Teddy Atlas Exclusive: Canelo Alvarez Did the Right Thing by Avoiding David Benavidez

Legendary boxing trainer Teddy Atlas exclusively spoke to Hard Rock Bet ahead of David Benavidez’s upcoming cruiserweight clash against Zurdo Ramirez.

The Hall of Famer, who has guided numerous fighters to world titles including heavyweight Michael Moorer, also analyzed Tyson Fury’s return, a possible clash against Anthony Joshua and revealed why Deontay Wilder should consider retirement.

Outside of the heavyweight division, Ryan Garcia is set to defend his WBC welterweight title against Conor Benn, and Atlas has questioned how good Garcia is despite beating Mario Barrios in his most recent fight to become world champion.

We opened the conversation on Tyson Fury’s return to the ring for the first time in 16 months, where he defeated Arslanbek Makmudov on points.

What did you make of Tyson Fury’s return and do you think he has enough in the tank for one last throw at the dice?

I mean, look, he had almost a year and a half of inactivity. I think it’s only fair to give him a minute to get the rust off, and it took a few rounds maybe to get rid of some of the rust of 16 months of inactivity. But at the end of the day, he got the job done.

Listen, I shoot it straight. You know, I’m not trying to be enemies or friends with anyone. I’ve been doing this stuff for 50 years. I’ve been in the business, and 30 years at ESPN. Some people get insulted if I say something straightforward, but to me, if you’re telling the truth, and the truth is your own truth, in other words, I’m not the only truth-sayer out there, but I am telling the truth to what I believe.

That’s why I didn’t have a job at the end with ESPN, because I said what I thought needed to be said in the position I was in, a responsible position, to tell the truth, not to say something just to keep a job.

And quite frankly, I see so many of these people on TV that you can tell they’re kind of walking a tightrope of what they believe and what they believe they need to say to be safe. So, at the end of the day, I’m looking at Tyson Fury, and he did what he had to do, but he was in there with a human heavy bag.

I mean, he was, again, and I don’t want people being insulted, I’d never knock a fighter, this is the only business I’ve ever been in, but the old-timers would say to me, “This guy, you could insult him if you miss him.” Mickey Duff had a great saying and we were pretty close. Mickey used to say to me, “Teddy, this guy is harder to miss than he is to hit.”

That was the case with the opponent for Fury. I mean, he did what he should do with a guy that was that predictable, that was slow-footed, that was slow-handed. Nothing was thrown really straight. Most of what Makmudov threw was round.

He’s a tough guy, he’s a fighter, he’s a game, game, game guy. But he’s a guy that just is made to order when you want to get a win, and when you want to get a win after being away, and that’s what they got. They did exactly what the doctor ordered.

They got rounds; they got the win. It was a one-sided win, and they were able to work out some kinks. If they’re looking to move forward, whether it’s a Joshua fight, whatever it is, but you always want to use that moment to hopefully get better, to say, okay, now we know what we’ve got to work on in the next camp.

At the end of the day, again, it was exactly what I expected, exactly what I predicted on my podcast that it would be. It wasn’t a matter of picking who was going to win, it was a matter of was it going to be an under or an over.

We picked the over for the people that like to wager a little bit out there, because I figured there’d be a lot of clinching, there’d be some sloppy moments—and there were plenty of sloppy moments, no doubt about it.

I even made a comment, and I love Tyson Fury. I love what he stands for. I love what he’s taught us. He’s taught us never to give up on life, no matter where you are, no matter how dark the place might be at that moment, don’t give up on life because the next moment, the light can be back on. As quick as the light can turn off, the light can come back.”

Benavidez is ‘old school’ but the Cinco de Mayo fight is hard to predict

Atlas previewed the upcoming showdown between David Benavidez and Zurdo Ramirez which will take place on May 2 for the WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles.

While Atlas believes Canelo Alvarez did the right thing by avoiding a fight against Benavidez, the 69-year-old believes it is a tough fight to predict with Ramirez being a ‘solid cruiserweight’ fighter.

Benavidez and Ramirez collide on Cinco de Mayo weekend. Who do you see winning that fight?

That’s so easy, no, not so easy. It’s a tough fight. I mean, we make him the favorite so automatically, he’s so fast because we love him and we’re impressed by his résumé, undefeated, and he’ll fight anybody. But he’s moving up now to fight at cruiserweight.

Now listen, it’s a cruiserweight who used to be a middleweight, or super middleweight, and he has moved up but he’s been moved up, and his body has stabilised and grown into being a solid cruiserweight. I’m talking about Ramirez.

