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Will Boxing Announcers Hold Back?

Jason Barrett

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A singular motivating force led HBO and Showtime to join forces this Saturday night in producing the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao rumble — greed.

The payday, the moo-la-dee, is what forced the suits (holding their noses no doubt) to mix and match voices from different sides of the aisle for this Pay-Per-View telecast. Their public proclamations promising a smooth fight night operation, and that all the announcers will remain neutral, are, at best, totally disingenuous.

Then again, these executives are involved in a sport where lying is simply a reflex action — kind of like breathing.

Each network has plenty at stake. The fighter who loses leaves Las Vegas as damaged goods to his network. The broadcasters working the fight know this. None of them enters the arena as a neutral commentator. At least one is honest enough to admit it.

“You can never completely erase that business relationship (between a fighter and your network), and what it means, from your mind,” Jim Lampley, the HBO voice who will call the fight, said over the telephone. “I know what our business relationship is in every fight we do. It seeps into your mind during a fight. It will Saturday night, too. But that doesn’t mean you can’t call the fight fairly.”

The gold-plated tracks Mayweather traveled from HBO to Showtime in 2012, when he left to sign a six-fight, $200 million deal with the CBS-owned company, are covered with bad blood.

Before leaving HBO, Mayweather tried to force a clause into his contract that would have prohibited Lampley and then-analyst Larry Merchant, from talking about any aspect of the fighter’s life outside the ring, including his history of domestic violence.

Merchant and Mayweather also verbally went at each other in a post-fight interview after the fighter’s controversial KO win over Victor Ortiz in 2011. Mayweather called for Merchant to be fired, adding, “You don’t know s— about boxing.” Merchant: “I wish I was 50 years younger and I’d kick your ass.”

No voice from Showtime would ever speak to Mayweather in such a harsh manner. Mayweather is not just Showtime’s biggest star. He also has an “executive producer” credit on all “specials” involving him and final say over all scripts. The network’s boxing voices mostly verbally genuflect to him. Al Bernstein, Showtime’s analyst, will join HBO analyst Roy Jones Jr. and Lampley for Saturday’s PPV telecast. Max Kellerman (HBO) and Jim Gray (Showtime) are ringside reporters. Steve Farhood (Showtime) and Harold Lederman (HBO) will be the unofficial scorers.

“There’s a delicate tension that goes with this production,” Lampley said. “Everyone knows these are two networks with conflicting business interests.”

Depending on whom we spoke with, either Lampley calling the fight was not an issue, or it was a huge one that was debated. On his show, “The Fight Game,” Lampley has consistently ripped Mayweather, once saying “for the betterment of boxing’s image, Floyd Mayweather’s retirement cannot come a moment too soon.”

Lampley said he won’t be dealing with Mayweather’s troubled past during the fight. “I don’t have to think about it,” Lampley said. “That’s for the host’s (James Brown) operation.” Through his career, Brown has not ducked issues.

But with Mayweather being such a controlling force at Showtime, will Brown dare to bring up Mayweather’s history of domestic violence during his segments? Considering his strong commentaries on cases of domestic violence in the NFL, Brown must know Mayweather once said that the NFL was overreacting to a videotape when it suspended Ray Rice.

Once the bell rings, the action inside the ring will dictate the voices’ commentary — or will it? Other than scoring figure skating, nothing is more subjective than analyzing, or scoring, a prize fight. This is when the relationship between boxing commentators can get contentious, especially if a fight such as Mayweather-Pacquiao is close.

Credit to the NY Daily News who originally published this article

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95.7 The Game’s Bonta Hill, Joe Shasky and Matt Nahigian Address KNBR Cuts

Jordan Bondurant

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A photo of Bonta Hill
(Photo: Bonta Hill)

Bay Area sports station KNBR parted ways with several staffers this week including morning show co-host Paul McCaffrey. The departures took many in sports media by surprise, including 95.7 The Game morning host Bonta Hill.

Hill, who worked at KNBR on the Murph and Mac show, felt obligated to discuss McCaffrey’s exit on The Morning Roast on Thursday, offering his condolences.

“Whenever I worked with him on that morning show as a board op or producer, I always left with a smile on my face,” Hill said. “They made me laugh, they treated me right, they taught me the ropes. And when you have an 18-year run together, that is legendary. Legendary.”

