Latest news with #BoxingHallofFame
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'The Coal Miner's Daughter' Christy Martin, talks upcoming biopic starring Sydney Sweeney
(WSYR-TV) — Boxing Hall of Fame weekend is officially upon us, which will bring an array of A-list athletes to Central New York, including 'The Coal Miner's Daughter' Christy Martin, who stopped by Bridge Street to discuss he event along with her upcoming biopic. Although the movie does not yet have a title, it is set to release this November, and superstar Sydney Sweeney will be portraying the world-renowned boxer. Martin gained fame for her impressive record in the ring, along with breaking gender barriers within boxing to help establish female boxing as it is today. Martin discussed her life in the ring, along with the disparities she faced as a young gay woman from a small town in West Virginia. The biopic will focus on Martin's upbringing in a relatively conservative family, which ultimately caused her to hide who she was, turning to boxing as an outlet. The film will dive into he hardships she had to overcome, including her nightmarish marriage, and getting back on her feet. Martin expressed her excitement for Sweeney and believes that she will do her character justice while remaining true to her story. As for the Boxing Hall of Fame Ceremony, the festivities will kick off this Thursday, June 5, with the parade of champions (with Sydney Sweeney as the Grand Marshall) and the hall of fame induction ceremony happening on Sunday, June 8. To view the full schedule and learn more about the event, click here. Be sure to check out Christy's biopic in theaters in November! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jim Lampley wasn't supposed to fall in love with boxing. Instead, he became its voice
Jim Lampley poses next to his photo at the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., in June 2015. The longtime boxing broadcaster says his life story "reads like a fictional narrative." (Alex Menendez / Getty Images) Jim Lampley has been the voice of boxing for a generation of Americans, which is remarkable because the assignment was only supposed to last one fight. In the winter of 1986, Lampley had a new contract and a new boss who wanted him out. So Dennis Swanson, the head of the ABC's sports division, ordered Lampley to cover Mike Tyson's first fight on network TV in the hopes, Lampley said, he would embarrass himself and slink away. Advertisement Instead, Lampley nailed the assignment and a year later began what would be an unparalleled three-decade career calling fights for HBO. 'I knew from the moment I called that first fight I was home,' said Lampley, 76, whose work earned him induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 'I understood that was where I was supposed to be.' Read more: George Foreman, boxing legend who fought Muhammad Ali in the 'Rumble in the Jungle,' dies So 18 months later, on his agent's advice, Lampley walked into Swanson's office, signed the papers that separated him from ABC Sports, and never looked back. That's one of several stories Lampley tells in 'It Happened: A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television,' an autobiography of an admittedly charmed 50-year career in broadcasting. Advertisement 'My life story reads like a fictional narrative. That's the reason for the title,' Lampley said. 'It's the only way you can respond to something as totally counterintuitive, unexpected and filled with blessings as my career is to say, 'it happened.' 'I can't talk about anything that ever happened to me with anything less than astonishment.' The title of the book, written with journalist Art Chansky, is also a paean to Lampley's most famous call — the narration of George Foreman's stunning knockout of Michael Moorer, which allowed Foreman to become, at 45, the oldest heavyweight champion in history. 'Down goes Moorer on a right hand!. An unbelievably close-in right-hand shot! 'It happened! It happened!' George Foreman, left, punches Michael Moorer during their heavyweight championship fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in November 1994. Jim Lampley's call of the fight helped cement his place in boxing history. (Lennox McLendon / Associated Press) In the book, Lampley takes readers inside locker rooms in every league and into the conference rooms of every network. He shares family stories of growing up in the South at the start of the civil rights movement and dishes celebrity gossip about some of the biggest names in sports and broadcasting. Advertisement But if the career he describes was marked by good fortune — he got his first break at 24 when, still in graduate school, he was chosen from a field of 432 candidates to serve as the first network sideline reporter on ABC's college football broadcasts — he was also very good at what he did. Over his dozen years at ABC he called two Indy 500s, broadcast Major League Baseball, traveled the world reporting for 'Wide World of Sports,' interviewed President Ronald Reagan at Daytona, presided over the trophy presentation after Super Bowl XIX and covered the first of 14 Olympics. He interviewed Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig after the U.S. hockey team's Miracle on Ice, worked with Billie Jean King at Wimbledon, saw Richard Petty's final NASCAR victory and was close enough to smell the sweat at every significant title fight between 1988 and 2018. 