I'm very excited to bring into the podcast this week my long time pal well
I haven't seen in a while because we haven't been a ringside together in a
long time. And that's the one and only International Boxing Hall of Famer,
the great blow by blow announcer for thirty years on HBO, and it is
none other than Jim Lampley. And we're gonna get into it why you're on
the podcast and what you're doing. But thank you very much for doing this,
Jim, My privilege, Dan and great to be back in touch with
you. I look forward to seeing you. Yeah, well, we were
in touch regularly. We text a lot, even if we'd haven't hung out
in a while. But we'll tell the people why you're here. You haven't
done any boxing matches since HBO exited the business at the end of twenty eighteen.
Still a shock to me, to be honest with you. But now
we're getting you back in. We're getting you back in for a little bit
because you've signed on with our good friends at ppev dot com to work fight
Week for the upcoming September thirtieth Showtime pay per view event between Canelo Alvarez and
Jamal Charlot for the unders speed super middleweight title. Of course, PPV dot
com is the digital platform that will streaming event like they do for all the
big pay per view fights, and so you're gonna be working with them,
hosting a chat on the night of the fight, doing some other activities and
content creation I guess during the week for their website, for their social media.
So first of all, just how excited are you be back involved in
a big fight of any capacity, even though you're not necessarily calling the fight.
Well, I'm very excited that I'm coming back to a fight that takes
place in the natural homeland of present day boxing, the MGM Grand Hotel in
Las Vegas, around the corner at the Team Obile Arena. So back to
a venue and surroundings with which I'm very familiar from all of my past experiences.
Back to strolling the hallways of the cavernous MGM Grand and bumping into people
like you uh and Lance bug Meyer and uh many of my old friends from
the years of boxing coverage. I think that you and I might have agreed
logically a few years ago that I was likely to show up doing blow by
blow somewhere, but that turned out to be for whatever reason, a false
expectation I did sign. You'll recall I signed a deal to do one fight
on Trailler to female Lopez against George Cambosos in a proposed rematch. Lopez came
down with covid U and I wound up with no further connection to U.
That outlet Trailler after that, because the next thing they asked me to do
was something that I just didn't want to do U. And you know,
whether it was to be expected or whether it was unexpected, take your pick.
Nobody else, no streaming excuse me, no streaming service, no cable
network, no other television vendor for boxing reached out to say, are you
interested in doing our blow by below commentary? So to get a reach out
from PPV dot com to do something that's a little bit more free form,
that's more editorial analysis, more in keeping with what Larry Merchant and Max Kellerman
did in my company is very exciting, and I'm interested to see what kind
of an impression I can create, what kind of impact I can deliver working
in something more like a Merchant slash Kellerman rolled than calling blow by blow.
Very very interesting. We have a lot to unpack from that. First of
all, I think when you were going to do the trailer fight, it
was actually the first fight between Cambos's and low was. It never fought a
second fight, so there was no rematch. But that was you know,
that was because Truller ended up mishandling their purse bid and it ended up dropping
down to the second bidder in match room boxing, and so it was unfortunate
you never got the opportunity to do that fight. And I know that the
other fight. I think they tell me if I'm wrong about this, I
believe they asked you to do the farcical exhibition between Vander Holyfield and an MMA
fighter. Correct, I you know, love it or hate it, judge
it the way you won't want. I said to them, I don't do
trite and meaningless exhibitions between boxers and MMA competitors. That's not to my way
of thinking, real and legit, like all the boxing I've covered over the
years. So I wasn't interested in going to Miami. And it feels like
the right move since bell Fort knocked out holy Field in the first round and
that was that. But now on to what's going on with this. I'm
curious about so you mentioned our buddy Lance Plugmer. You're gonna work with him,
who's also involved with PPB com doing some writing for their website and also
co hosting the chat with you they'll do on the fight night and some other
creation during the week of the fight. What I'm interested to know is what
sorts of things. Okay, the chat we all know, but I know
about chats anybody that's followed me, No, I did chats for years on
ESPN and USA Today, etcetera. But besides being involved with that, which
is going to be very cool, I think for the viewers, what other
sorts of things do you have planned or are you thinking about doing with them
