BT:  Mr. Atlas, give us your thoughts on tonight's fight. "We had a good action fight, in the first fight with Tsurkan and with Sparkman. Tsurkan's not a puncher, but he brings it.  He throws a lot of punches, fan friendly, television friendly.  Sparkman is a veteran, but he's a smaller guy.  He was fighting in the wrong place, inside with a smaller guy.  Not a big puncher, Tsurkan, but he never stops throwing them, and he finally paid a price for being inside.  I thought during the fight he should have been on the outside using that length, using that height, using those long arms.  He was getting away with it at spots it was tempting, because Tsurkan gets fat with his punches you can punch in between.  On the whole, he was in the wrong place, and he paid a price for being in the wrong place for most of the fight."

BT:  What about Joel Torres who fought just after that?

TA:  Torres looked good.  We don't know what he had in front of him.  He had a kid whose only had a couple of fights.  He did what he needed to do.  He got in close and took away the length of the taller man.  He took away the distance of the taller man. He attacked the body.  He looked pretty technicnally sound.  He behaved and acted like a fighter, a guy who wants to get answered.  He did what he needed to do with what he had in front of him.  The opposite of what his opponent did.  His opponent did not do what he needed to do with what he had in front of him.  He had a shorter man in Torres.  He did not use his height.  He did not fight on the outside, and Torres got his way.

BT:  Did you agree with the stoppage?

TA:  It looked a little quick, but he took a lot of punishment in the round before.  Towards the end of the round.  It looked like it was going to continue.  It looked like the referee made a decision about not allowing him to absorb any more punishment.  You can make an argument that it was stopped quick, but you could also make an argument that it was going to continue that way.

BT:  What about Joval and Gibbs?  And what do you feel is Joval's place in the middleweight division?

TA:  Joval doesn't do one thing great, but he does a lot of things well.  He's pretty solid.  He's not a banger.  He's a guy who can box he's a guy who loves to fight inside.  I always think he should box a little bit more, but he got a tempermant that he loves to get at you.  Again he's TV friendly and fan friendly.  You'll like to see him and he's a real gentleman.  As a matter of fact him and Gibbs are both gentlemen.   With Gibbs you have to be concerned, his legs look a little tired.  They look a little old.  You have to really watch Gibbs as he continues to fight now as far as his ability.  His abitily not to absorb punishment.  How he handles punches, and how his legs look, and where he goes from here.  

BT:  How do you see Joval hanging with some of the bigger names in the middleweight division?

TA:  One thing that will hurt Joval a little bit is he doesn't have that pop.  Then again he's not really weak.  He's not great in one area, but he's not weak in any  one area.  Technically he's pretty good.  He's not too bed defensively.  He puts punches together, he's got the temperment of a fighter.  He has shown that when he's stepped up he hasn't been able to win at that level.  He's gonna have to show that he's learned something to change that.  He's a good solid guy with 39 now 40 fights in his career, he's never stopped, but has never won really at the next level. 

BT:  Next week we have Mike Arnaoutis and Kendall Holt, also Elvir Muriqi and Tarver.  Can you give us your thoughts on that?

TA:  The Muriqi Tarver fight is off.  That's not going to happen.  That was supposed to happen on ABC.  A Sunday afternoon fight, it would have been great for boxing.  To bring it back to the network for the fans and for the sport, but it's not going to be.  As far as Kendall Holt is concerned, I like Kendall.  He's exciting, he can bang.  He's put himself in good position.  He's done it the hard way.  He's picked himself up off the canvas.  I've got to give him a lot of credit.  And of course the undefeated Arnaoutis, he's talented, he's got style.  He's a guy that you'd love to watch.

Check out the Member's Only Video for the full interview.

M

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