“Morning radio, that’s what we grew up on, and he was a pioneer,” Bonta added.

Bonta Hill shared that Mac was one of his favorite people at the station, and that he did and continues to look up to him.

“I just feel bad, man. Christmas is around the corner, and people are losing their jobs,” Hill said. “You never want to see that. You never want to see that, but Paulie Mac, Murph, those guys are one of one. They are. They truly are man.”

“Murph and Mac is the combo in this market in terms of longevity, excellence, what they symbolized with that Giants run and how we gravitated towards them,” co-host Joe Shasky chipped in. “All of my sports radio love came through those guys’ love for each other. And you could feel it.”

95.7 The Game brand manager Matt Nahigian echoed the sentiments from Hill during a video commentary on X. He said despite the two stations being fierce competitors, there’s a mutual respect between leadership, talent and staff.

“I think it’s important to point out that the stations compete against each other hardcore,” Nahigian said. “We want to beat each other every month in the ratings and the whole bit. But all of us for the most part get along really well.”

“KNBR didn’t gloat and celebrate when we made changes in March, and we won’t do that either,” he added. “Onward and upward. Great run by Paulie Mac, Murph and Mac.”

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Gary Danielson: CBS Sports Isn’t Required To Use Me For Big Ten Games

Danielson told 97.1 The Ticket’s Stoney & Jansen that just because he’s under contract doesn’t mean he’ll be on Big Ten games in 2024 with CBS.

Jordan Bondurant

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A photo of Gary Danielson
(Photo: CBS Sports)

Saturday marks the end of an era for CBS. The SEC championship game between Alabama and Georgia will be the final conference game on CBS before it takes over as one of the Big Ten’s media partners next year. Longtime color commentator Gary Danielson joined Stoney and Jansen on 97.1 The Ticket on Thursday ahead of Michigan’s appearance in the Big Ten championship, and Gary said it was hard to believe the SEC adventure was coming to an end.

“I started this gig in announcing in 1990 and then started at CBS in 2006, and this is it,” Danielson said.

Gary Danielson was asked if he would be a part of the new Big Ten broadcast crew alongside Brad Nessler, and he joked that it hadn’t been set in stone just yet.

“I have a contract, I guess they don’t have to use me,” he said. “I think they have to pay me. I’ll have to check it out one more time to make sure.”

Danielson did get a taste of some Big Ten broadcasting this season, though. He was on the call for three different games featuring Big Ten teams. He called UNLV/Michigan, Ohio State/Indiana and Penn State/Iowa.

Michigan is playing Iowa in the Big Ten title game on Saturday, and so Danielson thought it was nice that even though he didn’t get a full slate of Big Ten games to broadcast, he still was able to familiarize himself with the conference’s perennial powers.

“We saw the three best teams and Iowa,” Danielson said. “So that’s very interesting.”

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Greg Papa: ‘These Are Rough Times’ After KNBR Cuts

“Murph, I’ve known forever, going back to the A’s days. These are rough times. Things change.”

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A photo of Greg Papa
(Photo: KNBR)

Late Wednesday, it was unveiled that KNBR had undergone a series of cost-cutting measures that eliminated the jobs of morning co-host Paul McCaffrey and evening host F.P. Santangelo. KNBR midday host Greg Papa reflected on the changes Thursday morning.

To open Papa and Lund, Greg Papa took the opportunity to address the elephant in the room.

“With Murph and Mac, and Pauly, I’ve been on with them every Friday since I started working with the Niners in 2019, and we hardly ever talked football,” Papa said. “It was always about other things and coming to the studio and getting to know them. Murph, I’ve known forever, going back to the A’s days. These are rough times. Things change. Look at what’s going on with the RSNs in the country. Certainly, terrestrial radio is feeling the brunt of it for a number of factors.”

John Lund agreed, calling McCaffrey “one of my favorites”.

Fill-in host Deiter Kurtenbach hosted the morning show Thursday in place of Brian Murphy. Papa joked that the fill-in host needed a better understanding of radio if he’s going to have the job full-time.

“For Deiter, if you’re going to be on in the morning, you gotta get on the clock better. We can’t start at 10:08 AM. You get a false start right away.”

It is unclear what Murphy’s role with KNBR will be going forward. The station has removed him from its website, and he has yet to comment publicly about his future. Kurtenbach said this morning he would host the morning timeslot for the remainder of the week.

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