during the week of the fight while you're out in Vegas. Well, I
think some of it will be unplanned in the sense that they want me to
come to Vegas on Tuesday night, which is forty eight hours earlier than would
have been the case back in the day calling blow by blow. So I'm
there to show up Tuesday night at d MGM Grant. Then then in the
next seventy two hours ninety six hours before the fight. I think what they're
looking for is that I strolled the halls, go to the media room,
hang out with people like Dan Rayfield, wind up being a part of the
general conversational environment relative to the fight of Some of that will be taping interviews
with radio and online people. Some of it will be just talking with people
like you about what we expect and what are the reasons for those expectations and
the context within this within which this competition is going to take place. Some
of it will just be rubbing the shoulders with people like my dear friend Lance
pug Meyer, whom I really admire, who I think is a classy guy
with a strong editorial vision. And you know, some of it will just
be enjoying the company of fighters, promoters, managers, trainers, writers,
broadcasters, all the people who are part of the fight community and who basically
haven't seen me face face in four years. December eight, twenty eighteen was
the date of the last boxing card on HBO. Were four and a half
years removed from that, and I the one big plan I had in the
interim was to go to the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Canistota, New
York three years ago, to be a part of Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins
inductions because they were so much a part of my friend structure and I felt
so close to both and that was the moment when I caught COVID. So
I was not able to go to Canistota on that planned occasion. So basically,
I've been isolated. I've been kept in a lock box. I haven't
had any of the kinds of experiences in direct contact with boxing that I'm looking
forward to having at the end of September when I go to Las Vegas,
and all of that leaves open a lot of room for discovery in terms of
what the heck does Jim have to say about this at this point and is
it in any way interesting? We'll find out. So one thing, I
mean, I know the answer because you and I have stayed in touch,
but a lot of people have asked me via social media. Sometimes I've seen
people at fights that I have been to to cover, what's Lampley doing now?
They don't I mean, You're not doing boxing, of course, but
can you just take them in and explain to people what your life is now
away from boxing, Because we were so used to seeing you on TV every
couple of weeks doing the HBO events, and it's been a while so.
At the end of twenty nineteen, my wife, Debrah, and I made
a big move from Delmar, California, to the home of my college alma
mater, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I was responding to an invitation to
teach in the Department of Communication at the University of North Carolina. I wound
up teaching five semesters and what a thrill that was because I was on campus,
a member of the faculty, hobnobbing with the chancellor of the university at
the school where I dropped out of school more than fifty years ago in nineteen
sixty eight. I ultimately flunked out of school because of my terrible undergraduate school
grades. I had to fight my way back into school via correspondence courses and
a long string of a's. When I got back onto campus, I wound
up going to graduate school in the department which is now the Department of Communications.
And it was at the end of graduate school when I accidentally was chosen
out of a talent hunt by ABC Sports to become the first person who ever
stood on the sidelines college football with a camera and a microphone. First person
who ever stood on the side live line of any football game with a Cameron
on microphone. That was in nineteen seventy four. It was nineteen eighty seven,
of course, when a new division president arrived at ABC Sports, succeeding
run Arlige in that job, and arrived with one basic predilection about ABC Sports,
which is how do I get rid of Jim Lampley? And he assigns
me to boxing, thinking that that would kill me. His idea was boxing
will be allergic to Lampley. Why why did he want to get rid of
you? Why would he want to get rid of you? You were good
on college football. I remember those days. He didn't like me, that's
all the pure personal animosity. He didn't even know me, but he walked
in the door at ABC Sports saying basically, I don't like this guy and
I want to get rid of him. Oh and I had I had specific
guarantees in my contract for the Calgary Olympics that he absolutely wanted to up end.
So his aim was to mistreat me as much as he possibly could,
and part of that was assigning me to boxing. They had been casting about,
trying to find the right ringside blow by blow person to succeed co Sell.
Obviously, following co Sell in any role whatsoever was a thankless task.
