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Teddy Atlas is having a blast inside Teddy Atlas' brain

Monday night CNBC aired "Round of 32" boxing action with the great play-by-play voice of the New York Giants, Bob Papa, and longtime boxing trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas on the call.

While some of the in-ring action was underwhelming, CNBC's appointed color analyst provided ample entertainment with a litany of boxing cliches, metaphors and similes that would make Larry Merchant jealous.

My three favorites from Sadam Ali's lopsided 20-5 defeat at the hands of Romania's Georgian Popescu ...

"There is more to a fight than one hand."

With wisdom like that, you'd think Teddy was vying for the title of "boxing's John Madden".
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"He's good at taking air out of the tires."

A reference to body blows to the gut and stomach, I'm confident Atlas has used the tires metaphor many a time throughout his years as a trainer for Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer.
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"When you're in a boxing match, you want to be the ocean; when you're controlling everything that's around you. Both of these fighters are attempting to be the ocean. They do not want to be the log that gets moved and drifted from place to place. And that's why they're being so careful."

That's beautiful stuff. It's that analysis that turned a disappointing boxing match into an entertaining production. I'm now tempted to purchase Teddy's autobiography.

Photo via Getty Images