Legendary Boxing Voice Jim Lampley sits down with Tobin and Leroy! Jim tells an amazing anecdote about witnessing Cassius Clay defeat Sonny Liston. Jim then tells another heart warming story of Muhammad Ali and his truly special sweet spirit. The guys commend the sport of boxing for stacking this weekend's card. Lampley discusses his stepping away from Boxing announcing and what his plans were after leaving HBO.
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00:00We've got the legendary Jim
00:06Lampley sit down with us here.
00:07He's going to be co-hosting
00:08exclusive viewer chat in real
00:09time throughout Saturday's David
00:10Benavides, Dave Morrell World
00:11Championship on an HD live
00:14stream. Uh the card gets going
00:15at 8 o'clock. We're having a
00:16bunch of fun out here. What an
00:17honor to talk to you, Jim.
00:18Thank you so much for joining
00:19us. Thank you. My privilege.
00:20Good to be here. So, you were
00:21telling us you I was hearing
00:24the the music was going on at
00:25the same time. You were at the
00:26the Sonny Liston Cassius Clay
00:28Festival. It was the very first
00:29live prize fight I ever saw. I
00:32lived uh on Sunset Drive
00:35between 97th and 98th Avenues.
00:38Uh I was a I think I was a
00:42tenth grader or maybe I was
00:43either a ninth grader at South
00:45Miami Junior High or a tenth
00:46grader at uh Southwest. I think
00:48I was a tenth grader at
00:49Southwest that particular year.
00:51I saved lawn mowing and car
00:53washing money for uh what felt
00:57like several weeks but whatever
00:59I bought a ticket uh single
01:01ticket to go to Cassius Clay
01:03versus Sonny Liston February
01:05twenty-five 1964 in the Miami
01:07Beach Convention Center. My
01:08mother drove me over and dropped
01:10me off and uh went to a bar
01:12probably or a restaurant in
01:13Miami Beach and waited uh for
01:15all of it to end and I watched
01:17what was at that moment in time
01:19the biggest upset in boxing
01:22history. Did you feel it? Did
01:23you realize it like in that
01:24moment even as a kid to save up
01:25for it like you obviously had a
01:26lot of money to save up for it.
01:27So, did it feel that big at that
01:29time? My motivation was Cassius
01:32Clay. I was in love with
01:34everything about Cassius Clay.
01:37Uh and I I wound up, I had a
01:40kind of a mentor sitting next to
01:42me. There was a a middle-aged
01:45guy who was obviously deeply
01:47intense boxing fans and he made
01:49certain that I understood the
01:50level of upset that we were
01:52looking at. You know, he he was
01:54the one that got me through the
01:55whole fight. Uh and uh I'll
01:59never forget the moment in
02:00round four when Clay landed uh
02:03a right hand on Liston's cheek
02:06and the cheek popped open a
02:08little cut. Blood spurted out.
02:10Sonny wiped it with the glove
02:12and looked at it and had this
02:14look of extreme amazement on his
02:16face and this uh middle-aged guy
02:19who had now become my
02:21instructor in boxing turned to
02:23me and said, son, this might
02:25work out the way you wanted it
02:26to. Wow. Uh and sure enough, it
02:29did. So, you know, I went home
02:31that night to uh uh ninety-
02:34seventh Avenue and uh Sunset
02:37Drive and got up on the roof of
02:39our crappy rented tract house
02:41and shouted, I've upset the
02:43world. I'm the great all time.
02:45Did you see like because it was
02:47said back in the day like I
02:48watch like a PBS document about
02:50uh Cassius Clay Muhammad Ali
02:51rise up in Miami like what do
02:53you what do you remember about
02:54him being in the in the
02:55community and just being
02:56embraced in South Florida? The
02:59single biggest thing I remember
03:01because he was my chosen number
03:03one hero in life at that moment
03:06was that 2 days later, he stood
03:08on a street corner and told
03:10three boxing writers that he had
03:12um changed his religion. He was
03:15changing his identity that he
03:17would no longer be Cassius Clay.
03:19He was now Muhammad Ali. He was
03:21a member of the nation of Islam,
03:23etcetera, etcetera. That was so
03:25jarring to me. That was so
03:27difficult to accommodate. I had
03:29fallen in love with this guy who
03:31was using a slave name Cassius
03:33Marcellus Clay to taunt the
03:35white establishment. I loved
03:37that part of him. How's he going
03:39to taunt the white establishment
03:41as Muhammad Ali? Well, you know,
03:43obviously, that took it to
03:45another level but at that time,
03:48I didn't fathom much of anything
03:50about that and I felt as though I
03:52was losing something. He was
03:54taking something away from me by
03:56changing his name from Cassius
03:58Marcellus Clay to Muhammad Ali.
