BoxRec

You're never left wondering who the HBO crew is rooting for, but I thought their cheerleading for Andre Ward on Saturday night was some of the most obvious and egregious homer-ism I have ever heard.

They were worshipping at Ward's feet, and literally ignoring every good thing Barrera did. I was pulling for Ward at the start, and though it isn't his fault the HBO gang was drooling over him, by the time the fight ended I was hoping Barrera would deck him, just to shut Lampley, Kellerman, and Jones up.

Agree 100%, that was disgusting.

But Kellerman was the worst, he sounded like he's infatuated with Ward.

they want to build a 'new floyd mayweather......since wards persona is so boring, the hbo gang does it for him

He'll never get worse than Barrera fights, I've seen Marco eat a 3 punch combo and Jim say "Big Left Hook From Barrera!"

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:He'll never get worse than Barrera fights, I've seen Marco eat a 3 punch combo and Jim say "Big Left Hook From Barrera!"

Ironically he seemed to be just as much In favour of Morales when he was fighting anyone but MAB, the two first Pac fights being as bad as I have heard from him

Chepppaaa wrote:they want to build a 'new floyd mayweather......since wards persona is so boring, the hbo gang does it for him

I don't know about the motivation, but it's clear they pushing the company line. Lampley sets the tone, and the other guys follow.

The HBO commentators were showering Andre Ward with praise for edging rounds for an unimpressive 12 round UD.

Yet they bashed and ridiculed Dmitry Mikhaylenko for a dominating the rounds for a 10 round UD against Karim Mayfield, an elusive opponent who had never been stopped.

They praise and hype the boring prima donna Ward for some reason, why do you think they do this?

i was thinking the same, comical really

They've always done this for their HBO fighters......I turn down the volume a lot of times. One fight that sticks out was Toney/Jirov.......they were pushing Jirov hard,they had the fight a draw, I had it 10-2 or something. Fun fight but easy to score.

Well yea the HBO announcing crew was biased on the other hand Ward looked awesome . I was really impressed with Ward fighting so well after so much inactivity.

HBO has two of the larger talents in boxing (Kovalev-Ward) on their label heading for a major collision. This has the making of historic fight maybe a couple of notches below, Leonard-Hearns I maybe we can get a classic 3 fight trilogy out of Kovalev vs Ward, just hoping.

Kovalev better win the first one if we're getting a trilogy. A win there and Ward will be even more difficult to deal with at the table. Though he is right, that it's his career and life. Too many fighters have been taken advantage of.

Freedom2013 wrote:The HBO commentators were showering Andre Ward with praise for edging rounds for an unimpressive 12 round UD.

Yet they bashed and ridiculed Dmitry Mikhaylenko for a dominating the rounds for a 10 round UD against Karim Mayfield, an elusive opponent who had never been stopped.

They praise and hype the boring prima donna Ward for some reason, why do you think they do this?

yep, you can tell who listens to the commentary team aswell, they come on here and say it was a dominating display by ward

Pureist wrote:

Freedom2013 wrote:The HBO commentators were showering Andre Ward with praise for edging rounds for an unimpressive 12 round UD.

Yet they bashed and ridiculed Dmitry Mikhaylenko for a dominating the rounds for a 10 round UD against Karim Mayfield, an elusive opponent who had never been stopped.

They praise and hype the boring prima donna Ward for some reason, why do you think they do this?

yep, you can tell who listens to the commentary team aswell, they come on here and say it was a dominating display by ward

You don't think Ward dominated that fight?

This is why i turn to the latin stream to watch the fight. More entertaining to watch even though I only understand 1/2 the words.

fistic mystic wrote:You're never left wondering who the HBO crew is rooting for, but I thought their cheerleading for Andre Ward on Saturday night was some of the most obvious and egregious homer-ism I have ever heard.

They were worshipping at Ward's feet, and literally ignoring every good thing Barrera did. I was pulling for Ward at the start, and though it isn't his fault the HBO gang was drooling over him, by the time the fight ended I was hoping Barrera would deck him, just to shut Lampley, Kellerman, and Jones up.

