Best HBO Co-Commentator

They were all terrible but I still miss them badly.

 

Roy Jones analyes the fights consisly and clearly. Jones was sharp.

 

Don Dunphy, anyone? I think Jerry Quarry worked an HBO card or two. Did Kenny Norton ever work an HBO card?

 

Merchant was my favorite. There was always a rumor that he would unscrew the microphone and there would be alcohol underneath it

 

Of the fighters ,Jones by far.

 

totally agree. he was so erratic and he would contradict himself over time.

though him and lampley have my favorite moment in all hbo commenting history. i forget the show or context, but to paraphrase:

jim: george, isn't it true that you became a much calmer fighter in your second career, and it made you a better fighter?

george: i was calm, but i wasn't any better. that was just made up for marketing.... made a lot of money.

jim: to the tune of 1xx million (forget the number) *both laugh* ... nobody did it better, baby.

for all the teary speeches, and george occasionally getting really upset or mad in the middle of a broadcast, that exchange always stuck with me as probably the most genuine moment they ever had onscreen.

 

None of them were Cosell, and that's enough for me.

 

which fight was it where Foreman was up trying to get the ref to stop it?

reminded me of Cosell melting down during Holmes vs Cobb when Tex could have gone another 15 rounds

 

I remember reading somewhere that Cobb said his major contribition to the sport was getting Cosell to abandon boxing.

 

sounds like him. i think he also said he'd fight holmes again if cosell quit announcing football too

 

Roy and Merchant

 

I'd forgotten Emmanuel Steward did the commentary too - yep, definitely him over Ray, Roy or George.

 

I’m literally shocked how little Lampley knows about boxing for the amount of boxing he’s watched. Moron. Merchant is another one and Howard, I can’t stand any of the ****s honestly besides the actual fighters (Yes Foreman) and trainers.

 

Larry Merchant sucked like Lampley, Cosell, Al Bernstein, and of course Maxie Pad Kellerman , something about those guys who never fought, they did not know their ass from a hole in the ground! (YET MADE BANK$$$)-Merchant said George Foreman on his comeback was the biggest farce in boxing history!,-yet he lauded Gerry Cooney (who never beat a top ten contender -and at the time!)-as being great!!

The Big Farce was your boy Cooney getting in the ring with "Big George" Foreman -Larry Merchant! -And liked to gotten KILLED!

Maybe Merchant was suffering from lil guy's disease , or just had too many pre-bout vodka martini's? he was also pretty hateful in his commentary to the fighter he obviously did not favor, and was an interviwer's nightmare, he did not know even what questions to ask! He either overly kissed ass, or was just not on the same page. i've seen more than one fighter walk off from his post bout "live" interviews, Lampley was better in that regard for he did not have Merchants wannabe and overpaid ego!.

 

Foreman was the worst, always saying the most cringey ****. I cannot really listen to him anymore and the bickering between he and Merchant is one of the main reasons I started editing/switching out the audio tracks from a fight and replacing it with the audio of a different broadcast.
Roy Jones Jr is fine by me and he improved quite a lot over the yrs he was there.
I think SRL eeks out Roy, making him my favorite of the three. For whatever reason, as good as I thought his work was on HBO & what I think was the CBS Sports Spectacular, once he left HBO his commentary became more and more generic. I think it may've been due to no longer following the sport to the degree he did back then. Of course I don't know if that's true but it seems a logical reason to me