Former HBO commentator Jim Lampley is back around the sport of boxing lately and his passion for professional boxing is very clear still by this.
He called and analyzed fights for years quite well on HBO in a great time for boxing and for the network.
In fact, boxing is doing just as well now or even better than those times actually.
Jim Lampley Delivers Powerful Words On Manny Pacquiao Getting Into The 2025 Boxing Hall Of Fame
One of the old guard who is still fighting, Filipino eight-weight division world champion Manny Pacquiao was induced into the 2025 Hall of Fame last weekend and Lampley had some powerful remarks just before the ceremony:
“I don’t like to use the word incredible. It’s an overused word in our society. Sports media have beaten it to death. But the feeling I get when I’m with these people—Manny, Micky, everybody else who’s seated in front of you—it’s incredible. And thank you so much for the passion that all of you show by coming here, being a part of it, and giving to them what they deserve in terms of admiration, respect, and the single thing that the sport is most about. And I say this all the time: If you watch Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti fight 12 rounds the way they did three times, if you watch Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales do the same thing the way they did, you’re not only watching two men compete as hard as they possibly can, but you are at the same time watching them fall in love. By the time those 12 rounds are over, they know each other as well as their mothers do. They’ve tasted each other’s sweat. They’ve tasted each other’s blood. They’ve felt the strength and the weakness of what their opponent can do. They know their humanity in a shared way that nothing else can produce other than maybe a 50-year marriage”
His love of professional boxing still very evident and he’s very right in what he says.
As things are now suddenly working out for boxing again right now and will continue to do so in a big way in the weeks and months ahead for boxing, ahead of the September 13th super fight between Canelo and Terence Crawford, what Lampley says about the warriors in pro boxing still rings true.
Hopefully knockout or TKO bonuses can be offered to fighters to incentivize them not to put on bad shows like the freak occurrence one recently in New York.
It is important to realize that is very rare and most cards in boxing the last year or so have been sublime.