Originally published September 12, 2024 (Vol. 80, No. 37)
BOXING in September is normally associated with one fighter: Canelo Alvarez.
The 34-year-old will box in Las Vegas for the 19th time this Saturday (September 14) when he defends his unified super-middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga. A fight which Canelo should win with something to spare.
This month also sees Jim Lampley celebrate a one-year anniversary working for PPV.com. An outlet which brought him back into the sport after a five-year hiatus.
On December 8, 2018, Lampley attended the StubHub Centre in California to present HBO Boxing’s coverage of a card featuring Juan Francisco Estrada and Claressa Shields. That night Lampley, his co-commentator Max Kellerman and analyst Roy Jones Jr, bid farewell to their career covering fights from ringside for HBO after the American TV network pulled the plug on their 45-year relationship with the sport.
During his time away from the boxing world, Lampley spent time teaching a course at the University of North Carolina titled, ‘The Evolution of Storytelling in American Electronic News Media’.
“After five semesters of teaching along comes a brilliant woman named Dale Hopkins,” Lampley told Boxing News. “She said, ‘I’m really interested in having you work with us on a new media entity called PPV.com’. I said, ‘what is it?’ ”
Lampley, his friend and journalist Lance Pugmire, along with Dan Cannobio and former super-lightweight world champion Chris Algieri, chat online during fights on PPV.com and engage with fans who take part.
“It’s a different perspective and you can trade back and forth with them and with the others on the chat as well. It’s a lot of fun,” he says. “It’s a new way of commenting on fights and I’m looking forward to going to Vegas for the one-year anniversary of my involvement with PPV.com with the fighter with whom it began [and] that was Canelo Alvarez.”
Lampley’s return began with Canelo vs Jermell Charlo and has since worked at a number of other big American cards headlined by some of the biggest names in the sport. So how does the veteran broadcaster reflect on these 12 months since being brought back into the fold.
“It’s been a poetic experience,” he answers.
Unlike others who came before and after him, Lampley shared with TV audiences his deep emotional connection with boxing which would often see the anchor shed a tear when talking about fights or fighters. Lampley’s love affair with boxing began in 1955 when his mother sat him down to watch her favourite fighter Sugar Ray Robinson defeat Bobo Olson for the third time in five years.
“She instructed me that I was going to watch the Gillette Friday Night Fights,” he recalls.
“I was specifically instructed to watch because number one my father had died the year before and she said, ‘If here were still here this is what you would be doing.’ Number two she told me Sugar Ray Robinson was her favourite fighter. And it was only as years went by after that I genuinely understood the meaning of a white woman in the South from Memphis, Tennessee, instructing me to sit and watch a black fighter. He was a great dancer and he was compelling to watch and I went from Sugar Ray Robinson eventually through the whole catalogue of Gillette Friday Night Fights fighters and fell in love with Muhammad Ali.”
When HBO ended their own relationship with boxing Lampley described it personally as “like losing a meaningful romance” continuing the theme of love and proving how big a space boxing occupies in his heart.
“You believe for various reasons that you’re capable of dealing with that but deep in your heart you’re missing something important,” he explains. “You’re kind of pining for it and now you’ve walked into a restaurant or a cocktail lounge and there she is. It’s different now though from a communication standpoint.”
Lampley admits he was craving another opportunity and, while it can’t be compared to his time at HBO, he is enjoying it from a new angle nonetheless. What he won’t pretend to love is Canelo’s upcoming fight against Edgar Berlanga. Lampley has never been afraid to be honest with viewers, media or fans and continues this when he expresses his own opinion on the Mexican’s latest challenge.
Lampley with President of HBO Sports Ken Hershman. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO)
“Canelo’s been an amazing star. He’s done a lot for the sport, he’s been arguably the most significant fighter that I’ve covered for this long a period of time. It’s hard to criticise him in terms of his entire career but is he taking the best opponents he can take right now? No. As we get ready to go to Vegas he’s not fighting David Benavidez, he’s not fighting David Morrell.
“He’s not even fighting the much smaller Terrence Crawford. He’s fighting a one-dimensional fighter who’s only real cachet for the fight is punching power, straight-ahead punching power and that is the single thing that Canelo deals with best and has the greatest punch resistance in the sport. It’s very difficult I think for almost any knowledgeable commentator to envision a scenario in which Canelo gets upended by Edgar Berlanga. Canelo can dictate the terms of the fight and either choose the moment when it ends or cruise to an easy decision.”
Canelo has copped criticism for the opponents he has faced, particularly since losing to Dmitry Bivol at light-heavyweight in May 2022. The nature of that one-sided defeat swept away any aspirations Canelo had of becoming a two-weight undisputed champion.
Wins against a long-faded Gennady Golovkin, a courageous John Ryder, and Jermell Charlo jumping two weight classes are rightly dissected for what they are – cherry picking. Beating Jaime Munguia in May restored credibility but even that falls short of what fans really want to see – Canelo vs David Benavidez.
However, at 34 years of age, 65 fights behind him and 19 years as a professional fighter perhaps Canelo – who makes millions of dollars no matter who he fights – has no interest in taking big risks at this later stage of his career.