His body has stabilised and grown into being a solid cruiserweight. And Benavidez is now moving up from light heavyweight to that weight class, so he won’t have the transitional time to really stabilise at the weight the way Ramirez has.

So, you’ve got to figure that in when you’re talking about handicapping a fight of this magnitude. You’ve got to weigh those things—and I do weigh those things. Also, I weigh the styles, I weigh the past performances, the experience levels that they both have. They’ve both fought top guys—both of them.

I give Benavidez so much credit. I really do, him and his father, because we use that saying “old school,” but a lot of times people say they’re old school, but they’re really not. They’re old school when it’s convenient.

They say, “Oh, I’m old school, I’m different, I fight anybody,” and then all of a sudden they’re still picking their spots, and they’re not as old school as they claim. But Benavidez is old school. Benavidez and his father, they fight, they’re not afraid to take the challenges, to fight anybody.

They showed that against Morrell. They’ve shown that. They wanted to fight Canelo. Obviously, Canelo didn’t want to do that, and he makes enough money and has enough power in the market where he chose not to do it and still get paid anyway.

From a business sense, it made sense for Canelo to avoid Benavidez and go that way, but you can’t say you’re old school when push comes to shove and you don’t behave old school. Benavidez and his father behave old school. So give them credit. They’re moving up again, they’re taking a chance again, putting that undefeated status on the line again.

I think it’s a tough fight. I think it’s a really, really tough fight. Ramirez is a solid guy. He throws a lot of punches. He’s a southpaw. He’s not an easy guy to outwork. You can hit him, but he’s technically still pretty solid—as Benavidez is.

Both of them—you can find them for simple reasons, not because of technical flaws as much as they both fight you. They both engage you. They’re both in front of you. Like the great, late, great trainers used to say “Let’s get it on.” That’s what they do and because of that, Benavidez, does he carry the power? There’s questions. Does he carry his power up to Ramirez?

Ramirez has a good chin. Benavidez has a good chin. Is Benavidez able to get the attention of Ramirez that he might have to get, moving up in weight, to slow Ramirez down? Because those punch numbers of Ramirez can be pretty impressive. Can Benavidez slow those punch numbers down? Benavidez has high punch numbers himself.

It really is one of those fights where, because of the styles and temperaments of both guys, it’s almost impossible for it not to be a good fight. It really does promise. The winners here are the fans and the sport.

It promises to be a really, really good fight, and it brings attention to the cruiserweight division, a division that really needs attention.

Because we forget about that division, it’s the stopover between light heavyweight and heavyweight. So sometimes we kind of look past it. This fight will bring eyeballs to that division. So, it’s a fight I look forward to seeing.

Garcia and Benn have made a lot of money

Following Conor Benn’s victory over Regis Prograis, the Brit called out Ryan Garcia and is set to face him next for the WBC welterweight title.

Atlas has claimed that both fighters have made a lot of money in recent fights and has questioned if either of them still have the same hunger for boxing.

Who will win between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn?

With Conor Benn, people are going to knock his fight against Regis Prograis. I’m not knocking it. I thought there was a lot of good to take away from that. He was coming off two incredibly emotional fights. There had to be a little bit of a letdown. He was dropping back down in weight, which is a tricky thing, to lose that muscle that he had put on for Eubank and then drop down.

So, he was dealing with that. He was dealing with a guy that he was supposed to knock out, because Regis Prograis, beyond being a game, game guy, he’s never been stopped, a two-time world champion, but his legs were old.

I mean, he showed that in his fight before this against JoJo Diaz, right? He looked like a guy that had no legs anymore, that wasn’t able to handle taking a punch anymore, and he got hurt early with Benn, but then he survived.

He’s a two-time experienced world champion; former champion and he survived. With all the heart in the world, Prograis survived. So, people are going to knock Benn for not getting rid of him. There are question marks about both guys.

Where there’s no question mark is they’re both talented fighters. They both can fight at a high level. Will they fight at that high level? Will they perform at that high level? They’ve both made a lot of money and when you make a lot of money, you know what? That can affect the athletic side of it.

To use that old phrase, are they not hungry anymore? I mean, they’re fighters, they’ll go in there, they’ll do their best, but what will that best be?

It’s impacted by all of these elements that I just laid out. It’ll be an interesting fight at the end of the day. It’ll be a well-watched fight. It’ll be an interesting fight for the reasons I just laid out.