Editing Teddy Atlas (section)

==Early life==
The son of a doctor, Atlas grew up in a [[American upper class|wealthy]] area of [[Staten Island]], [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. His mother, Mary Riley Atlas, was a former contestant in the [[Miss America]] pageant system, as well as a model.<ref>[http://www.dratlasfoundation.com/scholarships.html Collegiate Scholarships] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125192335/http://www.dratlasfoundation.com/scholarships.html |date=2014-01-25 }} at Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation</ref> His father was of [[Hungarian Jews|Hungarian Jewish]] ancestry<ref>{{cite news |last=Weissman |first=Benjamin |date=July 16, 2006 |title=The true heavyweight |newspaper=LA Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-16-bk-weissman16-story.html |access-date=September 29, 2020}}</ref> and his mother of [[Irish people|Irish]] descent. Atlas was raised in his mother's Catholic faith and spent summers in [[Spring Lake, New Jersey]], with his family's friends.

By his own admission, Atlas had a somewhat troubled, rebellious youth. He dropped out of school and was arrested several times. He participated in an armed robbery and served time on [[Rikers Island]]. Atlas was involved in a street fight in [[Stapleton, Staten Island]], in which his face was severely slashed with a "007" [[pocketknife]]. The wound took 400 stitches in total to close, with 200 on the outside of his face and 200 on the inside. The attack left him with a distinctive scar.