Lampley is my favorite by far but I absolutely agree with every word you wrote. It was if Lampley wasn't even watching the fight. He was noting punches by Ward or combinations that never even happened. Barrera was outclassed and didn't have the hand speed to give Ward any issues but he did have some nice moments in that fight and clearly made Ward work for this win when i couldn't help but think how easily Kovalev would have dispatched Barrera.

It reminded me of his call of the Walters/Sosa Draw in which they seemed to count every blocked punch Sosa fended off and that crew basically killed that fight for the viewers because if you watched that fight without the sound on, you would have seen a really good fight. But Walters is an HBO guy and they showed their colors in that fight. Another fight they killed was the Bradley/Chaves draw. That was a damn close fight and it was like they were watching a totally different fight. I knew that fight was close on the cards but they had it a bradley run away.

Announcers should enhance the viewing pleasure of the sport, not detract from it. It's pretty sad actually but i'm glad you spoke out about it and noticed it.

fistic mystic wrote:You're never left wondering who the HBO crew is rooting for, but I thought their cheerleading for Andre Ward on Saturday night was some of the most obvious and egregious homer-ism I have ever heard.

They were worshipping at Ward's feet, and literally ignoring every good thing Barrera did. I was pulling for Ward at the start, and though it isn't his fault the HBO gang was drooling over him, by the time the fight ended I was hoping Barrera would deck him, just to shut Lampley, Kellerman, and Jones up.

I said the same thing on boxrec that night. It was so pathetic. Typical of Roy Jones especially when an American is in the ring. Lampley was beyond pathetic and Kellerman just goes along because he does not want to do anything to ruin his multi-million dollar paycheck from HBO. I shut the volume off.

bang bang bang bang! bang bang bang bang bang!

There nuthuggery of Loma and GGG are also disgusting if not more so.

Shocking they would be rooting for their colleague who happens to be a humble, God-fearing classy individual as a human being. You will struggle to find a better guy that fights for a living that Andre Ward. He is respectful and polite to anyone who approaches him. He's a rare breed of today's athlete. Especially in the fight game. From what I've seen he's only rivaled in that regard by Paul Williams, Andy Lee and Mikkel Kessler. The nicest guys in boxing.

kidbazooka1 wrote:There nuthuggery of Loma and GGG are also disgusting if not more so.

Have you even graduated from a high school ? It is "THEIR nuthuggery", you dummy.

ikorolev wrote:

kidbazooka1 wrote:There nuthuggery of Loma and GGG are also disgusting if not more so.

Have you even graduated from a high school ? It is "THEIR nuthuggery", you dummy.

Typo police on full alert huh you feel good about yourself now champ?

Yes i did and dorks like you i would fuuck up on a daily basis .

Thought i was on your ignore list?

Now fuuck off you dumb ass.

victor-romeo wrote:

Pureist wrote:

Freedom2013 wrote:The HBO commentators were showering Andre Ward with praise for edging rounds for an unimpressive 12 round UD.

Yet they bashed and ridiculed Dmitry Mikhaylenko for a dominating the rounds for a 10 round UD against Karim Mayfield, an elusive opponent who had never been stopped.

They praise and hype the boring prima donna Ward for some reason, why do you think they do this?

yep, you can tell who listens to the commentary team aswell, they come on here and say it was a dominating display by ward

You don't think Ward dominated that fight?

Ward definitely dominated the fight. It was obvious unless you are a newbie to boxing. (or maybe just an idiot) I suppose it can be irritating when the guy you want to see lose gets praise from commentators for winning the fight. All commentators lean one way or another, depending on who they like or dislike, or what network employs them. It has went on for years now.

To many here on the board, Ward being American, a nice guy, honest, very talented, and someone that can speak in complete sentences is not going to be the favorite, and the one they want to lose. It will be a complete disaster if Ward beats Kovalev, and the end of the world for some fans.

i just call him "Lamps" when he get's over indulgent and all kissy kissy calling the fights...

Worst ever was De La Hoya/Vargas

You would have thought Lampley was exchanging wedding vows with Oscar that night

i'd love to have a three minute clip with the
funniest commentator quotes. the one that
saad mentioned seems like a contender. one
other might be foreman's "aside of the two
boxers the ref is the most important man
in the ring".

over the years these guys produced quite
a number of pearls.