A boxing legend is returning to the fight game this week. The legendary boxing television personality will provide commentary this weekend as Canelo Alvarez defends his undisputed world super-middleweight title against Jermell Charlo. Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs), the undisputed 154 lb champion, is rising two weight classes to challenge Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs).
The September 30th broadcast will be live on PPV.COM for $84.99, including all action from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
“What makes the fight special is that Canelo has for quite a long time now been the No. 1 attraction in the sport. He needs to be motivated by the desire to get back to No. 1 pound-for-pound one more time in his career,” Lampley said in a statement posted by PPV. “He is not, at this moment, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.”
Much of the same could be said about Lampley. Lampley has been linked to other boxing promotions in recent years— a clear indication of his desire to remain the man that some consider “the voice of boxing.”
Lampley, 74, has yet to be involved in a television broadcast since he signed off the air on December 8, 2018, with the conclusion of HBO Boxing.
The pandemic was one factor in delaying Lampley’s return. The Triller video-sharing social networking service sought to hire Lampley for a Teofimo Lopez-George Kambosos fight in 2021. That fight eventually fell through.
Lampley’s long career began covering college sports for his alma mater, the University of North Carolina.
His career hasincluded opportunities to cover Wimbledon, the Indianapolis 500, and multiple Super Bowls. He interviewed then-President Ronald Reagan on July 4, 1984, in a special NASCAR event. Through it all, boxing remained his passion.
Lampley was part of HBO Boxing from 1988 until 2018, allowing him to cover extensively the rise of all-time boxing greats like Mike Tyson and Manny Pacquiao. His energetic calls for dramatic turns of events became closely associated with the sport.
“It happened…IT HAPPENED,” said Lampley on November 5, 1994, as he watched George Foreman knockout Micheal Moorer for the WBA and IBF heavyweight championships. Foreman, a broadcast colleague of Lampley’s at HBO, landed a stunning right-hand on the champion to regain the world heavyweight title— at age 45. In winning the fight, Foreman regained the heavyweight title he had lost some 20 years earlier in the “Rumble in the Jungle” against Muhammad Ali.
In later years at HBO, he wrote, hosted, and executive produced his own studio boxing news show, The Fight Game with Jim Lampley, that HBO aired as a way to better engage boxing fans in an era of changing media consumption. Lampley began his career when newspapers were still king in much boxing coverage and now finds himself a key player once again in what could be the biggest fight of the year.
