A Chronology of Jim Lampley's Biased Commetary

[Jack 1000]

What Happened to Jim Lampley?

Lampley's favoritism of the slugger was very gradual and no where near what it is now. Go back to when Roy Jones or Pernell Whitaker fought on HBO. They weren't exactly Rocky-sluggers. Lamply still "Ga-Ga'ed them, especially Jones, who for all his talent was probably a far worse cherry-picker than Floyd ever was. A prime Roy had talent not seen since Leonard, but choose to waste it away by fighting guys:

1.) Who were not big punchers. Roy was afraid of getting hurt.

2.) Fighting guys at or near the end of their career who were no longer a threat to him.

3.) Fighting bums

Sweet Pea Whitaker was a great boxer, but Lamps called boxers like Jones and Whitaker objectively. He went ga-ga for Tyson, the same as Showtime went ga-ga for Tyson. I remember after the second Holyfield fight with the ear bite, a lot of the commentators tried to mask Tyson's act of wrongdoing. Bobby Czyz was a huge Tyson suck-up, But so were Lamply and the crew at HBO because "You don't bite the hand that feeds you." Merchant did not like Tyson, but Larry calls it how he feels.

Lamply was objective from 1986 till about 2001 and even in a war type classic fight was a joy to hear. I think where Jim started falling apart was when Delahoya came to HBO. Watch Trinidad-Delahoya and that was the beginning of the end for Lamply's objectivity. Almost nothing was said positive about Tito the whole fight and the same was true in both Mosley fights. This really was Lamply's first set of pom-poms. He actually used them for Roy Jones, but with Oscar, everything was Oscar this and Oscar that, the good looks, the grin, it was there best "Bad Leonard" clone Oscar wasn't a Rocky slugger, but he had a face and personality that Lamply loved. If Jim wanted sluggers all the time, he would have been critical of Whitaker, Jones, and Delahoya, he wasn't.

When Ward fought Gatti the first time, this is really when HBO's whole production crew and Lamply really started bashing the boxer style. The first fight was great, the second and third were over-rated, especially by HBO. I think when Mayweather beat Gatti, HBO saw this as the beginning of the end of respect for Floyd. Not just Floyd, but the elusive boxer style was looked-down upon by Lamply. His bias spread toward the rest of the team. I think Lamps deeply resented Floyd beating their "boy" in Gatti. Just as they resented Floyd beating Delahoya. There's two personas that HBO wants out of their fighters:

1.) A "Pretty Boy" good looking personality fighter that HBO can make into a star. (Boxer, Puncher, or Combo) Look at how Delahoya, Gatti, and now Pacquiao, Provodnikov, and Triple G fit the mold.

2.) A bad ass puncher, who needs to be a puncher if he's gonna be a star on HBO. Lamply and HBO execs now think that ass boxers are boring like Floyd. Good guy boxers like Ringodoux don't have marketing personalities.

If you are not a puncher or a "Pretty Boy, Goody Two-Shoes" boxer, Lamply and the HBO crew don't want you. I think when Lamply took the Ward-Gatti Trilogy and tried to set a prerequisite that fights needed to be brawls to be exciting, or boxers needed to have positive story lines it set the standard. Look who Lamply's "Lovers" are now:

Manny Pacqwuiao

Gennady Golovkin

Ruslain Provodinkov

Should Chris Algieri beat Manny Pacquiao, it won't be as resented, because Chris is a "Pretty Boy" nice guy who is highly educated, and has a story to tell. It's not going to be like when Marquez KO'd Manny, and Jim almost started crying on the air!!! That's how biased he has become!

Jack

[BAD INTENTIONS]

Lampley has one of those traditional TV voices created in the 80's. But in almost every match he only calls punches for one fighter.

Also, he trying to separate himself from his fellow woman beaters ...

[ReggieDiggs]

HBO had the worst announcing team ever, but also the most famous announcing team. They were a bunch of assclowns. Jim keeps the tradition alive. When Larry was around they were the champions of idiotic sh!t. Jim would hype missed punches & Larry would randomly go into some bs about Mark Twain or Harry Truman.

Seemingly not giving any f#cks they would sh!t on the fight their boss had purchased to air on HBO. If I'm a boss I fire those mfers the 2nd time they do that after coming within an inch of knocking one of their f#cking asses out the 1st time it happened. Larry being gone has helped steer them in the right direction, but Jim's retardation lives on thru his commentary & by him being the worst host of a boxing show in the history of boxing shows in the last 30 years (not really saying much cuz their ain't been a lot of boxing shows in that time, but don't let that fool you into believing he wouldn't still be the worst host if their were 100 shows over that period).

