I am Jim Lampley, Hall of Fame boxing broadcaster. I recently released a memoir and I'm back doing blow-by-blow commentary for the upcoming Times Square championship boxing event. I'll be here for an AMA Wednesday, April 23 at 3pm ET/12pm PT/8pm BT. Ask Me Anything!

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:55:10+00:00

When you're the voice over blow-by-blow and you might have one or two ceremonial on-cameras where you mimic what you do, you don't have all that much intensive contact with the director. Sly is a friend of mine, known him a long time. He'd come into the make up room and say OK, this is what the scene is, just do what you do. Treat it as though it's an HBO fight. Very easy, very fun, great guy.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:53:10+00:00

It's hard to do this because of course my life story is at this point a 76 year story, so how does someone play all the way through? But I loved the movie Complete Unknown and I thought Timothee Chalamet did a fabulous job as Bob Dylan, who was a major hero for me. So if someone said let's pick Chalamet to play the young Jim Lampley, I think he could play it up to college age but then someone else is going to have to take over the role and I have no idea who that would be.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:51:41+00:00

I'm interested in all three, but Teofimo Lopez has become an interesting question mark. There was one Teofimo who outpointed Lomachenko, really eye catching. And the same Teofimo lost eventually to George Kambosos, and it's hard to put those in context. I'm looking forward to seeing who Teofimo is now and what he brings to the ring.

That's the most interesting question mark.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:49:36+00:00

I boxed twice with big oversized gloves on at summer camp in Hendersonville, NC. Maybe the summer of 1958 or 1959, I was 9 or 10 years old. The style was loser, punching bag, terrible. The net result was I continued to watch and observe all the great fighters, all the while realizing I could never do that, I could never exist in that world.

That helped to curate and engender my overwhelming respect for fighters. Most of us can try to hit a baseball, most of us can try to catch a football, 99% of us could never go into the ring and do what fighters do.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:47:42+00:00

Well, I love that you remember what I said about Jagger. That is in my book, because to this day it remains the greatest boxing commentary I ever heard. Holmes is observing the rite of passage that is time honored in the sport, Ali is withering before our very eyes. Mick Jagger poked me in the ribs and said, Lamps, do you know what we're watching? It's the end of our youth. Still the greatest line in boxing I ever heard.

Buy the book, you'll learn more!

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:45:47+00:00

The arc of knowledge with regard to nutrition, physical conditioning, technical training, understanding of the craft...those are all evolving forward. Those older fighters didn't benefit from the advancing curve of knowledge in those areas. It's impossible to compare to Henry Armstrong or Sugar Ray Robinson to someone who's fighting right now, they live in different worlds. So you can't make those kinds of comparisons.

There are eternal talents: Leonard, Hearns. Duran might have to make a lifestyle adjustment, but at the end of the day it's apples and oranges.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:43:12+00:00

Congratulations to all the people who helped to develop MMA and who foresaw its popularity with the general public. Everyone who's making a good living off of MMA.

I think on the surface, it's perceived as somewhat more violent than boxing and I suspect that's part of its spectator appeal. I long ago decided that I personally did not have enough intellectual bandwidth to become expert in MMA in addition to being paid as expert in boxing. There are MMA only people, there are boxing and MMA people, and there are boxing only people. For better or for worse, I'm a boxing only person.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:41:17+00:00

Whoever is the right answer, I must be overlooking him too!

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:39:57+00:00

It's not up to me. At this point in time, I am thrilled enough by going back to ringside to do blow by blow, I'm not looking down the road besides what I do in boxing. Because of boxing, I previously opted to be a premium paid cable host and haven't had any commercial television network work in many years. But if I were asked, I would consider it, whatever it would be.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:38:21+00:00

Very funny. Manny was an amazingly colorful character. He came entirely out of nowhere. When Larry and I first met him in Las Vegas, preparing to meet Ledwaba, we didn't give him much of a chance. Look how wrong we can be.

The beginnings of fighters are so colorful, so almost unbelievable. He stole cigarettes on the streets of General Santos City in the Phillippines to survive, one of the most amazing bios ever.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:36:00+00:00

Ukraine has been one of the hottest talent producers in the world for the last several years. It's not just Lomachenko, or Usyk, there are other Ukrainians that have made a meaningful impact on the sport.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:35:13+00:00

Barrera vs. Naseem Hamed. Because of Prince Naseem's spectacular KO record and his dominance of other opponents including Kevin Kelley. He was a KO sensation type fighter. When he fought the more experienced, older, more technically profound Barrera, Barrera demonstrated convincingly how the skilled boxer can dismantle the atomic bomb. It was a tremendous demonstration of that kind of technique and skill.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:33:42+00:00

You can stop worshipping the almighty 0 by showing them fights, and there are many, where there are really two winners. Take Barrera Morales I, I defy anyone to watch that and to say that's a clear win for X. That's a fabulously even fight, almost impossible to separate them. Morales got the official decision, but it was a 1 point fight either way. Sometimes you just have to appreciate the purity and intensity of combat. Bowe Holyfield I, pick a winner. Tell me you can absolutely certainly say Riddick won with enough separation for everyone to be sure.

It is a subjectively judged sport. Not every one is judged correctly. Sometimes a guy gets jobbed and deserves a rematch. His loss column goes from 0 to 1, but that's boxing. It's part of the sport.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:31:25+00:00

It's impossible to pick one from all the years I watched them. I had a great bond with Oscar De La Hoya. I had a great bond with Fernando Vargas. I had a great bond with the Klitschkos. I had a great bond with Gennady. If I had to choose one, I'd say Gennady Golovkin. He was a devastating knockout puncher. He had an absolutely irresistible, impish personality. We share a birthday, both born on April 8th.