04:00Later, of course, because of my
04:02genesis in boxing, later, of
04:04course, we met each other and
04:06became friends and there's
04:08actually a spectacular moment in
04:10my life when I was the emcee of
04:12the United States Boxing Writers
04:14Association Awards Dinner in New
04:16York in 1988
04:18and I
04:20had a daughter, child
04:22of divorce, who was living in Manhattan
04:24and I brought her to the event
04:26and at one point, I
04:28had to find somebody to
04:30watch her in the green room for
04:32two or three hours in the afternoon
04:34while I went and did some business for
04:36the dinner and I looked around the green room
04:38and said, who can do me a favor
04:40and watch and entertain Brooke
04:42while I'm gone and Ali
04:44stuck up his hand and said
04:48I'll do that.
04:50Muhammad Ali the babysitter.
04:52He babysat my daughter
04:54for two or three hours.
04:56That night, he
04:58called her up from the audience
05:00to come sit next to the two
05:02of us on the dais because he could tell
05:04that she was not comfortable with the people
05:06she was switching with and he brought her up
05:08and he sat her on the dais next to me
05:10and with the whole crowd out there watching
05:13people get awards and stuff like that, he did
05:15card tricks and magic tricks for her.
05:17They were in their own world
05:19and in the cab on the way back
05:21uptown to take her back to her mother's apartment,
05:23she turned to me in the dark
05:25and said, who was that man?
05:27I said, wow.
05:31You thought the world of him
05:33before that moment.
05:35But after that moment, you're like
05:37I was right.
05:39It was just one of many
05:41moments and they're in the book which says to me
05:43your life is
05:45astonishingly lucky,
05:47special, it's a gift.
05:49You have to appreciate every
05:51moment of this.
05:53She turns to me in the cab and says,
05:55who was that man? I said, Brooke,
05:57that's a long story and when you
05:59grow up completely, you will learn it.
06:01I'll tell you some of it, some of it
06:03you'll read, etc. etc. I'll just give you
06:05one thing to take to bed tonight.
06:07She was eight.
06:09I said, to take to bed
06:11tonight, he's
06:13the most famous man in the world and not
06:15only is he the most famous man in the world,
06:17you can't dispute it. There's no
06:19logical argument against that.
06:21I could say that to somebody who hates his guts
06:23and they would agree, yes, he's the most
06:25famous man in the world. She said,
06:27Dad, I just spent
06:29several hours with the most famous man
06:31in the world one on one. I said, yes, you did.
06:33That's really cool.
06:35You've been around
06:38boxing your whole life.
06:40I have been
06:42a big complainer of boxing.
06:44We don't get to see the fights
06:46that we
06:48deserve as fans
06:50of boxing. You could have said that in
06:521921. Really? Okay.
06:54That's where I was getting at.
06:56These four guys that
06:58are fighting for these belts,
07:00it is amazing
07:02to me that no division
07:04works out like this where they
07:06fight this close to one another.
07:08Every once in a while you see a fight card
07:10that comes out of the Cracker Jack box and you say,
07:12wow, look at this. The sport did
07:14something right. People
07:16did their job. The
07:18promoters got the right fighters to fight each other.
07:20This is a great card
07:22with a great main event.
07:24I think there's every reason for
07:26people to be tremendously excited about
07:28Saturday Night. The
07:30main event is a classic
07:32style fight. A southpaw technician
07:34with punching power
07:36against a monster destroyer
07:38with even more exceptional
07:40punching power.
07:42Jim Lampley joining us here. He's got a new book
07:44coming out, It Happened.
07:46You're going to make a
07:48return to broadcasting for a Miami card
07:50I think for Tiafimo Lopez, George
07:52Cambosis. I remember being in the room
07:54when we found out Tiafimo had COVID and it all
07:56sent things spiraling.
07:58Was there ever a part of you,
08:00Jim, that just missed out on getting an opportunity?
08:03Because that was going to be this undisputed
08:05lightweight championship. You were going to be back
08:07and then all of a sudden it kind of turned into a circus
08:09where Holyfield was back in the ring and whatnot.
08:11The whole thing and
08:13domino effect went away.
08:15I was almost as excited to hear you
08:17back on the call as I was for the fight.
08:19When HBO left boxing in
08:21December of 2018,
08:23I
08:25reflexively assumed that
08:27one of these streaming services
08:29or another boxing vendor
08:31would make me an offer I couldn't refuse
08:33and I would wind up calling boxing matches
08:35for a few more years. Didn't happen.
08:37Just crickets.
08:39Nothing happened.
08:41Then eventually
08:43through the auspices of a
08:45manager in Los Angeles with whom
08:47I've broken up now,
08:49I signed a contract
08:51with Triller
08:53for an extraordinary sum of money
08:55to call that fight.
08:57It was a walk-in
08:59entry contract. It was Triller's way
09:01paying me a lot of money to basically say to other
09:03services, okay, we've got him.