Also its f#cking hilarious this mfer is so delusional he probably don't see the irony in sh!tting on Floyd with his own history. Its like the disturbingly overweight guy on a bus yelling about someone needing to wipe their ass.

[black panther]

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

[JCS]

HBO still puts on the best broadcast when it comes to overall production value.

[scallum]

What Happened to Jim Lampley?

Lampley's favoritism of the slugger was very gradual and no where near what it is now. Go back to when Roy Jones or Pernell Whitaker fought on HBO. They weren't exactly Rocky-sluggers. Lamply still "Ga-Ga'ed them, especially Jones, who for all his talent was probably a far worse cherry-picker than Floyd ever was. A prime Roy had talent not seen since Leonard, but choose to waste it away by fighting guys:

1.) Who were not big punchers. Roy was afraid of getting hurt.

2.) Fighting guys at or near the end of their career who were no longer a threat to him.

3.) Fighting bums

Sweet Pea Whitaker was a great boxer, but Lamps called boxers like Jones and Whitaker objectively. He went ga-ga for Tyson, the same as Showtime went ga-ga for Tyson. I remember after the second Holyfield fight with the ear bite, a lot of the commentators tried to mask Tyson's act of wrongdoing. Bobby Czyz was a huge Tyson suck-up, But so were Lamply and the crew at HBO because "You don't bite the hand that feeds you." Merchant did not like Tyson, but Larry calls it how he feels.

Lamply was objective from 1986 till about 2001 and even in a war type classic fight was a joy to hear. I think where Jim started falling apart was when Delahoya came to HBO. Watch Trinidad-Delahoya and that was the beginning of the end for Lamply's objectivity. Almost nothing was said positive about Tito the whole fight and the same was true in both Mosley fights. This really was Lamply's first set of pom-poms. He actually used them for Roy Jones, but with Oscar, everything was Oscar this and Oscar that, the good looks, the grin, it was there best "Bad Leonard" clone Oscar wasn't a Rocky slugger, but he had a face and personality that Lamply loved. If Jim wanted sluggers all the time, he would have been critical of Whitaker, Jones, and Delahoya, he wasn't.

When Ward fought Gatti the first time, this is really when HBO's whole production crew and Lamply really started bashing the boxer style. The first fight was great, the second and third were over-rated, especially by HBO. I think when Mayweather beat Gatti, HBO saw this as the beginning of the end of respect for Floyd. Not just Floyd, but the elusive boxer style was looked-down upon by Lamply. His bias spread toward the rest of the team. I think Lamps deeply resented Floyd beating their "boy" in Gatti. Just as they resented Floyd beating Delahoya. There's two personas that HBO wants out of their fighters:

1.) A "Pretty Boy" good looking personality fighter that HBO can make into a star. (Boxer, Puncher, or Combo) Look at how Delahoya, Gatti, and now Pacquiao, Provodnikov, and Triple G fit the mold.

2.) A bad ass puncher, who needs to be a puncher if he's gonna be a star on HBO. Lamply and HBO execs now think that ass boxers are boring like Floyd. Good guy boxers like Ringodoux don't have marketing personalities.

If you are not a puncher or a "Pretty Boy, Goody Two-Shoes" boxer, Lamply and the HBO crew don't want you. I think when Lamply took the Ward-Gatti Trilogy and tried to set a prerequisite that fights needed to be brawls to be exciting, or boxers needed to have positive story lines it set the standard. Look who Lamply's "Lovers" are now:

Manny Pacqwuiao

Gennady Golovkin

Ruslain Provodinkov

Should Chris Algieri beat Manny Pacquiao, it won't be as resented, because Chris is a "Pretty Boy" nice guy who is highly educated, and has a story to tell. It's not going to be like when Marquez KO'd Manny, and Jim almost started crying on the air!!! That's how biased he has become!

Jack

So which fighters did Roy Avoid?

[jockpunk]

I highly doubt HBO resented mayweather for beating gatti or delahoya. No one with half a brain expected either of those guys to win.

They are biased against rigendeaux because nobody on earth wants to watch him except for like 3 people on this site. HBO is in the business of selling subscriptions. If ridgendeax or whatever slick boxer doesn't do that, then of course they are going to be biased against them. They don't help the bottomline. I don't blame them for that at all.

