight.

Summary

Whether you blame Mike Tyson or Teddy Atlas for their beef, it’s true that it went on to be an iconic piece of boxing folklore. It shows just how wild a young Mike Tyson was, and also how equally wild a slightly older Teddy Atlas was. Sadly, both men would go on to have even more controversies during their careers and would often flirt with the law.

Thankfully, both men survived their wilder years and have lived to tell the tale. These days, Atlas is still coaching boxers, whilst Tyson has remodeled himself as a modern-day philosopher. If anything can be taken from this, it’s that people can change and calm down over time.

If you want to find out more about this subject then check out the autobiography of Teddy Atlas where he speaks on it in further detail, as well as other wild stories.