Atlas (15 page)

It had been six years in Catskill. Now it was over. A lot of things were different. I was a husband and a father, and certain things had come to an end. We packed up and moved to Staten Island—me, Elaine, and the baby—into the basement of my parents' house. And I started looking for a way to make a living training fighters in New York.

My father, Dr.Theodore Atlas, Sr., recently graduated from NYU Medical School.

Here I am, shortly after I was born in July 1956.

My mother and father, Mary Atlas and Dr.Ted Atlas, 1992.

Here I am at around the age of twelve.

In the locker room of the old Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden before a fight in the Spanish Gloves Finals in 1979.
From left to right:
Bob Jackson, Cus D'Amato, Kevin Rooney, me, and Salinas. I was training Rooney.

A group shot of my fighters in the Catskill Boxing Club, before an amateur show in Hudson, New York, circa 1980–1981.
From left to right:
Frankie Minicelli, Kevin Young, Rodney Young, Jigger, Pat Shanagher, Mike Tyson, Gary Young, Mane Moore, Billy Ham (ten years old), Greg Young, Bobby Owen, John Chetti, and me.

Me and my wife, Elaine, on our wedding day, September 25, 1982.

Me and my three-month-old daughter, Nicole, 1983.

I'm illustrating a punch to Canadian welterweight champion Donny Poole in 1987 in Rochester, New York, where I also trained Simon Brown, then welterweight champion of the world. Poole is the fighter Dave Wolfe asked me to lie about in his legal case over managerial control. It led to his taking LaLonde away from me.

LeRoy Neiman sketch of me and Twyla putting on gloves before training at Gleason's, 1984.

Me and Twyla Tharp training in the basement of Gleason's Gym on West Thirtieth Street in Manhattan, 1984.

Wrapping Michael's hands before a workout, in training for the Michael Moorer–George Foreman fight in Palm Springs, California, in 1995.