[Counter-puncher]

HBO had the worst announcing team ever, but also the most famous announcing team. They were a bunch of assclowns. Jim keeps the tradition alive. When Larry was around they were the champions of idiotic sh!t. Jim would hype missed punches & Larry would randomly go into some bs about Mark Twain or Harry Truman.

Seemingly not giving any f#cks they would sh!t on the fight their boss had purchased to air on HBO. If I'm a boss I fire those mfers the 2nd time they do that after coming within an inch of knocking one of their f#cking asses out the 1st time it happened. Larry being gone has helped steer them in the right direction, but Jim's retardation lives on thru his commentary & by him being the worst host of a boxing show in the history of boxing shows in the last 30 years (not really saying much cuz their ain't been a lot of boxing shows in that time, but don't let that fool you into believing he wouldn't still be the worst host if their were 100 shows over that period).

Also its f#cking hilarious this mfer is so delusional he probably don't see the irony in sh!tting on Floyd with his own history. Its like the disturbingly overweight guy on a bus yelling about someone needing to wipe their ass.

[diddy]

It's truly a shame that Roy Jones robbed us of such amazing fights as the immortal Darius Mikalczewski and the Italian God Rochiggiano! As we all know since these guys were white and foreign they belong in the annals of the all-time greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and Marvin Hagler. It's criminal that Jones subjected us to such awful opponents like club fighters Bernard Hopkins and James Toney instead.

Had he only fought the God of War Michalzewski and the Lion of Lord Rocchiggiano we could maybe possibly take him seriously.

[Jack 1000]

I highly doubt HBO resented mayweather for beating gatti or delahoya. No one with half a brain expected either of those guys to win.

They are biased against rigendeaux because nobody on earth wants to watch him except for like 3 people on this site. HBO is in the business of selling subscriptions. If ridgendeax or whatever slick boxer doesn't do that, then of course they are going to be biased against them. They don't help the bottomline. I don't blame them for that at all.

Actually,

The Mayweather-Gatti odds were very close. Many picked Gatti to win because at the time Mayweather was hated and Gatti was loved. I picked Gatti to win because of his size and the ability to force a brawl to make Floyd uncomfortable. Gatti's trainer, Buddy McGirt in one of the stupidest corner decisions ever made told Gatti to outbox Floyd and Mayweather drilled holes in Gatti with that strategy. Not to say that a brawl still would not have had Floyd winning. But the fight could have perhaps been better.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

It's truly a shame that Roy Jones robbed us of such amazing fights as the immortal Darius Mikalczewski and the Italian God Rochiggiano! As we all know since these guys were white and foreign they belong in the annals of the all-time greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and Marvin Hagler. It's criminal that Jones subjected us to such awful opponents like club fighters Bernard Hopkins and James Toney instead.

Had he only fought the God of War Michalzewski and the Lion of Lord Rocchiggiano we could maybe possibly take him seriously.

I wanted to see him fight a Prime Mike McCallum, Nigel Ben, Chris Eubank, Cotto at a Catchwight. Can't say Margarito no more, because he could have used plaster gloves in all his fights before being caught prior Mosely. I think Roy should have fought Darious and Rochiggiano. Even Gerald McClellen and Julian Jackson.

Good wins over Hopkins and Tony. But too many garbage-men in-between for greatness. Even the win over WBA favorite champion John Ruiz was a fabrication like Roy had done such a great thing. It wasn't one of the Klitschkos. THAT would have been historic for Roy. Roy beating the guy that David Tua blitzed in 20 seconds, not good enough. Although Ruiz never ducked anyone and was never more than an average heavyweight, he did have some good showings against Holyfield. Roy could have been more by fighting and beating the guys above.

Jack

[jockpunk]

I highly doubt HBO resented mayweather for beating gatti or delahoya. No one with half a brain expected either of those guys to win.

They are biased against rigendeaux because nobody on earth wants to watch him except for like 3 people on this site. HBO is in the business of selling subscriptions. If ridgendeax or whatever slick boxer doesn't do that, then of course they are going to be biased against them. They don't help the bottomline. I don't blame them for that at all.

