HBO Still Better Than Showtime

[jbp23]

Today seems like a lot of bashing of HBO's coverage of the Martinez fight and a lot of praises for Showtimes performances. That is hard to believe because I think Showtime is cheap when it comes to its boxing coverage and commentators. For one Al Bernstein, who has not shaved that moustache in over 30yrs., is nothing but a wanna be casino lounge singer at some 3rd class casino (that is true he is a lounge singer). He does not know how to be critical. If there is a bad ref or judge he will not call them out on it. And in the rarity when he does call a fighter or ref out he is usually wrong. This next issue is really annoying, he is always kissing Antonio Tarver's ass! No matter what Tarver says, even if its ridiculous, makes no sense, or is just some generic remark Bernstein compliments him and kisses his ass. Its not like Tarver is an ATG in which he deserves worship. Now Tarver, although he has gotten better he is still awful. All he does is throw out platitudes over and over. I can see why Showtime thought he would of made a good expert commentator because during his interviews or fight promotions he spoke well and was good on camera, but his ability did not translate over to being an expert commentator. The reason why is Tarver only knows how to speak well and be good on camera when its only about himself. Basically he is only good at talking and complementing himself. The new guy, I don't even recall his name, the black guy. You can tell he is just a generic sports announcer and he knows very little of boxing. He makes ridiculous metaphors, he is overly excited when nothing seems to be happening, he is just not cut out to be a boxing announcer. I find him somewhat disrespectful; for example last weeks Juan Manuel Lopez fight, instead of being professional and calling Lopez by either his last name, Lopez, or his full name, Juan Manuel Lopez, he kept calling him by his nick name Juanma. If you want to be professional and if your the lead play by play guy you don't call the fighter out by his nickname, that's just unprofessional and disrespectful. I just thought it was extremely annoying. He should go back to being the weekend 10pm local news sports newscaster in your average medium to small city.

[ThePunchingBag]

[Bombs]

[MARKBNLV]

Showtime has a much smaller budget,Al Bernstein thinks your mom smells like fish.

[MurkaMan]

Today seems like a lot of bashing of HBO's coverage of the Martinez fight and a lot of praises for Showtimes performances. That is hard to believe because I think Showtime is cheap when it comes to its boxing coverage and commentators. For one Al Bernstein, who has not shaved that moustache in over 30yrs., is nothing but a wanna be casino lounge singer at some 3rd class casino (that is true he is a lounge singer). He does not know how to be critical. If there is a bad ref or judge he will not call them out on it. And in the rarity when he does call a fighter or ref out he is usually wrong. This next issue is really annoying, he is always kissing Antonio Tarver's ass! No matter what Tarver says, even if its ridiculous, makes no sense, or is just some generic remark Bernstein compliments him and kisses his ass. Its not like Tarver is an ATG in which he deserves worship. Now Tarver, although he has gotten better he is still awful. All he does is throw out platitudes over and over. I can see why Showtime thought he would of made a good expert commentator because during his interviews or fight promotions he spoke well and was good on camera, but his ability did not translate over to being an expert commentator. The reason why is Tarver only knows how to speak well and be good on camera when its only about himself. Basically he is only good at talking and complementing himself. The new guy, I don't even recall his name, the black guy. You can tell he is just a generic sports announcer and he knows very little of boxing. He makes ridiculous metaphors, he is overly excited when nothing seems to be happening, he is just not cut out to be a boxing announcer. I find him somewhat disrespectful; for example last weeks Juan Manuel Lopez fight, instead of being professional and calling Lopez by either his last name, Lopez, or his full name, Juan Manuel Lopez, he kept calling him by his nick name Juanma. If you want to be professional and if your the lead play by play guy you don't call the fighter out by his nickname, that's just unprofessional and disrespectful. I just thought it was extremely annoying. He should go back to being the weekend 10pm local news sports newscaster in your average medium to small city.

WOWWW...This whole thing was an EXCELLENT read...it was very engrossing reading this...u made some great points throughout the entire paragraph, and what u said about Al, and the other commentators..funny as HELL and true also...great job at making me laugh tonight

[MurkaMan]

Today seems like a lot of bashing of HBO's coverage of the Martinez fight and a lot of praises for Showtimes performances. That is hard to believe because I think Showtime is cheap when it comes to its boxing coverage and commentators. For one Al Bernstein, who has not shaved that moustache in over 30yrs., is nothing but a wanna be casino lounge singer at some 3rd class casino (that is true he is a lounge singer). He does not know how to be critical. If there is a bad ref or judge he will not call them out on it. And in the rarity when he does call a fighter or ref out he is usually wrong. This next issue is really annoying, he is always kissing Antonio Tarver's ass! No matter what Tarver says, even if its ridiculous, makes no sense, or is just some generic remark Bernstein compliments him and kisses his ass. Its not like Tarver is an ATG in which he deserves worship. Now Tarver, although he has gotten better he is still awful. All he does is throw out platitudes over and over. I can see why Showtime thought he would of made a good expert commentator because during his interviews or fight promotions he spoke well and was good on camera, but his ability did not translate over to being an expert commentator. The reason why is Tarver only knows how to speak well and be good on camera when its only about himself. Basically he is only good at talking and complementing himself. The new guy, I don't even recall his name, the black guy. You can tell he is just a generic sports announcer and he knows very little of boxing. He makes ridiculous metaphors, he is overly excited when nothing seems to be happening, he is just not cut out to be a boxing announcer. I find him somewhat disrespectful; for example last weeks Juan Manuel Lopez fight, instead of being professional and calling Lopez by either his last name, Lopez, or his full name, Juan Manuel Lopez, he kept calling him by his nick name Juanma. If you want to be professional and if your the lead play by play guy you don't call the fighter out by his nickname, that's just unprofessional and disrespectful. I just thought it was extremely annoying. He should go back to being the weekend 10pm local news sports newscaster in your average medium to small city.

But I want to add....when showtime does a commercial for a fight, or a promo, it BLOWS HBO out of the water...their promos are futuristic...HBO's fight commercials are kind of outdated...other than that, everything showtime does is cheap

[boxing is alive]

I lol'ed at the casino lounge singer comment. So true! I dont completely agree with all of your post, but you make very valid points. Bernstein does kiss tarver's ass, but the hbo guys love to kiss roy jones' ass too. Every time I hear tarver though, all I can think of is sylvester the cat "sufferin succotash!" and thr guy you'rr referring to is gus johnson. I dont think it's necessarily disrespectful that he refers to boxers by their nicknames, but he does need to calm the hell down. It's as if he's never been to a live event before. Sit down and stfu!