'Given his long career across several networks, he probably has some juicy stories to tell,' said Daniel Durbin, a professor at the USC Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society. Yet it was a career that proved memorable as much for Lampley's timing as for his talent. Advertisement 'Jim was one of a group of 1970s college students who grew into sportscasters, that included Jim Nantz, Al Michaels, and Bob Costas,' Durbin continued. 'They pursued careers in a sort of golden age of sportscasting when 'Monday Night Football' had shown the tremendous potential of prime-time sports and ESPN and, later, Fox Sports were just on the horizon. 'He was a consistently strong sportscaster. A very good, workmanlike boxing broadcaster; well-prepared, clear and effective in his calls.' And every time his career seemed to reach a fork in the road, he inevitably chose the right path — one that has him returning to do blow by blow, this time on DAZN PPV, for a May 2 world championship card featuring Ryan Garcia, Teófimo López and Devin Haney, in separate bouts, live from Times Square. It will be his first fight call since HBO ended its boxing programming in 2018. Jim Lampley waves to the crowd during his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June 2015. (Heather Ainsworth / Associated Press) In between his start at ABC and his return to his ring-side seat this week, Lampley was the first program host listeners heard on WFAN, helping it grow into the biggest sports-talk station in the country; anchored coverage of the Olympics and the NFL on NBC; appeared regularly on 'The CBS Morning Show' and had his own syndicated interview program, 'One on One With Jim Lampley.' Advertisement 'I was working all the time,' he said. 'I was making piles of money, one paycheck on top of another.' But he's also remembered in Los Angeles for a life-changing five-year stint as co-anchor of the nightly news on Channel 2. 'When I was forced out of ABC Sports, my next gig, my landing spot, was at KCBS-TV,' Lampley said on an hourlong Zoom call from his home in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he sat before a wall covered with dozens of the media credentials he has gathered over the decades. 'The first thing I said to my agent was 'that's a local station. That's not a network gig'.' It came with a big contract though. And when the station brought in Bree Walker to join him behind the anchor desk, Lampley's personal life, as well as his career, took a turn. Advertisement 'There was a giant promotional campaign and a lot of hoopla,' Lampley remembered in an interview long on detail and short on regret. 'Yes, it probably boosted my image. [But] I found myself in a situation where I felt ill-equipped to compete with her particular studio skills on air. 'I decided that my best defense would be to get her to fall in love with me.' Read more: The rise and fall of Ryan Garcia: Embattled boxer wants to be the relatable anti-hero And she did, marrying Lampley and having a son with him before the couple divorced after nine years. It was 'Anchorman' 14 years before the Will Ferrell movie made Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone household names. Advertisement Months after moving to Los Angeles, Lampley also signed his first contract to call boxing on HBO, the job that would come to define his career. It was a job he was always meant to have since one of his earliest memories was of his widowed mother sitting him down in front of a television set perched on a TV dinner tray and putting on a Sugar Ray Robinson fight. He was 6. Eight years later he was in the Miami Beach Convention Hall to watch his boyhood idol Cassius Clay knock out Sonny Liston, and more than a quarter-century after that, Lampley was ringside in Tokyo for HBO when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, making him the only broadcaster to be present for the two greatest upsets in heavyweight boxing history. So it has been a uniquely lucky life. And, as the title of the book says, it happened. 'This was the way it was supposed to go,' Lampley said with a smile. 'It was preordained.' Advertisement Lampley will be in Los Angeles for a pair of book signings, on May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove and on May 10 at 2 p.m. at the Wild Card Boxing Club. The event at the Grove will feature a Q and A session moderated by KCBS-TV sports director Jim Hill. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE George Clooney's baseball career, Bob Dylan's greed and sports' darkest day: Inside my dinner with iconic TV star Jim Lampley
George Clooney tried out for his hometown Cincinnati Reds, Mike Tyson 's lingering childhood trauma prompted his return to the ring at 58, and as for Bob Dylan, well, his famed abhorrence of money is really more of a guideline than a strict rule. Such are the random, insightful nuggets I learned while dining with Jim Lampley, the broadcasting legend, raconteur and author of the new memoir, It Happened! A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television. Now 76, with a full head of graying hair and his unmistakable smile intact, Lampley has been promoting the fascinating work across the US. But rather than a formal interview with the Daily Mail, Lampley's publicist and fellow Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Fred Sternberg arranged an intimate dinner at a busy Manhattan steakhouse that became the stage for a sequence of tales, all equally engaging and eclectic. Lampley once filmed a cameo for the 2001 Ocean's Eleven remake, where he said Clooney confessed to his humiliating Reds tryout. '[Clooney] toppled backwards trying to escape a curveball that dropped in for a strike on the outside part of the plate,' he recalled. A few years later, Lampley started his own production company, bought the rights to Dylan's 2004 book, Chronicles, and took several meetings with the folk singer in hopes of producing an adaption for HBO. 