Jim Lampley has been the face and voice of HBO’s boxing coverage for nearly three decades, and he will not be going away any time soon. HBO announced Monday it has reached a new multi-year agreement with Lampley that will keep him calling World Championship Boxing, HBO Boxing After Dark and HBO Pay-Per-View, while hosting The Fight Game With Jim Lampley.
“For nearly three decades, Jim has been the most prominent television voice in boxing,” HBO Sports executive vice president Peter Nelson said in a statement. “His work is universally recognized as the standard in the sport and we are thrilled to know he will continue in this high visibility role for years to come. Jim’s high journalistic standards, historical knowledge of the sport and enthusiasm for sharing the backstories of the fighters who enter the ring enriches the broadcast experience for the HBO audience.”
Lampley, a four-time Sports Emmy winner and an International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, first signed on at HBO in 1988 and has been calling iconic boxing moments for the network ever since. Among the many, many memorable bouts Lampley has called is Buster Douglas’ famous upset of Mike Tyson in 1990.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt8LZ8FjGN8
Lampley was last extended in March 2015, two months before he called the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather megafight.
In addition to his boxing gig on HBO, Lampley was also a key cog in NBC’s Olympic coverage for many years, though he has not worked an Olympics since 2008. At 68-years-old, Lampley is presumably nearing the end of his storied career, but it looks like he’ll be sticking around on HBO at least a little longer.
