FanHouse TeddyAtlas

Boxing's decline in popularity has come in large part because all the biggest fights are on pay-per-view or premium cable. But that will change this month, when, for the first time ever, ESPN will broadcast a heavyweight title fight live.

Having the promotional muscle of ESPN behind that heavyweight title fight, featuring WBC heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko defending his belt against Juan Carlos Gomez, will undoubtedly be good for the sport. But when I talked to ESPN boxing commentator Teddy Atlas this week, he cautioned that boxing has problems that the Klitschko vs. Gomez fight can't come close to solving. My interview with Atlas is below.

The current saga that is New York Jets football continues to take bizarre twists and turns, as Teddy Atlas, a friend of recently fired head coach Eric Mangini and a personal assistant for the team (in the field of boxing?!), has become the latest person to jump on the pile of chaos in the Big Apple.

As Atlas tells it, Mangini wanted to enter the season with an open quarterback competition between Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens, while the team would play a "protect the ball, intelligent approach." Things changed, naturally, when Brett Favre came to town and played his throw the ball all over the place while having a good time approach. It worked for a while, then all went terribly wrong in the second half of the season, resulting in finger-pointing, name-calling, and general insanity. Here's what Atlas had to say, courtesy of Brian Costello of the New York Post:

"Mangini went into the season ready for a whole different approach, whether it was going to be Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens (at quarterback), whoever won that battle," Atlas told The Post. "It was going to be a secure, protect the ball, intelligent approach. It was something he was comfortable with, something he believed in. The whole plan, the whole blueprint got thrown out the window when Favre came. He's the antithesis of that. He throws the ball all over the place."

Atlas also claims that Jets owner Woody Johnson "forced" the trade on Mangini, and called Favre "basically a selfish guy." Well, Teddy, you're going to have to get in line behind Thomas Jones, Kerry Rhodes and Bruce Ciskie.

Teddy Atlas, the longtime boxing trainer and commentator, had harsh words for Oscar De La Hoya today when discussing Saturday night's fight against Manny Pacquiao.

"I think the only thing De La Hoya is worried about is adding maybe $20 million or $30 million to his bank account, which he's going to do," Atlas said today on ESPN First Take. "If anybody is taking this fight more seriously, it's going to be Pacquiao, because it means more to him. ... To the Filipino people -- to his people -- it means everything in the world."

Atlas also said he's picking Pacquiao because De La Hoya always chokes in his biggest fights.

"De La Hoya has two legacies, let's be honest here," Atlas said. "One, he's made more money than any other fighter in this business. Also, he loses all his big fights. He screws up his big fights. He finds a way to sabotage himself."