By Keith Idec
Stephen A. Smith is the first to admit that he’ll be out of his broadcasting element November 5.
Smith will serve as an analyst for a live boxing broadcast for the first time that night, when he’ll help call the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas pay-per-view card from Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. As brutally honest as usual, the outspoken ESPN personality didn’t pull any punches when assessing his role on Bob Arum’s hand-picked broadcast team, which also includes former ESPN boxing analyst Brian Kenny and two-division champion Timothy Bradley.
“I’m nervous as hell, to be quite honest,” Smith told BoxingScene.com. “I’ve never called a fight in my life. But I grew up – and this is interesting when people call me the black Howard Cosell and stuff like that, which I’ve been called for years – but I grew up watching and listening to him on ‘Monday Night Football.’ But even prior to that, it was the Wide World of Sports that came on on Saturdays. Listening to Howard Cosell call boxing, I remember it. And my father still brings up all the time, when [Joe] Frazier was fighting [George] and [Cosell said], ‘Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!’ You hear about that religiously. I grew up listening to that stuff.
“Basketball’s my first love. I’ve grown to love football obviously, but boxing has always been a passion of mine. It’s something I’ve always watched – the major fights, of course, and I can’t say how great I feel about it. It’s hard to say and hard to put into words. I’m very excited, but I’m also nervous as hell because I’ve never done it before. It’s my first, and to do it for the first time on such a big stage, I’m just hoping and praying that I don’t embarrass myself.”
The 48-year-old Smith, who sits across from HBO boxing commentator Max Kellerman on ESPN’s “First Take” five days per week, is sure his broadcast partners will help ease his anxiety once he sits ringside for the four-fight telecast.
“Brian Kenny is a consummate professional and he is my former colleague at ESPN, obviously,” Smith said. “He did a great job for many years at ESPN, before he departed [for MLB Network and Showtime]. And Timothy Bradley is a champion, and knows the sport of boxing. I had the pleasure of meeting and conversing with him last year at Teddy Atlas’ foundation dinner. You also have to remember I know Teddy Atlas, and now Max Kellerman is my partner at ‘First Take.’ So when you look at it from that perspective, and just knowing the Tim Smiths of the world, the George Willises of the world, these are guys I’ve known for many years, [former and current newspaper columnists] that are synonymous with the sport of boxing, very familiar with it, very knowledgeable about it.
“So me knowing the sport the way that I do on my own, but then surrounding myself with individuals who know the sport, and knowing and talking on many occasions to Bob Arum, being friends with Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., and knowing Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and people like that, I’ve been around so many great minds in the sport of boxing, again, it really, really just comes down to my performance. It’s not about knowledge, because I know that I watch the sport, have reported on it and know it. But it’s really about being in that bubble. So I’m comfortable with the team. But it also elevates the pressure, because I expect Timothy Bradley to be great because he gets to give his expertise. I expect Brian Kenny to be great because he’s always great. The weak link, potentially, is me. I’m the one that’s the wild card. I’m the one that’s got to show up, because I have no doubt they’re going to.”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
