Do you dislike Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman? I find them artificial, too formal, etc

[billeau2]

No matter how much Max learns about the sport, he just doesn't "get it".
Jim is a company man and is sometimes disingenuous in who he hypes up but I get the sense that he genuinely knows and loves the sport.

Dude you hit the perfect note...I have been trying for some time now to conceptualize how I feel about Max....Right on about Jim also, but that one is fairly straight foward.

To get the true genius of how you describe Max one has to go into Max's world a bit (dream sequence music please). I grew up a generation behind Max but under somewhat similar circumstances. White, part of the tribe (I am half ***ish), living in a hood in the city with a diverse mix of kids...In these times a bright kid could go places in the city. You had a public education system that could accomodate bright kids at the High school level. Max went to what some consider the most exclusive public school in the country, at least back then when he went to Hunter High Shool. These schools, when not recruiting for the government, produced individuals like judges, captians of industry, entertainment figures, etc. it was reinforced to Max that he was "special," probably at home as well as I would imagine his parents were probably professors or some type of teachers able to coach Max and his departed brother.

Max was, in a word, extremely talented and encouraged along, part of a merit based system of elitism, but one where, by and large, people never lost their roots. Like Max, and many other wiz kids coopted in New York City for intellectual qualities, Max never went downtown to wall street with the rich ivy league, boarding school crowd. Instead he was a rapper for a while, and found his way to the blue collar world of sports...instead of calling stock prices for hedge funds managed by conneticut transplants, max was calling fights for the plumbers, city workers, and other blue collar fans riding the NYC train system out to the outer boroughs after a day at work and pontificating on that "British *** Lennox Lewis" and the greatness that was Mike Tyson.

Yet Max could never drop the bourgasie, elitist pedigree that he was so desperate to disown... Much like Dennis Miller, Max never found a way into this underbelly of boxing, into the prolatariot fan base of guys who would rather knuckle up to decide a fine point than quote Aristotle...Cosell did, but Max, like Dennis Miller for that matter, just couldn't get it (as you say). And that is why imo you peg max so well. Max is the kid in the room who wants to be down, desperately. He is the smart aleck kid who makes a quip that goes over heads in the room and akwardly backpedals. With Max half the problem is social the other is his failure to imagine that as bright as he is, he may just not understand the concepts that are used to deconstruct fights and fighters. Max also has virtually no technical understanding of boxing and thats another problem...sorry Max the Hegalian dialectic only takes one so far as a substitute for Aristotle's Horse sense (common sense).

By contrast a guy like malinaggi, who is a real twat, gets it. paulie analyzes boxing well and has a connection to the casual fan all the way up. Max just does not connect, he does not understand the sport and tries to substitute analysis for experience. He just does not get it.

I don't know the fascination with guys like Max and Miller. Its like the networks seem to think the daily news readers need shakespear to understand the trajedy Mike Tyson experiened... or something. every few years the networks decide to pull one of these guys out and trot them before the sports public. Cosell is the only one who lasted and that was probably a good part because of his relationship to Ali.

To really get why max fails consider larry merchant. Larry came up hard, in the press room, watching and writing about fights. Burt Sugar, who was very well educated decided to abandon the patina of letters...most people do not know he had a law degree (I think the University of Michigan) who went to college in one of DC's high brow schools...But Burt left his diploma on the curb, or rather he used it to light up a cigar and to buy a Fedora. Burt applied the same tools of craft to analyzing fighters...Max on the other hand has never analyzed much of anything in regards to boxers and boxing. Burt realized in his infinite wisdom that boxing, being a blue collar type enterprise demanded that he adapt his persona, Max is still trying to get people to be down with his persona...No max does not get it.

lamply is a shill, nuff said on that one.

[R_Walken]

WTF was with Lampley calling Crawfords mother his Mama. He's such a sneaky POS

[GOT BEEF?]

Lampley is alright, Kellerman is barely tolerable at this point though. Too much "slick this, slick that". He doesn't appreciate fighters who show underrated slickness. Only what he sees fit as slick. He praises Golovkin for being strong and heavy handed but not on his actual boxing skill.

[////]

Lampley is one of the best. He's boxing's Jim Ross and just has one of those voices.

Kellerman is terrible. Weakest link in the whole HBO broadcast. Dorky baseball fan trying to sound "street".

[Helm]

I don't like both of them.

I would like to hear a technical commentary during the fight and not the way they talk about it.

They don't have a clue about the techniques.

[GOT BEEF?]

Lampley is one of the best. He's boxing's Jim Ross and just has one of those voices.

Kellerman is terrible. Weakest link in the whole HBO broadcast. Dorky baseball fan trying to sound "street".

Interesting. I've never heard him trying to act "street".

He does rather try to sound much smarter than he truly is.

[DinoCop]

I like the way Max trolls fighters in interviews and drives them mad

[FlatLine]

Kellerman got better, I used to dislike the guy a lot. The way he interviewed Casamayor after he KOd Katsidis back in 2008, you could tell he was just p!ssed off with Casamayor for finishing off his hero and he showed very little respect. But since then he has improved, although still has some questionable moments.

Much the same way, Lampley is hit and miss, sometimes he has some interesting insight, sometimes it's just talk to fit the company-line, propagating HBO agenda.

Can't really blame them since they are just pawns for the corporation, that's what they're paid to do. Whoever HBO hire will do the same thing so Lampley and Kellerman are decent enough "yes men", in an industry of inevitable "yes men".

[stuff jones]

Do people expect them to have the limited vocabulary of most boxers?

[Mr. Philadel]

Max is like a hardcore rapper that crossed over....sold his soul!! Lamp is a f×ck boy...I don't like him...Max is STILL likeable when he forgets about the script he's paid to follow