Jim Lampley is making a long-awaited return to boxing. What you need to know
Jim Lampley, the Hall of Fame boxing announcer, arrived in Las Vegas this week to work his first fight in five years.
“I was mobbed by four people in the MGM Grand hotel lobby,’’ he deadpanned.
On Saturday night, he’ll be at T-Mobile Arena for the super middleweight bout between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. But those watching the bout on pay-per-view will not hear his distinctive voice.
Rather than calling the fight, Lampley, 74, will co-host a live viewer chat on PPV.COM, an app that livestreams pay-per-view events. PPV.COM will offer the Showtime fight for $84.99 – and, for no extra charge, the viewer chat. He will be paired with Lance Pugmire, an award-winning journalist.
The live chat shows up on the screen by default.
“The only fly in the ointment is I’m a very slow typist,’’ Lampley told USA TODAY Sports. “I talk faster than almost anybody. But, typing, not exactly.’’
A typist will be on standby for Lampley, said Dale Hopkins, president and CEO of In Demand, parent company of PPV.COM. which launched in 2021.
"I don't want to lose any of him in typing,'' she texted. "It’s pretty fast and furious and I want to capture Jim.''
Jim Lampley and Donald Trump on same broadcast team?
Lampley was the voice of HBO Boxing for 31 years before the cable network pulled the plug on it in 2018. Of course a Hall of Fame announcer would be fielding offers.
"I waited for the phone to ring,'' he said. "And it didn’t.''
His agent moved on. He parted ways with his manager. Although he did get a couple of opportunities to announce a fight.
The first came in June 2021 after Triller signed him to call the undisputed lightweight championship fight between Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos Jr. Four days before the fight, Triller announced Lopez had tested positive for COVID-19.
Not only was the fight delayed, it ended up with another promoter, and Lampley was out.
Not long after, Triller offered Lampley a chance to call an exhibition boxing match that September between Evander Holyfield and Vitor Belfort, a mixed martial arts fighter.
Lampley turned down the offer, citing a lack of knowledge of MMA during an interview with USA TODAY Sports, before learning former President Donald Trump would be part of the broadcast team.
“I wasn’t going to do that,’’ Lampley said of working with Trump. “I mean, I went to the circus when I was a kid in North Carolina. I went to (a) girly show at the county fair when I was a kid in North Carolina. I’ve been soiled enough.’’
From the classroom to the chat room
As an announcer, Lampley could sound almost professorial when rhapsodizing about boxing. The professor in him manifested in 2020.
It started with a call to Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Lampley’s longtime friend and the chancellor at the University of North Carolina. Lampley, who graduated from North Carolina in 1971 with a degree in English literature, officially joined the university’s faculty in January 2020.
He began teaching COMM 490, “Evolution of Storytelling in American Electronic News Media,’’ a course he developed for seniors and entry-level graduate students.
The only rating for Lampley on the website “Rate My Professors’’ is a 5, the highest score.
“COMM 490 with Jim is the best class that I have taken at UNC,’’ read the review. “…Overall he just wants you to be successful.’’
He taught the course for five semesters and sees a tie-in with his next assignment – the live viewer chat.
No longer were sports consumers content waiting for the newspaper to land on their porch the morning after the game. Now many wanted commentary as the event unfolded.
“If I had thought carefully about this, I should have seen this coming,’’ Lampley said.
Courting Jim Lampley
In early August, Lampley received an email from someone else — Hopkins, a veteran of the television industry. She had recently read about Lampley’s move from New York to a farmhouse outside of Chapel Hill.
The email led to a phone call.
“I think people have been missing you,’’ Hopkins recalled telling Lampley. “You’re such a thoughtful, smart, extremely knowledgeable boxing voice.’’
Said Lampley, “Dale was very persuasive in saying to me, ‘This is made for you. This is a life extender. You’re going to love it.' ’’
And yet…
“At first I said to my wife, ‘I don’t know if I want to do it,’ “ Lampley recalled. “She said, ‘Are you crazy? What do you mean you don’t want to do it?' "
She urged him to go and have some fun.
“She was right,’’ Lampley said from Las Vegas earlier this week, “and here I am.’’
And the chances of him one day announcing another fight?
“Let’s be blunt,'' he said. "I’m 74 years old. And it doesn’t strike me as entirely logical that all these continually evolving new media forms that somebody would say, 'Oh, let's go hire a 74-year-old. That’s a little bit counterintuitive for me.
"But again, I’m here, I answer the phone,"