By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Britain’s legendary boxing commentator Harry Carpenter who was regarded as the voice and face of British boxing coverage in particular, has passed away.
A spokesman for the family told The Sun newspaper that the 84-year-old former TV sports presenter died at King's College Hospital, London, on Saturday.
His lawyer David Wills said: "He had been unwell since last summer when he had a minor heart attack.
He said funeral arrangements had not been made but indicated “it will be a family funeral, to be followed by a memorial service in London."
Carpenter leaves a widow and one son.
The renowned boxing commentator became closely identified with heavyweight champion Frank Bruno, whose catchphrase "Know what I mean, 'arry?" featured in their post-fight interviews.
He worked as a sports reporter on national newspapers before joining the BBC and commentated on major sporting events including Wimbledon and the university boat race between Oxford and Cambridge on the river Thames.
But it was as the public face — and voice — of BBC’s boxing coverage that Carpenter became best known.
For some 50 years he described some of the greatest fights of the age and covered his first world heavyweight championship in 1955 when undefeated champion Rocky Marciano beat Britain's Don Cockell.
Carpenter interviewed some of the great fighters of his time and became friends with many of them including Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson and Floyd Patterson.
He also covered the Olympic games, Wimbledon tennis as well as the British Open golf championships.
Carpenter never backed off from criticizing in the strongest terms the questionable decisions in Olympic boxing and won numreous awards for his contribution to sport.