The audience was accustomed to that bigger than life persona, so he thought,
Okay, I'll put Lampley at ringside in boxing. That will kill him,
That will force him and his agent to walk away from this contract. What
he didn't realize at the moment, or didn't pay attention to, I guess,
was that the network could just signed a look see, get acquainted contract
with a nineteen year old heavyweight from New York named Mike Tyson. So my
first several on air boxing appearances at ABC Sports were Tyson's first few appearances on
television, and therefore I sort of became connected to the Tyson story, so
that eventually, when HBO signed a long term contract with Tyson, HBO decided
they wanted me to call the fights, and I wound up. You know,
everything in this business is poignant and has a downside. The downside was
that I was brought in to replace a very dear friend and a wonderful guy
named Barry Tompkins. To Barry's great credit, we have never had a fractious
moment about it. He's still been my friend ever since that moment. And
I love him and revere him for that. But I replaced Barry Tompkins in
the HBO chair and I continued forward with Tyson. February ten, nineteen ninety
As you know, I was in Tokyo to call what became the biggest upset
in boxing history. And I called dozens and dozens of great prize fights over
the years before AT and T bought HBO and in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
decided they weren't interested in boxing anymore. Well, one thing you forgot
to mention in that is that when that person at ABC decided to quote unquote
punish you by putting you on boxing, they didn't realize that you were a
lifelong boxing fan and that you loved the fact that they put John boxing.
My father died when I was five years old, And I know you know
this story. Sure, father died when I was five years old. The
very first time my mother ever sat me down in front of a television step
to watch a sports event, she took me to a neighborous cocktail party.
She marched me down the hall and put me in front of a tiny miniature
television set was on a TV dinner train and she pointed to it and said,
watched this screen. You're going to be watching Gillette Friday Night Fights at
Sugar Ray Robinson versus Bobo Olson for the middleweight Championship of the World. This
will be their second fight. And the reason you're doing this I was six.
And the reason you're doing this is because if your father were still alive,
this is what he would be doing with you. So I watched that
fight, I inculcated the voice of Don Dunfie into my consciousness. I became
a constant fan of Gillette Friday Night Fights over the years. I was still
watching Gillette Friday Night Fights on the Unforgettable night when Amiel Griffiths fought Benny Kidd
Perette. By that time, we had moved to Miami, and eventually I
wound up saving lawnmowing and car washing money to buy a ticket to the very
first live prize fight I ever attended, which was February twenty five, nineteen
sixty four, Miami Beach Convention Center, Sonny Liston versus Cassius Clay. Three
days later, Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and and so that was the first
time I ever saw a live prize fight, and you know, it's just
a kind of poetic arc that you eventually go forward to ringside at Tokyo in
February of nineteen ninety when I'm sitting there in the eighth and ninth rounds of
what has become an obvious Douglas win, and I'm thinking, oh, my
gosh, the first time I ever went to a live prize fight, that
was the biggest upset in the history of boxing, and now here's the fight
that will succeed it as the biggest upset in the history of boxing. And
I'm describing it for the entire American audience. When something like that happens in
your life, it's inescapable that you're going to think, oh my gosh,
I was this is destiny. I was meant to be here. So there
has always been a strange and almost severe, surreal element of destiny surrounding my
connection to boxing. And yes, there was no way in the world that
Dennis Wanson could have known any of that. As far as he was concerned.
I was a preppy Eastern kid who probably didn't have any background or connection
to boxing, and this was his way of beheading me, was to send
me up to Glens Falls, New York for Mike Tyson versus Jesse Ferguson in
early nineteen eighty seven, and I listen, I grew up not too far
from Glens Falls in New York, and I remember watching it. I covered
some of my first sports events at the Glens Falls Civic Center, not boxing,
but high school sports. And by the way, the fact that your
first live fight was the first fight between then Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali winning
the title against Sonny Listen, it trump's my first ever live fight of Buddy
mcgart against George Heckley. But that's a different story. Yes, yes,
do you remember do you remember the post fight interview at Tyson versus Jesse Ferguson,
Alex Wallow went into the ring to talk to Mike after that. Do
you remember what was said in that interview? I believe there was something to
the effect of that he wanted he punched. Was it when he he was
going to punch his nose into his brain? That's exactly right, That's what
I think. Yes, Uh, Alex Tyson a question about the uppercut that
had splattered Jesse's nose and created blood flow all over the ring in the fourth
round before it was stopped in the fifth, and Mike said, Customato taught
me that the purpose of the uppercut was to drive the opponent's nose bone into
his brain. And I was trying to drive his nose bone into his brain.
