Bob Sheridan Vs Howard Cosell (Who's Better And Why?)

Cosell was a legend as a blow by blow and color man all in one. Cosell could not be bought, and had his own independent critical thinking. Even if you disagree with Cosell or find him overbearing, he quick witted and had some legendary calls.

I don't see any Cosell's in boxing today, but there are plenty of Sheridans. If you want to hear Sheridan at his best, listen to his call on Tyson vs. Douglas. It is quality.

 

HOWARD COSSELL EASILY.............THE ONLY CALL THAT I EVER THOUGHT BOB SHERIDAN WAS BRILLIANT WAS ALI/FOREMAN HIS CC CALL WAS BETTER THAN BBC..........AND EASILY BETTER THAN COSSELS ABC REBROADCAST VERSION........... BUT SHERIDAN IS A DON KING ASS KISSER......... AND COSSELL SAID IT THE WAY IT WAS..........:smoke

 

Sheridan is possibly the worst blow by blow commentator in boxing history.How he ever managed to get as many gigs as he has is simply amazing.He MUST have pics of Don King.:dead

 

Gil Clancey said in an interview that Cosell knew nothing about Boxing and got all of his information before fights from Alex Wallau. He said Wallau would tell him who was the favorite and who should win etc. and that is the guy Cosell would hype.

 

It's always been fashionable to disdain Cosell. I try not to be yet another mindless critic of his work simply because of peer pressure.

Cosell broadcast too many fights over too many years to be as completely lacking in knowledge as Clancy claimed. Did Wallau have a chance to tell Howard when Frazier was first hurt by Foreman in Jamaica? Gil himself was known to miss the mark badly when commenting on fights sometimes. (Deriding Pedroza's bolo shots to the body as "arm punches" when they were clearly taking a toll on Rocky Lockridge, and continally asserting that Lockridge's conditioning would surely enable him to eventually get his second wind when it didn't. Cosell's call of Pedroza-Ford was far better than Clancy's call of Pedroza-Lockridge I.)

I've enjoyed and deplored broadcasts by both Clancy and Cosell at times, as they both blew hot and cold. As for Bob Sheridan, his whole reputation as a boxing announcer seems based on nailing the live call of Ali-Foreman, not a bad event to hang one's hat on, but hardly a career worth of material.

From my perspective, Alex Wallau acted as a sort of color commentator in absentia for Cosell. Howard worked with Angelo Dundee from time to time on ABC, but the chemistry wasn't the same between them that it was with Clancy and Tim Ryan on CBS, Marv Albert and Ferdie Pacheco on NBC, or even Sal Marciano and Al Bernstein during the early years of Top Rank Boxing on ESPN, despite Cosell's apparent respect for Dundee.

Cosell was an integral part of the 15 year boxing revival from the late 1960s to early 1980s. Love him or hate him, he made the fans care about his boxing broadcasts in a way that no modern commentator does. GPater expressed for me what Howard could be like at his best. His relaxed and conversational call of Arguello-Navarrete actually made a one sided bloodbath pleasant to listen to, and his work at the Munich Olympics was pure gold. He was excellent at articulating the difference between what appeared on the screen and what was actually happening in the ring. He maintained calm when a partisan crowd would get overexcited, by a punch which made a lot of noise but got blocked for example.