This content is protected The man made many a low-rent PPV (or international feed prelims for actual big events) bearable with his commentary. Longtime faithful servant and fan of the sport of boxing.
I have a low opinion of most commentators or they annoy me but I liked and enjoyed Col Bob. Not only was he a great commentator but he was a big character and seemed like a good guy. RIP This content is protected
Coming from New Zealand, I actually grew up with the misapprehension that Colonel Bob was the sport’s preeminent commentator. This was because (a) his commentary was often on the international feed for major PPVs and (b) for some reason he was a regular visitor to NZ and commentated a lot of fights here. For example, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me, on multiple occasions he travelled to NZ to commentate novelty/charity fight nights featuring rugby players and various local celebrities. Colonel Bob was sort of a local legend in NZ.
I will never forget when I was just a kid and hearing the Colonel shout "Down goes Zab Judah and he's really hurt Kostya hit him with one shot and knocked him out" RIP to the great man
Likewise, brother. I believe he made frequent visits to New Zealand because of his close friends in Christchurch. I'm not exactly sure how that resulted in him frequenting NZ, but if you watch some of his old footage, you'll see for any international screening he always gave a shout-out to his good friends at the Heathcote Valley Tavern, knowing they'd be watching. I think he did this for each and every broadcast featuring Tua, Cameron, or Parker. RIP Col. Bob Sheridan, a sad day for boxing.
Spent countless mornings, afternoons and evenings watching the old colonial do his thing. Sometimes watching a live event, sometimes an old one, sometimes stone cold sober - sometimes accompanied with a few drinks. One constant was the colonials passionate commentary, even(as IB mentioned) during some pretty dreadful bouts and cards. RIP Bob.
He certainly was the 'voice of boxing' in Australia due to him always being on the international feed. Yeah, I noticed that about Col. Bob, he seemed to discover and frequent NZ a lot earlier than he did Australia . Usually, it's the other way around but eventually he started coming to Australia aswell. He certainly was Don King's No.1 mouthpiece for decades which is fair enough, he worked for Kingvision and no matter what you think of Don King, he made the fights. RIP to a boxing mainstay.
Did you catch it on Sky or Main Event? I have the voices of Steve Albert and Bobby Czyz in my head but that may be because I watched the showtime broadcast over and over. I may have been so focussed on the action that I wasn't hearing anything.