Teddy Atlas calls Deontay Wilder the hardest puncher in heavyweight history.

It doesn’t matter that Atlas once trained Mike Tyson or shared a ring with George Foreman when his fighter, Michael Moorer was knocked out by Foreman in 1994. If the famed trainer could pick one fighter to inflict the most damage with a single shot, it would be Wilder.

“For one punch, just one punch, I think Wilder, I’m telling you, is the hardest puncher in the history of the sport,” Atlas told BoxingScene. “As far as the hardest punchers, you have Earnie Shavers, Max Baer, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson could do damage with the left and right. But for just one punch, I have to go with Wilder.”

It’s for that reason, and because he thinks Tyson Fury (29-0-1, 20 knockouts) did a disservice by fighting two lesser known opponents in 2019, that he thinks Wilder will drill Fury in their rematch on Feb. 22 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the WBC title (ESPN-Fox PPV, 9 p.m.).

And it could come early. Like real early. If that happens, then Wilder (42-0-1, 41 knockouts) will have knocked out every heavyweight he has faced, a crazy accomplishment.

“I could go really dramatic and strong in my prediction and say it could happen in the first two or three rounds,” said Atlas, who is scheduled to appear on ESPN’s SportsCenter the night of the fight to give his reactions. “Anything can happen. I can see the knockout happening later (for Wilder). But yeah, as great as he is with that power, I could see it ending earlier. He’s missing and derelict in technical powers, but he’s got that one-punch power to make up for it.”

Atlas has had the heavyweight division on his mind recently. Not just for the Wilder-Fury rematch but because of the revelation that former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. reached out to him to take his temperature on possibly training him.

Atlas confirmed to BoxingScene on Wednesday that Ruiz has discussed visiting him in New York in the next few weeks to see if the two are a good match.

The news is obviously huge on a number of fronts. Ruiz famously dropped his trainer, Manny Robles last month after Ruiz entered his rematch with Anthony Joshua in December wildly out of shape and lost a wide decision. That was after Robles engineered one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight history when Ruiz stopped Joshua in seven rounds last June.

Then there’s the idea of Atlas, a strict disciplinarian training Ruiz, who is famously undisciplined and known for cutting corners in his preparation that has the boxing world on edge to see if this marriage is consummated.

Atlas is still waiting on a call-back from the Ruiz camp to finalize the plans, he said on Wednesday, but he’s already planning the mechanics of their get-together.

“The first step to actually entertain us doing something is for us to meet,” Atlas said. “That means for you to come to New York. That’s all. I’m not saying yes just to say yes. There’s got to be a process, or at least for me there has to be. It’s not a big deal. I think that’s the right way to do it, for me and for them.”

Atlas has a template that he uses when he’s meeting fighters for the first time to see if it makes sense for them to enter into a boxer-trainer relationship, he says. He spends a couple days with them, just sitting down to see if there’s a personal connection. They watch film together. Then they go to the gym to see if the chemistry extends to the ring. It’s a feeling out process to determine if the pairing will work.

“To hear what my expectations would be and for them to understand that and then for me to even decide if I’d want to do it,” he said of the process. “And then I’d have to make sure it doesn’t interfere with my first priority, which is my only fighter, (light heavyweight) Alex Gvozdyk.”

Regarding Gvozdyk, a former WBC titleholder who was stopped in the tenth round against Artur Beterbiev in October in a highly competitive affair, Atlas expects a possible June return, though nothing has been set. To keep him sharp, Atlas intends to bring him to New York for a mini-camp in February, “so we’re not twiddling our thumbs” when they do get a date from promoter Top Rank.

But Atlas is certainly intrigued with also working with Ruiz and seeing if he can bring out the best in him. Atlas made sure to credit those who worked with Ruiz previously, such as Robles and Top Rank, his former promoter, for getting him this far. (He’s now advised by Al Haymon.) Atlas has already broken down tape of Ruiz and written up several pages of notes that he plans to discuss with Ruiz when they meet.

(Atlas said that Fury, who parted ways with his former trainer, Ben Davison, didn’t reach out to him before he settled on new trainer Sugarhill Steward for the rematch with Wilder. Fury and Steward had a previous relationship from his uncle, the late-great trainer Emanuel Steward.)

“I think he’s shown tremendous heart,” Atlas said of Ruiz. “He showed that he can behave like a champion. That’s why he got off the floor, he behaved like a fighter and became a champion and he can punch a bit. He has decent hand speed. Obviously, he’s been around so he has experience and obviously, there’s a reason why he came up short in the rematch. There’s a reason why he might have come up short against Parker. There’s good things and there are things that I think are still incomplete. I think he’s still a work in progress, if that’s fair.”

Atlas views Ruiz from a teacher’s perspective.

“His punches could be shorter and more succinct and his style or his approach could be more consistent,” he said. “If he’s going to be aggressive, then teach him how to be aggressive in a more consistent, efficient, effective way.”

And who knows? If Wilder does to Fury what Atlas expects, perhaps Ruiz and Wilder will square off one day, the hardest puncher in history against one of the sport’s most enigmatic. With Atlas in Ruiz’s corner trying to regain the title. Hey, there’s a puncher’s chance.