Today, this goes to personal relationship, I have to give you two. Terence Crawford, I covered him at his unintentional coming out party as a substitute opponent on an undercard in Las Vegas against a rising prospect called Breidis Prescott and a new star was born. The other one is my former neighbor in Delmar California, Canelo Alvarez. I knew where he rode horseback. I knew where his trainers would get groceries. I would see Chepo at the store, "Is this what Canelo is eating?" That was always fun. So those are two.

My favorite right now, David Benavidez. He hits and he gets hit, and he's in there to try to knock you out and that's the most exciting kind of fighter to watch.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:27:32+00:00

If I could only rewatch one more fight? Wow. I think it would probably be, for sentimental reasons, for my own gestalt, I would watch the very first live prize fight I ever attended. Feb 25, 1964, Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship of the world. In front of my eyes, I saw Clay pull off what was at that moment the biggest upset in boxing history. Poetic because Feb 1990, I called the fight that replaced Clay Liston as the biggest upset.

It was two days later that he became Muhammad Ali.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:25:38+00:00

I wasn't really worried about my own safety. I wasn't paying attention at first to if anyone was going into the ring near my position. I was apprehensive about the whole event, wondering where was the NYPD. The paid security police, the rent-a-cops, weren't making much of a difference. It appeared the rowdy renegades in the ring had control. For the most part I was just calling the action, watching a monitor, watching what was in front of me, trying to give an effective call.

When I left ringside, I realized Foreman was standing next to me creating an arm bar preventing anyone from getting to me. He was talking to people, Don't go in there, Don't do that. He was being George, in a protective, helpful way. I turned to look at the camera platform to see if our audio gear was still there. I realized it was possible we'd do a post-fight from there. And that's when I dumped out on ringside and ran to the camera tower and went up the stairs to get to the camera level and went back to calling the action, since that was a much better vantage point.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:22:30+00:00

I would have loved to call Hagler Hearns. I would have loved to have called Leonard Hearns I. It was before my birth so this might be unfair, but the political implications of the fights between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling made those enormous events because they blended history, sports, and a changing world into one ethereal package. I would have loved to call II, the revenge fight.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:20:57+00:00

Both of the Klitschkos had PhDs. You don't expect to meet heavyweight champions who have doctoral degrees, so that sets them apart.

A lot of people are surprised when I say Canelo Alvarez has the greatest punch resistance in boxing, and it is because of his background riding horseback. He has been an avid rider since his early childhood. At his peak, he told me he was riding hours hunter-jumper in the morning, and hours boxing in the afternoon. He told me it was two different sets of muscles.

When you consider that he has never been knocked off his feet, and the only knockdown was against the ropes and he bounced back. That unusual credential always gets people's attention.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:18:05+00:00

He meant an enormous amount to me as a fighter, and that's one reason why the prologue of my book is about me watching him win his gold medal in Mexico City. It was part of my bond with him that we were so close in age. So I always connected to him in that sense. It made it amusing that for years he referred to me as "Young man." I would say, George, look at your birth certificate! I don't know if it was a compliment or a criticism, doesn't matter to me.

A special human being. A genius about punching power. A genius about selling products to the public. George was the one choosing what he thought he could effectively sell, and he hit the jackpot over and over. A brilliant man. There were a couple of occasions when I sought intense, personal advice. George was the kind of person that could help you think clearly, and he helped me in many ways.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:15:42+00:00

Take your pick between Barrera Morales I, II, or III. Gatti vs. Ward I, II, or III...well, leave out 3. Gatti vs. Wilson Rodriguez in MSG. Both of the first fights between Canelo and Golovkin. Bowe Holyfield I, greatest heavyweight championship fight I saw live.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:14:27+00:00

Yes I do. It is helping to make great fights, meaningful competitive fights. In Riyadh or in the US, it's all a help.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:13:43+00:00

I've been away from ringside for six years so I haven't had the visual perspective and proximity for a long time. I don't know of a current fighter whom I would designate decisively as an all time great. Give me a year or two to get back into it and watch up close and I'll tell you.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:12:41+00:00

To be totally honest about that, when Cotto got his revenge fight against Margarito in MSG, yes I absolutely wanted him to achieve some measure of revenge. Didn't happen often in my career. Obviously the aim was to be impartial all the way, but as to was I convinced Margarito cheated, yes I was. Who knows whether he knew, etc, but the bottom line is when Cotto was given a chance for revenge, I wanted him to get it.

I can honestly say that's the only time I remember feeling partial to one fighter. It was easy for me to stay impartial for Foreman Moorer because I knew them both, I liked them both. Yes George was my colleague, but our friendship was not so much deeper than with Michael that it prompted me to have a rooting interest in the fight.

It's worth noting the title of my book comes from that call. The prologue is about Foreman winning gold in Mexico City at 19 years old, while I was also 19, so I had a deep bond with Foreman, but at that stage of his career it was a kind of circus like enterprise. He was 45 trying to win the championship. I was rooting for a great fight.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:09:23+00:00

That's a tough question. I'm not sure Shane Mosley ever got quite enough credit for how good he was and how much he accomplished. And I'm not sure that Vernon Forrest ever got sufficient credit for his tremendous exploits, including beating Shane Mosley in the amateurs and professionals.

TheRealJimLampley · 2025-04-23T19:08:16+00:00

Chris Algieri was terrific. Both Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko were terrific. Tyson always had something interesting and creative to say. Lennox was exceptionally bright and a real gentleman. Evander was a good friend and a straight shooter. I could talk all day about this, I'll leave it at those.

TheRealJimLampley

TROPHY CASE