“Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.”

Thanks to Kieran Mulvaney, my pal at HBO who puts together a terrific boxing podcast every week, I learned of Teddy Atlas’ rant at the weekend.

Anyone who knows of Atlas, knows that he wears his heart on his sleeve. He was on top form working Tim Bradley’s corner at the weekend, rousing his fighter to produce the goods.

And he did, stopping Brandon Rios in nine rounds for just his second stoppage win in eight years.

Atlas is best known for his work with Mike Tyson 30-odd years ago (together with Cus D’Amato) and there’s a famous clip of him consoling a young Tyson at an amateur tournament. He bust up with the heavyweight champion after Tyson made a sexual advance on his 11-year-old sister-in-law.

Atlas has lived a full life.

He served time for an armed robbery and also literally wears the scars of battle. Thanks to a vicious street fight, he has a massive scar across his face that required 400 stitches to repair.

His straight-shooting style is massively popular and he’s one of the best analysts on television, doing work for NBC and ESPN.

Check out the clip and you’ll discover why he’s one of the sport’s great characters: