The Best Boxing TV Analyst of All-Time

[elmersalsa]

Who in your view, was the best English-speaking TV analyst of all-time in the US?

[Rover]

Al Bernstein for me.

[dempseyfire]

Kind of bizarre you have Ken Norton on there (who was never a regular commentator) and no Don Dunphy or Russ Hodges . . .

[Rover]

Kind of bizarre you have Ken Norton on there (who was never a regular commentator) and no Don Dunphy or Russ Hodges . . .

Norton was a surprising inclusion, I agree.

[dr_devious]

Reg Gutteridge

[gilgamesh]

Don Dunphy would be my answer.

I'm particularly fond of the team of Jimmy Lamps and Merchant as well though. Unfortunately we don't see as much of Merchant these days, but I'll always be real fond of him.

[Rover]

Reg Gutteridge

Certainly better than Norton.

[elmersalsa]

I don't include Don Dunphy nor Howard Cossell nor Reg Gutteridge. They were announcers. I am speaking of guys that knew the sport from the inside like Gil Clancy. He knew what he was talking about.

[elmersalsa]

Reg Gutteridge

Certainly better than Norton.

Ken Norton was a very intelligent analyst back in the day. His knowledge in the sport was very deep. He did not do TV analysis for a long time, though.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

LOL, yet you included Ferdie Pacheco? His grasp of Boxing surpassed Dunphy & Cosell"s?

Howard for me. Atlas is definitely the worst.

[gilgamesh]

LOL, yet you included Ferdie Pacheco? His grasp of Boxing surpassed Dunphy & Cosell"s?

Howard for me. Atlas is definitely the worst.

Ferdie Pacheco is such a douchebag and a real obnoxious dickhead.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

LOL, yet you included Ferdie Pacheco? His grasp of Boxing surpassed Dunphy & Cosell"s?

Howard for me. Atlas is definitely the worst.

Ferdie Pacheco is such a douchebag and a real obnoxious dickhead.

He and Czyz were brutally horrible on Showtime. Dude was part of Ali's entourage so Elmer labels him a Boxing guy.

Since there is no other option, I voted for Clancy. He and Ryan were enjoyable.

[loaded_gloves]

Cossell the greatest announcer.

Analyst, I have it a tie between Merchant and Clancy. Merchant had great wit, Clancy brought a certain atmosphere. Love both their work.

[Ambling Alp II]

The announcers nominated are the "color commentators". ie usually former fighters and/or trainers.
Larry Merchant really is not that. He is really there for comic relief by going off on weird tangents.

Cosell and Dunphy were basically "play by play" announcers, though occasionally they did fights solo.

I always thought Sean O'Grady was pretty good on the USA Network, but seldom got a good fight to cover on their fights.

[yancey]

Anybody remember Win Elliot?

He worked with Dunphy back in the '50s and '60s.

They came from a better time when the commentators didn't feel the need to make themselves part of the show.

[evrenb]

Isnt that the truth....? When they have three commentators on at once it is bedlam...all talking over one another...sheesh. We tuned in to watch the boxing guys not your vocal.
My pick is Clancy...great insight...great tone and dialect to his voice and he could add a sense of drama...
Foreman not on the list?

[Ambling Alp II]

Foreman was funny at times, ("The referee is the most important man in the ring... except for the two fighters.") but seldom said anything interesting as far as strategy or tactics.

[evrenb]

Foreman was funny at times, ("The referee is the most important man in the ring... except for the two fighters.") but seldom said anything interesting as far as strategy or tactics.

Thats quote is right up there with George Bush Jnr ; 'Ladies and Gentleman, more and more of our imports come from abroad...' . . .

[elmersalsa]

George Foreman was a great boxer, but as a commentator and boxing analyst, he was a total piece of garbage.

Sugar Ray Leonard was very good as an analyst.

Also the great and late Emmanuel Steward was good and Ken Norton. But of all of them, I like Gil Clancy the most. He knew what he was talking about. A true analyst.

Hey, what about Max Kellerman? Your views of him as a commentator/anlyst.

[Ezzard]

I voted Clancy. he knew the game inside out.

[man]

i am always stunned by larry merchant's performance
in pac-marquez one. he was almost prophetic in there.
if he just could keep from making these big phrases he
seemed so proud of ...

[klompton]

Pacheco and Czyz were so bad that I dont even watch old Showtime fights no matter how great they are. I just cannot stand those two.

Atlas is a bitter idiot who, like Kellerman, thinks shouting into the mic makes him right. Both guys come off sounding like baffoons when they dont take the time to learn how to pronounce a fighters name. I can still hear Kellerman going on about Dennis "BOYSTOFF." I wish the networks would hire professionals and not these mushmouthed idiots.

I liked Emmanuel Steward but he could be really biased and early on he used to try to steal fighters from other trainers/managers on air with little comments like "Id really like to train him." or "He needs a more experienced trainer. I would have him work on this, this, and this." I always thought was shady. He seemed to stop doing that later though so maybe he got a talking to about it.

Merchent was good but got progessively worse (or progressively more drunk, depending on who you listen to) as the years went by. He seemed to focus less on what was in front of him and more on trying to make these clever little quips and wordplays. It got pretty silly there at the end.

Bob Papa is pretty good for today. Don Dunphy is my all time favorite announcer and Gil Clancy was a good analyst. Frankly speaking though I think the sport is better off with one guy behind the mic. I hate all of these so called pundits jockeying to get a word in edgewise. Who the hell needs an analyst? Its a sport about two guys trying to kick the crap out of each other. You either get it or you dont. If you need some ex-trainer to explain it to you then you dont need to watching sports as boxing is about the least complicated to watch.

[klompton]

Anybody remember Win Elliot?

He worked with Dunphy back in the '50s and '60s.

They came from a better time when the commentators didn't feel the need to make themselves part of the show.

Exactly. And the analyst only spoke during the break between rounds. Now those are good shows.

[klompton]

The announcers nominated are the "color commentators". ie usually former fighters and/or trainers.
Larry Merchant really is not that. He is really there for comic relief by going off on weird tangents.

Cosell and Dunphy were basically "play by play" announcers, though occasionally they did fights solo.

I always thought Sean O'Grady was pretty good on the USA Network, but seldom got a good fight to cover on their fights.

Originally Merchent was brought in as an analyst. He had been a newspaper boxing reporter and was considered a pretty well rounded expert. His roll in that capacity got marginalized a bit when HBO brought in Ray Leonard to do the analyst bit and larry was left on as color. While I think Tompkins, Merchent, and Leonard made a great team I also think that was the downfall. It basically gave everyone else license to copy them and now we have way to many cooks in the kitchen. I have yet to see a three man team compare with them over the last 30 years. In my estimation its time to scale back.

[elmersalsa]

The great Sugar Ray Leonard was given the booth by HBO after he was telling the truth about what was happening in the Tyson vs Douglas bout in Tokyo.