By Tan Wang
The news came out weeks ago that Lennox Lewis resigned from his commentating job on HBO boxing after dark, and they are looking for a good replacement.
Word was Freddie Roach was going to get the job, but in all fairness and no offense to Roach, his voice is just not made for commentating, the stammering and stuttering would really get to people trying to enjoy the fight, plus Roach is extremely busy with his full stable of top fighters like Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan.
It could be worse, imagine if HBO gave Roger Mayweather the job and every single word coming out of his mouth would be a curse word, and hardly understandable, you would need subtitles to understand him.
If I were HBO, I would bring back Sugar Ray Leonard as ringside boxing analyst. I believe Ray Leonard would be the perfect replacement, he is knowledgeable and has a great voice for the job. Leonard used to do commentary for HBO boxing years back as well, making him familiar with the set up.
I enjoyed former HBO analyst’s, Roy Jones Jr. and Big George Foreman, but learning how those two ended their jobs with HBO, it doesn’t seem likely either one of those guys will be brought back (Roy Jones Jr. refused to go to HBO boxing meetings and Big George Foreman didn’t really get along with either Jim Lampley or Larry Merchant).
If they can’t get Sugar Ray Leonard, I would like to see HBO give a guy like Sean O’ Grady a chance. O’ Grady was a popular lightweight fighter in the 1980’s and did commentating work for different networks.
Maybe HBO should bring in a fresh face. I might get heat for saying this but what about former WBC lightweight champion David Diaz, he seems very well spoken and he has a great personality. I watched a couple of his interviews during his pre-fight build up to his fight with Manny Pacquiao and he has a certain charm to him.
If HBO wanted ratings and stir up some controversy, how about giving Iron Mike Tyson the job, he knows his boxing and imagine the unique quotes coming out of Mike Tyson’s mouth.
If they wanted to bring in a female perspective and go out of the box, why not hire Lucia Rijker she is an ex-boxer, smart, classy and beautiful, if HBO wanted to target a female demographic she would be great. The only problem with hiring her would be those sexist men who would hate on her just because she is a female.
Should be interesting to see who HBO actually picks, who do you think HBO should hire?
Got an Opinion? Submit Your Article to be posted on Nowboxing.com
JOIN the NOW BOXING FORUM to discuss this and other boxing news topics (membership is FREE)
