Worst Commentary Performances

[Lampley]

Originally Posted by paulfv

Jim is probably my least-favorite play-by-play guy, and always has been. I would take Tim Ryan, Bob Papa, Steve Albert and several other guys ahead of him. He does not have a good boxing eye, he is incredibly partial to the HBO fighter, and he gets pissy (MMA rants).

He's a very smart guy, and is great at running the 'event' of a big fight. But in terms of actually calling a fight, he sucks. Hard. Forget about ODLH or Hopkins. As someone mentioned, Taylor-Chavez, just to name one. A number of Lennox Lewis fights.

Lampley was, is, and apparently always will be a HBO 'company guy.' And that's probably why he's still announcing after his latest shennanigans.

Albert over Lampley? Wow. Did you like Fran Charles better as well?

Albert the cornball cliche man, plus he has weatherman skin and horse teeth. Papa is solid but can't convey the enthusiasm it takes to call a big fight. Lamps has the No. 2 spot (behind needledick but very good Costas) for the Olympics for good reason -- he understands how to create narrative and establish subplots. No one else is even close at doing this so well.

No, he isn't a trained analyst of the sport, but that really isn't his job. People who focus on that obviously don't understand what he's supposed to prioritize. Consider this: Working beside Lampley, Lennox Lewis actually sounds slightly coherent. That's not to say Lennox ever will be good, but Lamps understands when to kick it over and how to maximize (and minimize) his comments.

Again, though, I agree on the MMA stuff. That, and his former annoying habit of announcing results from Showtime fights occurring on the same night. That was bushleague. He did this for Lacy/Calzaghe, but fortunately I watched the Showtime fight first anyway.

[Danny Ocean]

merchant on barrera-marquez
foreman at jones-rui hopkins-trinidad

[bill poster]

Whoever commented on the Williams Marquez fight--it wasnt even close like he said!

[Vantage_West]

Originally Posted by TBooze

Anytime McGuigan, McKenzie or Bruno are at the mic...

there pretty decent man

mcGuigan is a legend when he comes to this he has been commentating longer than his boxing career

mcKenzie is a bit boring but he dosnt know what he can and cant say aint very charismatic but was a fighter and has some credabilty on the mic.

bruno....i dont know .he is a bit punchy and a bit to low in tone to understand what he is saying but he is a funny guy and very witty

[sean]

not that sold on the english commentators at the momemnt compared to harry carpenter and reg gutteridge that were , who i liked .

HBO team have to many cooks , you do not need 4 inputs in the one fight.

watching malinaggi v ndou the other day thanks to dave, and they tend to ramble amongst themselves and do not keep up with whats happening in the ring.

3nlish commentators overplay the action and american commentators underplay.

i like manny steward and jim watt respectivley doing the colour commentary.
also like larry merchant.

but i like the showtime team the best stateside and steve holdsworth the best european .

not a lot of people like him , but i like him despite all his flaws..

[the_what]

The whole HBO team in the Hopkins/Taylor 1st fight.

[Jinx]

Originally Posted by Koa

Max Kellerman butchering Arturo Gatti last week. He just got ktfo, and its true he really was a B, B- fighter but he gave everything he had and was entertaining. I think he could have just commented on his career accomplishments and mentioned what a gift it was to have him in boxing instead of mentioning all the stammering he did when he faced tougher opposition.

Just thought it was inappropriate.

ANY Kellerman commentary is a joke if it's anything more than ESPN level...

[nervousxtian]

Teddy Atlas everytime he opens his goddamned mouth.

There's nothing like Teddy going into a diatribe about fighting tall or using the jab, when someone in the ring is about to get KTFO, and he just continues on, and then.. oh.. shit.. there's a knockdown...

It's like he gets mad that the fight is taking away from his consant jibber-jabber.

[sues2nd]

Originally Posted by Lampley

I'm sure I'm setting my guy Lampley up for some abuse here, but rewatching Hopkins vs. Trinidad last night, I'd like to nominate George Foreman.

Foreman embarassingly bought into the Trinidad hype. That was fine for a few rounds, but for the first eight he keeps admonishing Hopkins for things he "better not do against this boy." He advises Bernard to not make Trinidad mad, or to punch with him, or to give Trinidad room to punch, or basically be in there with him at all.

Foreman continually lauds Trinidad for his toughness and determination, completely glossing over a masterclass -- a true masterclass, one of my favorite performances ever -- by Hopkins. Bernard tamed Tito almost from the opening bell, and yet Big George was convinced the fight would turn any second.

Merchant (who was much sharper back then, sad to say) eventually calls him out on it, as well as calling out Lampley for calling shots for Trinidad that Bernard blocked.

By round 9, at least, George started noticing what was happening. By then Bernard was teeing off on Tito, and toward the end, he cruelly abused him. The series of counters in the last 30 seconds of the 10th round, with the grin and step away to go along with it, was vintage Hopkins.

Too bad George didn't notice earlier.

Yeah, but at least Foreman took the credit for his missfire. He admitted his wrong in his commentary.

Ya boy is the worst by far for HBO fighters.

De La Hoya - Whitaker was his all time low.

AND ANOTHER BIG FLURRY BY DE LA HOYA!!!! (even tho every shot missed...)

The Taylor - Hopkins 1 fight was just as bad. Misses were hits. Misses were BIG SHOTS!

He also has NO IDEA how to score a fight...of course Merchant and Lederman arent that much better in that department.

[Napoleon]

From the fights i've seen it has to be Lampley on Taylor - Hopkins by far.

[Boro chris]

Originally Posted by TBooze

Statement withdrawn!

I should think so to!

[Napoleon]

Another one is those British commentators during Lewis - Grant.

[Rock0052]

Wasn't the worst commentary ever, but the HBO commentary on Hatton-Castillo was pretty abysmal. All it reminded me of was a show where people sit around and bitch about everything- not once did they bother to notice how much focus Hatton was putting on the body, and after one of the best bodyshots in years in a championship fight, their only response was something akin to"I guess the people who said Castillo was shot were absolutely right". No emotion, no anything to try and let the casual fan know that body punch KO's like that don't happen everyday and it was a wicked shot.

I'm sorry, but anytime you spend 2/3rds of a round ignoring the fight happening in front of your eyes and complaining, you're not going to get a good review.

[TBooze]

Originally Posted by Vantage_West

mcGuigan is a legend when he comes to this he has been commentating longer than his boxing career

McGuigan is just paid to state the bleedin obvious...

As for Bruno being a wit... well again each to their own.

Personally if I want a wit to commentate on boxing I would get Stephen Fry; sure he probably knows next to nothing about boxing, but that has not stopped SKY giving Paul Dempsey a job

[Zakman]

In terms of bad commentary performances, NO ONE consistently sinks to the level of the unqualified Max Kellerman. That this know-nothing punk has been tabbed by HBO to succeed Merchant is a travesty.