Actually,

The Mayweather-Gatti odds were very close. Many picked Gatti to win because at the time Mayweather was hated and Gatti was loved. I picked Gatti to win because of his size and the ability to force a brawl to make Floyd uncomfortable. Gatti's trainer, Buddy McGirt in one of the stupidest corner decisions ever made told Gatti to outbox Floyd and Mayweather drilled holes in Gatti with that strategy. Not to say that a brawl still would not have had Floyd winning. But the fight could have perhaps been better.

Jack

Mayweather was -400. While those odds were closer than they should have been, I would not consider them to be close. I remember this because I wanted to bet on floyd but I didn't have the kind of cash to make -400 worthwhile.

[jockpunk]

It's truly a shame that Roy Jones robbed us of such amazing fights as the immortal Darius Mikalczewski and the Italian God Rochiggiano! As we all know since these guys were white and foreign they belong in the annals of the all-time greats like Sugar Ray Robinson and Marvin Hagler. It's criminal that Jones subjected us to such awful opponents like club fighters Bernard Hopkins and James Toney instead.

Had he only fought the God of War Michalzewski and the Lion of Lord Rocchiggiano we could maybe possibly take him seriously.

I wanted to see him fight a Prime Mike McCallum, Nigel Ben, Chris Eubank, Cotto at a Catchwight. Can't say Margarito no more, because he could have used plaster gloves in all his fights before being caught prior Mosely. I think Roy should have fought Darious and Rochiggiano. Even Gerald McClellen and Julian Jackson.

Good wins over Hopkins and Tony. But too many garbage-men in-between for greatness. Even the win over WBA favorite champion John Ruiz was a fabrication like Roy had done such a great thing. It wasn't one of the Klitschkos. THAT would have been historic for Roy. Roy beating the guy that David Tua blitzed in 20 seconds, not good enough. Although Ruiz never ducked anyone and was never more than an average heavyweight, he did have some good showings against Holyfield. Roy could have been more by fighting and beating the guys above.

Jack

While I generally agree with your point, Ruiz was obviously much better than an average heavyweight.

[man]

HBO still puts on the best broadcast when it comes to overall production value.

exactly.

[FloydtheDuck]

The absolute worst ever was The Golden Girl vs Vargas

Lampley was sucking Oscars >&^#& the whole fight, the last 2 rounds sounded like a porno

[Jack 1000]

HBO still puts on the best broadcast when it comes to overall production value.

It has slipped though since Manny Steward and Larry Merchant are gone,

I don't care for some of their new graphics and camera angles that they started, I think early last year. Why is Steve Weisfeld there? Too many people in the booth!

Jack

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I think his all time favorite was MAB.

[Badhusker]

HBO still puts on the best broadcast when it comes to overall production value.

It has slipped though since Manny Steward and Larry Merchant are gone,

I don't care for some of their new graphics and camera angles that they started, I think early last year. Why is Steve Weisfeld there? Too many people in the booth!

Jack

Larry Merchant should have been forced off a few years ago....imo.

Roy Jones has a pretty impressive resume. I would pick him vs anyone in his weight class, in his prime, in any era.

[MachoTime]

I just call him Lamps try to over look the nut hugging bit. I don't remember much of it to begin with anyways. I just call him Lamps and forget it.

[kidbazooka1]

HBO still puts on the best broadcast when it comes to overall production value.

It has slipped though since Manny Steward and Larry Merchant are gone,

I don't care for some of their new graphics and camera angles that they started, I think early last year. Why is Steve Weisfeld there? Too many people in the booth!

Jack

Let's not forget tho that HBO brought along Kellerman who was as biased towards the pure boxer as your claiming Jim is for the slugger.

[Evander]

What Happened to Jim Lampley?

Lampley's favoritism of the slugger was very gradual and no where near what it is now. Go back to when Roy Jones or Pernell Whitaker fought on HBO. They weren't exactly Rocky-sluggers. Lamply still "Ga-Ga'ed them, especially Jones, who for all his talent was probably a far worse cherry-picker than Floyd ever was. A prime Roy had talent not seen since Leonard, but choose to waste it away by fighting guys:

1.) Who were not big punchers. Roy was afraid of getting hurt.

2.) Fighting guys at or near the end of their career who were no longer a threat to him.

3.) Fighting bums

Sweet Pea Whitaker was a great boxer, but Lamps called boxers like Jones and Whitaker objectively. He went ga-ga for Tyson, the same as Showtime went ga-ga for Tyson. I remember after the second Holyfield fight with the ear bite, a lot of the commentators tried to mask Tyson's act of wrongdoing. Bobby Czyz was a huge Tyson suck-up, But so were Lamply and the crew at HBO because "You don't bite the hand that feeds you." Merchant did not like Tyson, but Larry calls it how he feels.