“I can’t think of another reason why he is not doing what he would have done in the middle of the career which is to move straight to Benavidez fight the biggest and best opponent and try to prove his greatness one more time,” Lampley says.
“He probably thinks he deserves considerable credit or taking the fight against Munguia and dealing with Munguia as effectively as he did, but I think there’s some broad portion of his fan base that weren’t richly satisfied by that. He had all the advantages against Munguia going in and again it’s kind of the same thing as Berlanga.
“Munguia has a better chance to set up the hard punch that Canelo doesn’t see coming then Berlanga does so on paper. As far as I’m concerned, this is an easier fight. If I were his advisor I can understand and would not be surprised to hear myself saying with all you’ve done, with all the challenges you’ve taken, with everything you’ve done for the boxing audience, you deserve the right to pick and choose.
“David Benavidez is dangerous there are people who think that David Morrell is dangerous,” Lampley adds. “There’s a case to be made for maybe Terence Crawford is dangerous but most people don’t make the case that Berlanga is dangerous because the 16 first round knockout streak at the beginning of his career is now seen by most of us in the inner circle as matchmaking. Just as by the way ultimately Mike Tyson’s early knockouts were exposed by the matchmaking.”
Benavidez is someone who excites Lampley. The 27-year-old is must-see TV and possesses the type of fan-friendly style that keeps customers coming back for more. His move to light-heavyweight – rather than wait for a fight against Canelo – is in an early stage and whether or not he can trouble the likes of Artur Beterbiev or Bivol remains to be seen. Lampley, however, believes he can move on to an even greater challenge.
“David Benavidez is drama,” he says.
“He has he has that aura that suggests to you that in any moment in the ring something shockingly exciting not necessarily unexpected will happen. You know you’re waiting for that big moment that explosive moment and I perhaps to his detriment have urged him to consider the progression up to heavyweight because I have said to him several times – forgive me Andy Ruiz – the first legitimate Mexican-American heavyweight championship contender will be one of the biggest economic entities not just in the history of boxing but in the history of sports.”
“He has the personality to go with that,” he adds. “Now, he could fight Morrell and get upended, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. As Larry [Merchant] always said, ‘Boxing is the theatre of the unexpected.’”
What would be unexpected is an Edgar Berlanga win on September 14. A Canelo victory feels like and looks like a foregone conclusion. His place amongst the Mexican greats is sealed but what isn’t is his position. The plethora of boxing giants the country has produced is unmatched by any country outside of the United States. Modern day fans may have Canelo somewhere near the top but just as strong an argument can be made for the red-haired boxer sitting outside the top 10. Lampley is as well placed as anyone in boxing media to discuss where Canelo belongs.
“I think it’s a fabulous discussion,” he says.
“It’s a discussion with no definitive answer. I think there are people in Sinaloa who would say how can you possibly say that anyone was greater than Julio Cesar Chavez? By the way Canelo is more risk averse than Chavez was. I think there are people who would say Salvador Sanchez who died young and was not therefore able to fulfil his ultimate destiny. He was going to be the greatest Mexican fighter of all-time.
“Recently at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I had exactly this discussion with Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales. Both I admire, both of whom are in my list of the top six or seven Mexican fighters of all time neither of whom was willing to come down on one name and say yes this is the guy.
“They gave Canelo credit for who he is but it’s one of those ongoing discussions you could spend forever in a bar talking about all of the candidates for greatest Mexican fighter of all time.”
With a lifetime of memories behind him Lampley’s autobiography will be released next April. Prior to chatting to BN, he had been editing the final manuscript and crossing the t’s to make sure it’s in the “right shape.”
As for the title, well that is taken from arguably Lampley’s most famous commentary call 30 years ago. On November 5, 1994 – 21 years after winning his first world heavyweight title – 45-year-old George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer with a straight right hand to become champion once again. “It happened… IT HAPPENED,” Lampley said watching his friend defy logic and create history.
“It helps to curate and commemorate my friendship with George,” Lampley said.
“I’m very proud that a New York publisher has agreed with me that it’s a good idea for me to write this story and present it.”
Lampley doesn’t know whether or not he will be at the next Canelo fight after September 14 and the one after that simply because he has no written contract with his employer which both parties seem comfortable with. Lampley is aware of his age and sometimes the demands of travelling to watch the fights takes its toll raising the question perhaps this might soon be over.
“Sometimes, I don’t feel like I’m actually 75, I think I’m much younger than that,” he says.
“But sometimes when I’m connecting through Dallas Worth on Sunday afternoon to get from Las Vegas back [home] to North Carolina, there’s a two and a half hours layover. At those moments I’m thinking to myself, ‘You know I might be done with this.’
“This is really above and beyond what I should be putting my body and my system through. Then something comes along like the sudden realisation that my house in the country outside of Chapel Hill was originally painted with interior paint and now the paint is chipping off. Spots all over the outside of the house require a payment which is somewhat equal to the payment I get for doing one fight on PPV.com so that becomes an easy equation. I need to pay for the house painting.”
It looks as though Lampley’s love affair with boxing – which began in 1955 – could well carry on into 2025 and beyond.