When I was sitting at ringside, thinking, oh my god, this
guy's not only going to be the greatest quote machine in boxing, he's going
to be the greatest quote machine in sports. Look at what I've stumbled into
here, Because by now it was clear I was going to be installed as
the ringside boxing guy. So within the next few weeks, they all came
tumbling out. Boxing is a hurt business. Everybody's got a plan until you
hit him. All the things that made Tyson Tyson were visible from the start,
and I was suddenly the narrator of all that. I mean, I
wasn't a narrator that but because I grew up in that area, we all
you know, and I was a teenager, Like a young teenager at that
time. We all knew Tyson in school. Not because he was the heavyweight
champion at that point. He wasn't, but he had fought all of those
early fights in our capital region of New York where we grew up. So
we saw him on the local TV news. We've read about him in the
newspapers. You know, it was like he was they talked about him on
the radio. It was like kind of a he was like a local celebrity
before he became a world figure like you know, as your chronicling of his
fights helped him become over those years well all over the country because his very
skilled manager slash promoters Bill Kayton and Jimmy Jacobs knew how to build a personality.
And at that moment, this is before the cable television era, so
every local television station in the country has a sports director, and the sports
director has to somehow fill three three and a half minutes every night between the
weather and the end of the newscast, and sometimes if there's nothing going on
locally, it's not easy to fill those three three and a half minutes.
Soon and Jacob's put together a videotape of my first seventeen knockouts, and you
can remember seeing the tape. It was comical. Guys are flying through the
air, Guys are doing summersaults as they land on the canvas. You know,
it was all. Every one of those knockouts was a spectacular mismatch type
knockout, and that's how Mike's image was built before he ever chose to try
to drive Jesse Perkinson's nosebone into his brain. Now, I wonder, so
that's back obviously, back in the day, but and now you're coming back
to do this project with PPV dot com. You're living in North Carolina,
working as a as a professor at your alma mater at North Carolina. So
I wonder how much since the end of the HBO days, at the end
of twenty eighteen, how much are you still or how closely are you still
following professional boxing these days? What do you think? I mean, I
probably I think pretty close. I know you're reading my Fight freaking Night newsletter.
I'm sitting here every week stupidly thinking that somebody's going to call me up.
I'm offer a blow by blow gate so intelligently trying to stay abreast of
the curve. I'm watching all the fights so that I will have opinions on
them. Not all, but you know, everything meaningful and important, such
as, for instance, can Hello Alvarez versus Dmitri b Bull too? You
know two fighters I had covered extensively on HBO. I'm watching all of these
things as they go along. I got some kudos from our mutual friend Tom
Howser a couple of weeks ago, because Howser called me to ask, you
know, what do you think is going to happen in Crawford Spence? And
I, you know, went out on a limb and said, I,
not only do I think Crawford's gonna win, but I think Spence might be
to rescue in the late rounds. And so you know, I've picked up
as much as I can. I can't say that I am as knowledgeable and
ascute as as I was when it all stopped back in December of twenty eighteen.
But I still pay attention and I feel fairly confident that I'll be able
to offer some opinions with regard to Canelo and Charlo on September thirty. All
right, so you've called obviously tons of Canelo fights because he had many many
fights on HBO and on HBO pay per view, you know, some of
his biggest fights he's ever had. Charlo never appeared on HBO, even though
he was fighting when you were still doing back in HBO, but you never,
to my recollection, never had an opportunity to call one of his fights.
So I'm curious. Since you are following the sport, it means you're
probably familiar with the fact that Charlo became the undisputed champion in his weight class
at junior middleweight and clearly still following what Canelo was. What's going on with
him? Can you just give me your initial thoughts on Canelo versus Charlo.