Lamply was objective from 1986 till about 2001 and even in a war type classic fight was a joy to hear. I think where Jim started falling apart was when Delahoya came to HBO. Watch Trinidad-Delahoya and that was the beginning of the end for Lamply's objectivity. Almost nothing was said positive about Tito the whole fight and the same was true in both Mosley fights. This really was Lamply's first set of pom-poms. He actually used them for Roy Jones, but with Oscar, everything was Oscar this and Oscar that, the good looks, the grin, it was there best "Bad Leonard" clone Oscar wasn't a Rocky slugger, but he had a face and personality that Lamply loved. If Jim wanted sluggers all the time, he would have been critical of Whitaker, Jones, and Delahoya, he wasn't.

When Ward fought Gatti the first time, this is really when HBO's whole production crew and Lamply really started bashing the boxer style. The first fight was great, the second and third were over-rated, especially by HBO. I think when Mayweather beat Gatti, HBO saw this as the beginning of the end of respect for Floyd. Not just Floyd, but the elusive boxer style was looked-down upon by Lamply. His bias spread toward the rest of the team. I think Lamps deeply resented Floyd beating their "boy" in Gatti. Just as they resented Floyd beating Delahoya. There's two personas that HBO wants out of their fighters:

1.) A "Pretty Boy" good looking personality fighter that HBO can make into a star. (Boxer, Puncher, or Combo) Look at how Delahoya, Gatti, and now Pacquiao, Provodnikov, and Triple G fit the mold.

2.) A bad ass puncher, who needs to be a puncher if he's gonna be a star on HBO. Lamply and HBO execs now think that ass boxers are boring like Floyd. Good guy boxers like Ringodoux don't have marketing personalities.

If you are not a puncher or a "Pretty Boy, Goody Two-Shoes" boxer, Lamply and the HBO crew don't want you. I think when Lamply took the Ward-Gatti Trilogy and tried to set a prerequisite that fights needed to be brawls to be exciting, or boxers needed to have positive story lines it set the standard. Look who Lamply's "Lovers" are now:

Manny Pacqwuiao

Gennady Golovkin

Ruslain Provodinkov

Should Chris Algieri beat Manny Pacquiao, it won't be as resented, because Chris is a "Pretty Boy" nice guy who is highly educated, and has a story to tell. It's not going to be like when Marquez KO'd Manny, and Jim almost started crying on the air!!! That's how biased he has become!

Jack

Most part it's ok.
You leave yourself wide open for counters on the basics.

[mrbassie]

Sod his bias, they're all like that. What winds me up is the fact that he never shuts up. Doesn't seem to realise he's not on the radio.

[Datsue]

Sod his bias, they're all like that. What winds me up is the fact that he never shuts up. Doesn't seem to realise he's not on the radio.

Innit. The nu-meedja horror of dead air ("The peons might start thinking! They may come up with an opinion that's not on-message with our Corporate Value Statement!!!") is one of the many, many reasons why I prefer my boxing with commentary in a language I have no hope whatsoever of understanding.

There's an Eastern Euro channel gets most of the big Showtime fights, have a whizz around the streaming sites a few days after a big fight, it's genuinely refreshing 'cos it's obviously like one bored guy in a studio somewhere in Novosibirsk or somewhere watching the feed & occasionally mumbling into a mic to prove he's still awake. Class.

Although my all-time favourite is the version of the Marquez-Katsidis fight that went up, HBO feed with no announcers but with all the crowd noise & ringside mics left in. There was one point where in one of the middle rounds where the Aussie's trainer was going berserk to go to the body & JMM nails the fvck out of him to the body & then switches up to the head & the trainer just shuts up in mid-sentence like "Oh fvck, he can understand English!"

Hilarious.

[lefty]

I cant stand Lederman either. He's got one of those nasal type voices along with giving off the impression that he thinks an old school italian mafioso (bit like Teddy Atlas) .. not a fan.

[BAD INTENTIONS]

Let's not forget tho that HBO brought along Kellerman who was as biased towards the pure boxer as your claiming Jim is for the slugger.

Max was the voice of the boxer. Now, he is falling in line more than ever.

Even Roy Jones, who used to present the other side very often is now in line. It's like every commentating team is just in a big circle jerk nowadays. Where's the disagreement?