FightHype.com

TEDDY ATLAS GIVES EPIC ANALYSIS OF THURMAN VS. PORTER: "HE'S FLOYD MAYWEATHER TRAPPED INSIDE MIKE TYSON"

By Percy Crawford | June 24, 2016
TEDDY ATLAS GIVES EPIC ANALYSIS OF THURMAN VS. PORTER:

"First of all, I think any time that you can make an argument, a true argument, and not just for the sake of moving your lips and wasting air, but a true argument where you can put proper reasons and intellect behind a prediction for both guys to win, you probably got a good fight on your hands. I think you can make a good argument on both sides of the isle. That's the first thing is I think we have a good fight on our hands," stated world-class trainer and ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas, who gave his detailed breakdown and analysis of Saturday's anticipated showdown between undefeated welterweight champion Keith Thurman and former world champion Shawn Porter. Check out what else he had to say!

TEDDY ATLAS ON THURMAN VS. PORTER:

"I would pick Thurman at the end of the day. I put it this way, I think Thurman is one of the most, if not the most athletic fighter in our business right now. He's very athletic and I think he's versatile because of that athleticism. Of course he has power, but he's dimensional. He can do more things than Porter, and I'm not making Porter one-dimensional, but he's much less dimensional than Thurman is. He can do more things, Thurman can. If he has to, he can be there with you, but his mindset is more to box. Even though we want him to be more Tyson-like, we want him to be a seek and destroy missile, but he's a paradox. I like Thurman. I think he's very smart. I think both kids are. I like both of them to be quite honest. I think they are both good for boxing. I think Thurman is very cerebral and very deep. We…people as a whole want him to be this guy with the power and his hair and his look; with the long hair and his strength. We want him to go take the buildings down, but really people don't look at the surface of it because of the power and the look and all of that stuff. For me, he's a guy that…it's not always about what you can physically do, it's about what your temperament is, what your psychological makeup is, and what you believe you are. What do you want to be and what are you comfortable with? And what he is comfortable with is more of being like Mayweather. That's why I find him so interesting to me. I find Keith Thurman very interesting. I spent a little time with him down in St. Pete doing a PBC on ESPN card way back last year when he fought Collazo. I spent some time with him and I find him interesting. He's Floyd Mayweather trapped inside Mike Tyson's body so to speak and to a certain extent. His mentality is not to be what we want him to be with that body. His mentality is to be more smart, more thoughtful, and more careful; precision-like. It's the opposite of what we connect with because of the physical abilities that he possesses. He sometimes don't use those physical abilities the way that we want him to sometimes use them, which is more fun to watch.

So it's interesting and intriguing the way I look at it. At the end of the day, what I find so interesting about this fight is that I think when you have that kind of ability sometimes, you don't have the same love of the sport. And I don't mean love in the common way. I don't mean it that way; I mean it in a sense of that's the only thing you think about. When you have that broad kind of spectrum of thought the way I just described with him and abilities in other areas and are diverse in other areas, you don't just think of one thing. So he has other options and other places that his mind goes to that goes beyond boxing. If you're a kid like Porter that depends on your physicality and on your determination that's attached to your physicality and not having 20 different keys to open that door, but only having a log to knock that door down, you have one key, but at the end of the day, when that one key don't work, you have that old fashion log to use to knock through the door. When that's where your concentration is and your determination is and finding a way in that kind of way and not the way that I described Thurman and the options that he has, your commitment to that sport, what looks like your love and your obsession to that sport is greater because it has to be greater because you don't have other options. I hope I'm making sense. So when push comes to shove, Porter, if there is a question mark about Thurman, I don't doubt his character or any of that. I'm not trying to get into that. I'm just saying what does he do if or when that moment comes? If that true moment ever comes when your abilities are not enough, what does he do since there are other things for him to escape to? There are other things for him to survive from and parachute to beyond boxing, but when the only thing you have is boxing, which I believe is the case for Porter, and I'm not saying he's not confident or talented in other areas; I'm not demeaning him in any way at all. It's actually a compliment because he lives boxing.

And there is an X-factor; there is a father. When you are brought up by a father, there is nothing else. There is no basketball, there is no baseball, and there is no football. You hear Thurman say, "I could have played this. I could have played that." There is none of that when a father is bringing you up. There's no prom. There is nothing! There is road work at 5 in the morning when other kids are dreaming about the Three Stooges and the Lil Rascals (laughing) and the cartoons that are going to be on. There is nothing else, so when you are brought up that way and you have that kind of mindset, the only question, again, with the two guys, I have no questions about Thurman's athletic ability, but sometimes when you get to the point where you have more options in those moments that I just described, having more options hurts you instead of helps you because on the other side is a guy that has no options; a guy that's married to one thing. He is committed and locked in to one thing, being a fighter; nothing else! So that's my only question; if it get to that place, maybe Porter has an edge. If he can get it to that place and away from the other place which is the physicalities and the abilities and athleticism, get it to that place and maybe he has an edge. So if I was asked, "Teddy, give two scenarios, one of how does Thurman win and the other how does Porter win?" Well, Thurman wins if he could outbox Porter and maybe catch him with something early and hurt him and counter punch, because sometimes Porter does come in reaching a little bit and that gives you an opportunity to catch him in front coming in the front door. He can outbox him, stay a step ahead, and maybe hurt him early. Okay, how does Porter win? Porter wins by enduring, by finding a way, by surviving early, and at some point, making it a fight in the trenches; making it a down and dirty, grind him out, gritty fight and finding out something about Thurman during the course of that kind of fight that we didn't know before."



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

MARCH 18, 2024
MARCH 17, 2024
MARCH 14, 2024
MARCH 12, 2024
MARCH 11, 2024
MARCH 07, 2024
MARCH 04, 2024
FEBRUARY 29, 2024
FEBRUARY 27, 2024
FEBRUARY 22, 2024
FEBRUARY 19, 2024
FEBRUARY 15, 2024
FEBRUARY 12, 2024
FEBRUARY 08, 2024
FEBRUARY 05, 2024
FEBRUARY 01, 2024
JANUARY 31, 2024
JANUARY 30, 2024
JANUARY 29, 2024
JANUARY 25, 2024
JANUARY 22, 2024
JANUARY 18, 2024
JANUARY 15, 2024
JANUARY 12, 2024
JANUARY 11, 2024
JANUARY 08, 2024
JANUARY 04, 2024
JANUARY 01, 2024