I'll never get tired of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHgo_m6qN4I Hits me in the feels every time!
That's something we can agree on. Cosell will never be equaled. He brought the best and the worst (whatever he wanted) out of his interviewees.
for those who weren't around in the 60's, early 70's Howard was great! There are the nay-sayers out there that say he was all about himself and full of ego. All of the above true but...he loved the sport and having his ringside commentary was priceless! I could go on and on with his quotes. If a fighter was getting cut up? "so and so now appears to be a...bloody pulpy mess" After Ellis won the elimination tourney in 68, his first defense was against my hero Floyd Patterson in Sept. 68. We all know how that turned out. I was confident but a little scared. After two feeling out rounds, Jimmy hurt Floyd in the third clearly winning the round. Here's Howard in the 4th: "Patterson picking up the action here. One thing the Ellis camp wanted was to win this one quickly and convincingly. The action picking up; Floyd with a good combination there, we've seen this before with those quick hands. Oh! Floyd landed! On the attack. Oh!!! ELLIS CUT OVER THE RIGHT EYE!!!" The Swedish crowd was going NUTS and I had tears in my eyes! It was at the end of the round. Howard: "We're not going to a commercial. We're staying here because Ellis is being...cut up!" I miss the old days.:?
He was the worst. He did everything he could to make the event about him. He went in with an agenda and never stopped pursuing it.
For me, Cosell droning voice was the sound track for boxing in the 70's....you can have the Kellerman's, Merchants, Lampleys, et al,....Cosell was superior to any of them...both in intellect as well as in emotive content.He was famous for his rapport with Ali of course, then with Leonard...but he was conversant with nearly all the top fights of the 60's and 70's. Duran, Arguello, Hagler, Hearns, ...and everyone in between...except for a scant few. Monzon, after his beating of Bouttier in '72 however, didn't even look at Howard during the in the ring post fight interview...instead talking directly to his interpreter, and Alan Minter, post his tko over Antuofermo, seemed to truly have some bad blood towards him.....other than that,...Cosell was indispensible.