How often was boxing televised?

[Anthony342]

Yes and after Cosell quit after the Holmes-Cobb debacle, ABC used several announcers like Al Michaels, Don Chevrier, Keith Jackson and Chris Schenkel before Jim Lampley became their lead announcer. After Lampley left for HBO, Alex Wallau, a great boxing announcer, took over and was the announcer alongside Dan Dierdorff until the demise of boxing on ABC. Their last televised fight occurred on June 17,2000, with Jose Luis Castillo winning the WBC lightweight title over Stevie Johnston.

Cool. I think I heard them, Dierdorff and Wallau doing commentary on an early James Toney fight too, where he seemed to run out of gas after a few rounds, but pull out the decision.

[Holtol]

[

I can answer this question with considerable expertise as I am an old man who grew up in Brooklyn during the 50s and 60s:

On Friday nights we used to have the Gilette Friday Night Fights Sports show and the Cavalcade show that featured other sports as well as boxing. The ABC Wide World of Sports often had fights as did CBS and NBC. Many of Muhammed Ali's fights were shown LIVE. What a treat that was!!

We also had fights from Los Angeles on Telemundo which was not a cable network in the 60s. The broadcast was in Spanish but the ring announcer was legendary Jimmy Lennon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6cyy_rziuk

I still sing the Gillette theme to myself every once in a while.

Today, boxers are no longer household names in the USA anymore. Back then everybody knew who Muhammed Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Floyd Patterson, and dozens of other fighters were. That's because they were on nationwide TV every week. How I wish we had that again today!!!

That must have been the same boxing show my Grandfather watched on Friday nights in northern Ontario Canada. I heard he would get together with some of his friends and watch boxing every Friday night.

I once asked him what boxers he liked he said he like Ezzard Charles the best. I asked him about Louis and Marciano he did not seem to particularly like them or their fighting style. Personally I like both Louis and Marciano but I have not seen to many Ezzard Charles fights one day I am going to start watching more of his fights. I could tell from the Marciano fights that Charles was very good.

[jose_palooka]

-- Ezzard Charles --

The Cincinnati Cobra was a great light heavy weight. I do not recall why but he did not get a chance at the LHW title belt and was forced to go up in weight class and defeated several noted Heavies. He had a smooth and skillful style, not one given to heavy duty punching. His scientific approach was quite admirable and that is why os many enjoyed his fights.