09:05This is done. Stuff like that.
09:07I never called a fight.
09:11I have not called a fight
09:13since December 8, 2018.
09:15The last card on HBO
09:17which was built around
09:19Cecilia Brikus, the number one
09:21woman fighter in the world at that moment.
09:23Now I work for
09:25PPV.com. I'm a
09:28pioneer in a
09:30new medium of communication
09:32which is the collectively
09:34shared chat, a community enterprise.
09:36During the fight, I
09:38chat. The three other people who are
09:40working for PPV.com, Chris Algieri,
09:42Dan Canovio, Lance Pugmire,
09:44they chat. People who
09:46have accessed
09:48the pay-per-view of the
09:50fight join in
09:52and they can chat
09:54back at us or agree with what
09:56we say or whatever.
09:58Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm talking
10:00boxing with Chris Algieri, that kind of
10:02thing.
10:04This is, I don't know, about
10:06my sixth fight, seventh fight
10:08with PPV.com.
10:10It's been a great experience because
10:12it brought me back to ringside, brought me back
10:14to talking to people like you.
10:16I guess from that standpoint, you thought
10:18that somebody was going to come along.
10:20What do you think it was, Jim? Because I haven't heard
10:22as a big boxing fan, I haven't heard anybody
10:24so close to you, man. No one
10:26touches what you bring to fights to fight fans.
10:28Well, look, I'm 75
10:30years old.
10:32Logic says
10:34whatever we do with regard to this guy,
10:36there's not a lot of future in it.
10:38He's not going to be calling fights when he's 85.
10:42That's true. I don't
10:44think I would allow myself to
10:46verge into that
10:48territory. I did
10:50expect that someone would want
10:53four or five years
10:55of the voice
10:57that has more
10:59currency and recognition for
11:01boxing fans in this arena right now,
11:03but that didn't turn out to be
11:05the case. I think
11:07there are possibly
11:09some personal animosities
11:11that go into it, but I don't
11:13know that for sure because I'm not going to ask anybody,
11:15you know, hey, do you hate my gut?
11:17I mean, if you're
11:19doing a promotion or
11:21if you're putting together a card,
11:23I don't understand.
11:25The first person I would call is the voice
11:27most associated with
11:29boxing in our era.
11:31That's the way it's always
11:33been that way for me.
11:35I turn on a fight,
11:37I'm like, oh, who's going to fight?
11:39Of course. Well, maybe the people
11:41who are making these decisions now
11:43disagree with you
11:45and think that the guys who are calling
11:47the fights are better than Jim Lampley.
11:49That's one possibility.
11:51Another possibility is, oh, he's
11:5375 years old, he's just
11:55going to be doing it for the paycheck. How much
11:57work would he put into it? Ask the
11:59people at PPV.com if I
12:01still work. I think they will tell
12:03you that I do.
12:05At the end of the day, thank you, Fred.
12:09That's Fred Sternberg, ladies and gentlemen.
12:11He's very funny. He'll be back next
12:13Thursday night at the
12:15Ramada down the street.
12:19Look, it's a mystery
12:21to me.
12:23I'd be lying if I said it wasn't
12:25a disappointment. It is a disappointment
12:27to me. I would like to
12:29have had other opportunities
12:31to call fights and to still be calling
12:33fights, but the universe decided this.
12:35The universe
12:37decided PPV.com.
12:39I went back to Chapel Hill, to the
12:41University of North Carolina, and taught
12:43for five semesters. I taught
12:45a communications course
12:48which was titled
12:50Evolution of Storytelling in American Electronic
12:52News Media. It was about
12:54news media, not sports media,
12:56but they're both in some ways
12:58live reporting, etc.
13:00They have similarities.
13:02One of the things I taught
13:04in that course repeatedly
13:06was recognize
13:08as you're examining all this
13:10how changes in institutions,
13:12changes in personnel,
13:14changes in economics and
13:16particularly changes in
13:18technology can influence changes
13:20in the way stories are
13:22told. PPV.com
13:24is a perfect example
13:26of what I was talking about in class.
13:28Because of the chat capability,
13:30because of that piece of technology,
13:32now you have a new storytelling
13:34mechanism, which is
13:36viewers sharing the experience
13:38of talking about the fight with
13:40me and other
13:42boxing experts.
13:44So I was prophetic in telling my
13:46students to pay attention to
13:48this kind of thing. Well, it's going to be a hell of an experience.
13:50If you guys want to experience Saturday night with
13:52the great Jim Lampley, PPV.com
13:54is where you guys can do it. An exclusive
13:56viewer chat in real time. David Benavidez
13:58and David Morel. This was a thrill, Jim. Thank you so much
14:00for giving us some time. We appreciate it
14:02and looking forward to this weekend.
14:04Love you, Miami. Talk to you later.