Feeling Betrayed After Being Asked to Leave for Putting Mike Tyson at Gunpoint, ‘Loyal’ Teddy Atlas Reveals How He Found Peace in Cus D’Amato’s Belief: “You Had to Be a Better Person”

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Teddy Atlas and Cus D’Amato played a paramount role in the life of Mike Tyson. It is a known fact that the former heavyweight champion grew up in trenches. However, D’Amato rescued him and helped him find his calling in the ‘Sweet Science.’ Meanwhile, Atlas, an assistant trainer to D’Amato, was training Tyson. But things took a sudden turn for the worst.

Atlas said that he put a gun to a young Tyson’s head after he allegedly sexually harassed an 11-year-old girl from his family. Before the matter could escalate between the two, D’Amato asked Atlas to leave the gym. Atlas felt betrayed by this action of D’Amato but, decades later, on a podcast with Lex Friedman, he recalled this incident and revealed how he eventually forgave D’Amato’s citing lessons from the Hall of Famer’s beliefs.

How did Teddy Atlas come to forgive Cus D’Amato?

Their relationship came to a sour end because of an incident with Tyson. On the podcast, Friedman asked Atlas if he could tell the full story given his “value for loyalty.” Atlas replied that it was “the second time in my life I felt betrayed,” as he narrated another incident from when he was a teenager and got arrested and spent time in solitary confinement. Atlas then addressed what happened with Tyson in 1982 and how D’Amato asked him to leave the Catskill Boxing Club where he worked as a trainer, after he pulled a gun on Tyson following the harassment incident. Seeing D’Amato side with Tyson despite having worked with the legendary trainer for a long time he felt a sense of betrayal.

However, despite their differences, Atlas was captivated by D’Amato’s love for teaching the ‘sweet science,’ to boxers. Not just for them to become boxers, but also to find purpose in life for the better and lead a life with a sense of morals or integrity. He stated, “He believed in this thing of boxing. He believed he changed lives and that it was worthwhile. He believed that there was a power to it beyond the left hook. He believed that to be a champion you had to be special, you had to be you had to have character, you had to be a better person.”

It was this very belief system of D’Amato that Teddy Atlas chose to believe in and chose to forgive his former trainer. In the interview, he further talked about how he regrets pulling the gun on Tyson but said he hated him for putting him in that spot. Nearly 30 years after the incident “Iron” Mike Tyson apologized to Atlas in person to make amends at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York during a show.

During the interview, Atlas also revealed how D’Amato wanted him to be quiet about Mike Tyson’s involvement in boxing and not going to school and even made him a grand offer. Tyson was still under the authority of the State when he went into the care of D’Amato after being released from juvenile detention.

D’Amato wanted Atlas to be quiet about Mike Tyson

Atlas revealed that D’Amato wanted him not to reveal to any authorities about the alleged incident with Tyson. If the authorities had found out about Cus not allowing Tyson to go to school and that he was putting him through boxing training, the state government would have taken the future world champion away from Cus.

To keep a lid on this, D’Amato even offered Atlas a lucrative offer of 5% of Tyson’s earnings from his boxing career. He stated, “So, he sent this man…and he said here’s the deal, Teddy. If [you don’t] talk about this, [he] wants [me] to disappear basically, you leave, and he will give you 5%…He will give you 5% of Tyson’s earnings for the rest of his career.”

The above revelation just goes to suggest that D’Amato really had the best interest in mind for Tyson. However, we ask you, what do you make of the relationship between Atlas and D’Amato? Share with us your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.