BoxRec

Who in your view was the best TV Announcer for boxing?

Top two

Barry Tompkins is smooth delivery

Col. Bob is a necessary cheerleader for boxing

(Al Bernstein is the best analyst ever).

Don Dunphy.

yancey wrote:Don Dunphy.

In an all-round sense, Dunphy may be the best bet. Analysis, colour-commentary, & overall knowledge, I would not rank any of the others above him.

Tompkins was quite good & pretty inoffensive, but I find him a hair over-rated by some who watched during his era (before my time).

I want to give a shout-out to two oft-maligned callers --- Jim Lampley & Bob Sheridan. Couldn't be assed going into it right now, but I like these guys.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:I want to give a shout-out to two oft-maligned callers --- Jim Lampley & Bob Sheridan. Couldn't be assed going into it right now, but I like these guys.

Lampley is a nice guy, but he has a couple of flaws as an announcer.
1. He is sometimes biased. Lennox Lewis, the Klitschkos and a few other regular HBO fighters were clearly his favorites. This was to the point of not mentioning their faults, and sometimes almost ingoring their opponent.
2. He constantly says fighter A landed a punch when it was really his opponent. I have never seen anyone else do that so often.
Certainly not the worst announcer, but not one of the best.

A few of guys that many people seemed to have forgotten.
Chris Schenkel who did many of the the play by play for ABC from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. Alex Wallau was pretty good as well as the "expert" announcer for ABC in the 1980s.

Tim Ryan who was the play by play for CBS in the late 1970s and early 1980s was pretty good.

Having said that, my favorite was always Marv Albert. He was fairly knowledegable, enthusiastic, and sometimes funny.

Dan Dierdorff was better than Atlas.

It's a toss up between Dunphy & Cosell for me. I voted for Howard because I grew up on his calls.

Alex Wallau was pretty good, and Marv Albert really livened things up, but I think the best of them all was the late great Reg Gutteridge.

I enjoyed the American commentary teams who worked on Leonard/Hearns I and Hagler/Hearns

Watching US broadcast fights from the 70s and 80s the commentary from that era seems a lot better than today. They just called the fights commenting on the action when necessary and shutting up when not. Now guys like Larry Merchant seem to think people have tuned in to hear them talk rather than watch the fight. John Rawlings is another who gets on my nerves, although I'm sure he's a decent guy. His commentary has too much presentation of the fight not enough letting the action flow and speak for itself.

"Watching US broadcast fights from the 70s and 80s the commentary from that era seems a lot better than today. They just called the fights commenting on the action when necessary and shutting up when not." J-C


Which is one of the prime reasons why Don Dunphy was heads and shoulders above the likes of Cosell and others.

It is unbelievable that Cosell leads the voting.

J-C wrote:I enjoyed the American commentary teams who worked on Leonard/Hearns I and Hagler/Hearns

Watching US broadcast fights from the 70s and 80s the commentary from that era seems a lot better than today. They just called the fights commenting on the action when necessary and shutting up when not. Now guys like Larry Merchant seem to think people have tuned in to hear them talk rather than watch the fight. John Rawlings is another who gets on my nerves, although I'm sure he's a decent guy. His commentary has too much presentation of the fight not enough letting the action flow and speak for itself.

This is my view as well, commentators just chat shite nowadays and it's not just boxing either, the majority of sports are riddled with commentators like this now.

Reg Gutteridge and Harry Carpenter deserve mention here. I'm pretty sure that most people would say the commentators that they grew up with were the best, for obvious reasons. Even so, these guys were class. Maybe Gutteridge was a little too reliant on cliches at times, but you always knew you were listening to somebody who had been around boxing for a very long time.
Steve Holdsworth is always fun to listen to.
Who was the guy who commentated for Screensport alongside Jim McDonnel? They were a good team.

Lampley and Larry Merchant are my personal favorite commentary team. By far.

I like Al Bernstein. Plus he did a couple of my fights.He started out in Chicago doing a local cable.I guess Im biased.

I liked Tim Ryan. Gil Clancy, Ferdie Pacheco.... I miss the 80's

My favorite TV announcer is the "mute" button.

Bernstein.

Clancy and Ryan were ok too.

raylawpc wrote:My favorite TV announcer is the "mute" button.

One of the things that made Dunphy great imho was that he didn't feel the need to fill every second of airtime with his voice.

A lesson I wish Lampley would learn...

As a Brit, can I put in a vote for Harry Carpenter too. Excluding the whole Bruno schtick, he was pretty good bitd.

THESE ARE THE BEST ANNOUNCERS OF BOXING IN ENGLISH.

In Spanish, to me, was the Mexican Antonio Andere. Although he was a little nationalistic, but fun to hear. He was the Howard Cossell of Latin America

My father was a top heavyweight contender in the 1950,s. He was on national US TV 14 times. Though he had different 3 broadcasters doing the different shows- I personally enjoyed Jack Drees.

Again, here is a time where if the announcer didnt have action to report he said nothing at all. He assumed every watcher knew something about boxing and didn't need to fill him in on junk like Merchant does or Lampley does.
No punch stats needed here either.

In between rounds, Jack drees would give you info on the boxers cornermen working and a little personal (at home likes/hobbies) bio if time allowed.

Alot of you guys might remember Chris Schenkel from ABC-TV Wide World of Sports on Saturday afternoons. He too broadcast boxing many years on the Friday or Wednesday nite fights back in the day. Very Good. (Credit of first mention to Ambling Alp-WTG)

Though Don Dunphy was a great TV announcer, he was best known for his Gillette Cavalcade of Sports Boxing Matches on radio. Along with Wynn Elliott(they both worked as a team, with Don doing blow by blow action) you couldn't beat Dunphy's fast radio coverage of just about every punch thrown and its location. Classic Radio. Here's one for you :
Don Dunphy in back seated, John Condon (voice of Madison Sq. Garden), Joe Frazier and my father Charley Norkus looking on.



Don Dunphy and Charley

A couple of more:



Chris Schenkel and Charley Norkus inside St. Nicks arena,NYC in 1960.



Howard Cosell, Congressman Pete King, Charley at Nassau Coliseum for ABC-TV coverage of George Foreman- Joe Frazier weigh-in.



Last one, Tim Ryan with Charley Norkus NBC-TV studios

McCannW14 wrote: but I think the best of them all was the late great Reg Gutteridge.

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