Who Will Be the Next Voice of Boxing?

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By Brian “The Beret” Young

Lifelong sports fans will always talk about “their” broadcaster. Ask any Dodgers fan and they will talk about Vin Scully as fondly as they will of any player. Same goes for St. Louis Cardinals fans and Jack Buck (what happened to his son?). Cubs fans, Harry Caray. In my home town of Buffalo, you ask a Sabres fan my age or older and a tear will come to our eyes reminiscing about Ted Darling (with all due respect to Rick Jeanneret). But boxing on the big stage isn’t a regional sport, it’s national, and often times international. So, the voice of big time boxing was the nation’s voice. And after HBO’s last broadcast for the first time in 4 and half decades there doesn’t seem to be “The Voice” of boxing anymore.

Boxing on television started way back in 1939, when TV was in it’s infancy. These broadcasts introduced The Greatest Generation to Don Dunphy, a man who would go on to call over 2000 fights for Gillette Friday Night Fights on the ABC Network. I remember as a young child hearing my grandfather talk about those amazing fights he saw, and he would always talk about Dunphy as much as the fights themselves. Dunphy was known for his excitement while calling the action and for a fast paced delivery. It’s even said that Gillette Friday Night Fights would score big ratings with the blind who would tune in just to hear Dunphy call the action. Whether or not that’s true, it makes for a great story. Dunphy even become a cultural icon appearing in films as himself and being imitated by every night club comic of the time. He was even inducted into ten, yes ten Halls of Fame.

The Baby Boomers grew up with Don Dunphy but their generation had a different attitude, therefore a different voice was needed and that seat was filled with a controversial figure. A man who was as equally hated as he was loved by the fans. A man who supported African American athletes at a time when this country sadly was even more racially divided than we are now.

An arrogant nasal toned know-it-all named Howard Cosell. Cosell would also become the voice of the NFL for a generation thanks to Monday Night Football and the explosion of the league into American life, but boxing is what so many sports fans remember him for. In large part it wasn’t even Cosell himself that made him a legend, it was a brash young fighter who was the perfect counter balance to Cosell’s elitist tone. A handsome, fast talking fighter named Cassius Clay.
Clay and Cosell were a match made in heaven and perfect foils. Clay was every bit as fast as the intellectual Cosell, and Cosell was smart enough to play the straight man. But what really came thru was the mutual respect they had for each other. And when Cassius Clay announced to the world he was now Muhammad Ali, infuriating the establishment and pissing off “White America”, it was Howard Cosell that was the first man to call him by his chosen name on television (Bert Sugar was the first in print by the way). After Ali refused to go into the Army it was Cosell who stood by and defended the man for his morals and beliefs.

Cosell also brought the viewing public up close and personal to a young Olympic fighter named Ray Leonard, making him a household name before he fought for Gold or money. But Cosell wasn’t long for the sport. On November 26th 1982, Larry Holmes defended his Heavyweight title against Randall “Tex” Cobb in what was a savage, one sided beating where the challenger, who had no chance, was battered and bloodied by the champion. Cosell was so upset with the fiasco that half way thru the fight he stopped calling the action though he would announce the round number and occasionally talk about what a disgusting display it was. After the fight, he announced to the national TV audience that he would never call another fight. Exit Howard Cosell, enter Jim Lampley.
For Generation X, my generation, we heard Cosell, and even Don Dunphy who would broadcast fights into the early 1980’s, but it was HBO that was the home of boxing for us. We had Len Berman, Fran Charles, Al Michaels, Barry Tompkins and even both Cosell and Dunphy, but in 1988 Jim Lampley became the voice of HBO and in turn the voice of Boxing for Generation X.

Lampley held that position for 30 years and his passion, honesty and excitement made boxing for fans like me. His rapport with his fellow broadcasters, especially Larry Merchant, was genuine and it always came through our TV’s as such. Lampley was who we trusted and loved. So much has been written about Lampley and HBO boxing in general these last few months there is little I can add to it here, other than to state, yes Mr. Lampley, you are on the Mount Rushmore of boxing broadcasters.

And now we are about to head into 2019. Boxing is on more channels and streaming services now than ever before. Plus, there is a rise and popularity of MMA. Each outlet has their own team of broadcasters making it very hard, if not impossible, for one person to become “The Voice” for the Millennials. That, to me, is a sad reality. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great broadcasters out there now, but the likelihood that one will rise above the rest and become as much a part of the sport to the fans as the fighters themselves isn’t good. I fear that will make the great fights going forward far less memorable than the great fights of the past because after all, my grandfather, my father and myself would hear the voices of these men when we thought of those fights.

Let me know what you think, fight fans, is there a new Voice of Boxing? Write to me thru the RSR and don’t forget to send questions comments and suggestions for future articles by clicking on my name in the form box below.

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