He is moving up to weight classes the challenge Canelo, but it doesn't seem
to be that big of a size difference when I've seen them together at the
news conferences and and uh, you know, having been in their presence in
person. Also, just what are your thoughts on the general matchup that you're
going to be chronically Well, you know, it's it's natural two favorite Canelo
because of his vastly more high profile resume. It's natural to favorite Canelo even
with regard to the weight equation because he's basically the larger man, and one
sixty eight would seem to be at this point Canelo's natural weight and Charlo's going
up fourteen pounds from one hundred and fifty four, So there are all sorts
of reasons to assume that Charlo is an underdog to Canelo Aldrest. But on
the other hand, Canelo is older, Canelo has had many more fights,
Canelo has made tons of money at One of the things I've always said about
boxing is if you go into the gym and you are one percent less every
day during training than you used to be because unconsciou your motivation has slipped,
your dedication has slipped. You take a little short cut here and there,
scoop of ice cream at night, stuff like that that you don't think he's
going to affect you. And the margins of competition are so fine that ultimately
those kinds of things can and do affect you. So at what point has
Canelo made too much money to continue to be the hungry competitor that he used
to be. At what point is Charlo biting off more than he can shoot
by going up and wait? What happened when Canelo took another bite of the
apple at light heavyweight after having easily beaten Sergei Kovilev and found out that Dmitri
Vigol was an entirely different thing. This is a sport A lot of people
think these are wide margins of competition because you see people getting knocked out.
That's not the case. Knockouts proceed from fine margins of petition, just as
decisions too, and so at the end of the day, there are fine
margins. There are unpredictable factors. You want to say, Oh, Canell
is an obvious favorite, he's bigger, he has more, big fight experience,
et cetera, et cetera. Not necessarily the case until until I get
a chance to look at them and maybe talk to them face to face in
Las Vegas, the way I used to do in a private room in intimate
circumstances the day before the fight. It probably won't be exactly that kind of
thing. But until I see them and talk to them, I'm not ready
to tell you what I think happens in the fight. It's always the product
of very personal factors and equations that you really can't fully evaluate until you get
to the site and see the fighters. Listen, I agree with you,
And I get asked that all the time while you're picking who A you're picking,
then you know you have an idea. But I tell people all the
time, when at least when there are fights, I attend Spence. Crawford's
a prime example. I kind of knew who I was gonna pick, but
I really didn't know for sure until I was face to face with Crawford and
Spence on Thursday and talk to them after the Press converts, where then I
really kind of at that point you assess body language and that sort of thing,
and you make your pick. So I'm sure that it'll be the same
when we get the Vegas for Cannello versus Charlotte. I did pick Crawford.
I didn't pick him by by a knockout the way you did, and I
didn't think he would totally dominate, but I definitely had the opinion that Crawford
would be and I kind of always had the opinion that Crawford would probably win,
But I was really much more firmative when we got to the you know,
the couple of days prior to the bout. And so when you see
those guys, I'm sure it's you know, like I said, you covered
a lot of the Canello fights for HBO, will be your first experience with
with Charlo. I mean, I guess for you. I mean, even
though you're not calling the fight, it's kind of like like riding a bike,
you kind of don't forget, like when you get the fight week is
you know, just gonna feel back at home in one sense, even though
it's been a while, I look so and you know, I'm doing something
different than I've done before. I'm communicating via chat on a computer rather than
talking into a microphone. I hope I can remember during the fight that I'm
supposed to write it down. I guess Lamp gonna elbow me or wave his
hand in front of me or something if I make a mistake. But the
bottom line is it'll be an introductory experience. Will be the first time that
I'm doing chat, would be the first time I'm working for PPB dot com,
and I don't expect to be perfect. I expect to give it a
good try and see if I can provide some interesting material and follow Lance's lead
because he's the veteran now he's he's done this before, and then we'll see
where it goes from there. Well, it sounds good to me. I'll
tell you one thing. I'm sure a lot of boxing fans who've missed having
you around. At the very least, we'll be excited to see your involvement
with this event, and I'll tell you I'm looking forward to singing Las Vegas
in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to see you Dan. We'll have
to find a moment to get together, whether it's for a deal or just
to sit down, diet coke or whatever. Absolutely, but the bottom line
is yes, there are many, many dear friends I am really looking forward
to seeing in Las Vegas, and you are very much at the top of
the listen. I appreciate that. Jim. Thank you very much for doing
this today. I'm glad we're about to get together. Like I said,
I'm glad you'll be doing some work with PBV dot Com. Oh. By
the way, I'd be remiss if I did not say has been an outstanding
sponsor of this podcast at times, as well as my Fight for Each Night
newsletter, which I appreciate. And I will look forward to seeing you in
a couple of weeks or a few weeks. Thank you so much. Talk
to you later, Dan, Thank you, Jim. Take care