'The only question I can ever remember Bob asking about the project, two or three times, was, "How much money am I going to make?"' George Clooney tried, and failed, to get a contract offer from his hometown Cincinnati Reds, while Bob Dylan was singularly focused on how much money he could earn with Jim Lampley Ultimately the project didn't go anywhere. 'I asked HBO to gently and lovingly kick me in the teeth,' Lampley said. 'Which they did.' And therein lies the charm of his stories, which are humorous and self-deprecating, even as he drops one headline name after another. Of course, Lampley's proximity to some of the most interesting people and events of the last 50 years is no surprise. Few play-by-play announcers can approach his distinguished resume or breadth of experience across the greatest sporting events of the 20th and early 21st centuries. As a teenager in Miami, his mother - and inspiration for his book - Peggy Lampley, drove him to watch an underdog Cassius Clay stun heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in 1964. A decade later, Lampley began his career as a college football sideline reporter when he won a nationwide ABC talent search. Since then, he's covered everything from the World Series to the Super Bowl and Wimbledon to the Indianapolis 500 - not to mention his 30-year reign as HBO's undisputed voice of boxing. And it was in the latter role that Lampley befriended a fading Tyson, who at 58 years old remains one of the most complicated figures in sports after his controversial decision to fight Jake Paul for a reported $20 million. 'For Mike, any legitimate, heartfelt deprivation puts him back in the tenement apartment in Brooklyn waiting for his mother to come home from the corner bar,' Lampley said, pointing to Tyson's traumatic childhood in Brownsville. 'So the notion that somebody cooks up a scheme by which Mike is going to make another eight-figure sum of money, there's no way he's going to say no.' Though, it hasn't been all checkered flags and Champagne rooms for Lampley, who was forced into far less glamorous assignments with ABC's Wide World of Sports. He's also been tasked with covering wrist wrestling championships, lumberjack events and, worst of all, he says, a cheerleading competition in Daytona Beach. There have also been tragedies along the way. Lampley was at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, where eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September killed 11 Israeli Olympians. At the time, millions of Americans were riveted by Jim McKay's 14-hour broadcast on ABC Sports, culminating with his solemn words: 'Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning, nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone.' The broadcast remains an essential moment in sports history due, in part, to ABC producer Roone Arledge, whose off-screen maneuvering was witnessed, studied and committed to memory by then 26-year-old Lampley. '[Chris] Schenkel was the primetime host,' Lampley said in his inescapable anchor-toned delivery. 'Schenkel had been the primetime host in Mexico City [in 1968]. He was still the primetime host in Munich.' 'When they learn what's going on in the Olympic Village, Arledge calls in a subordinate named Jeff Mason, coordinating Olympics producer,' Lampley continued. 'He says, "Jeff, I have a complicated assignment for you. I need you to go out and undertake a diligent search for Chris… and I need you not to find him. And then I need you to find out where McKay is and put him in the chair."' And with that, the affable Schenkel - ABC's top anchor - was replaced with McKay's dignified gravitas. 'That succession took place at that moment because Roone knew that Chris's personality was utterly and completely wrong for that and that McKay was fundamentally a newsman,' Lampley said. '"Put McKay in the chair." That's Arledge's genius.' Even when he wasn't working, Lampley still had a knack for gaining entry to the biggest sporting events, due in no small part to his celebrity status. As his wife, Debra, said, Lampley is 'the right level of famous' - which is to say he receives some perks without any major drawbacks. Take Oct. 18, 1977, when he witnessed Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson's historic three-homer performance in Game 6 of the World Series. As Lampley explains in 'It Happened!', those tickets were provided by none other than Mr. October himself. But for all of his good fortune, Lampley considers himself most lucky to have learned under Arledge, the canonized creator of Monday Night Football, not to mention McKay and fellow ABC Sports legend Howard Cosell, both of whom regarded the younger announcer as a threat. 'It was unique for me to work in that environment, with all of those people already with their personas, already who they were, and managing to perform well enough to survive that culture and to not be demolished,' Lampley said. 'This is despite the fact that Cosell hated me and McKay hated me.' Lampley immediately picked up on our surprise, not at the famously competitive Cosell disliking a younger announcer, but at the venerable McKay feeling that way as well. 'You would have thought that McKay would be big enough,' Lampley said. 'You know, elevated enough... No way.' He also worked at ABC and NBC with O.J. Simpson, whom he befriended until 1994, when Lampley became convinced the Buffalo Bills legend was guilty of murdering ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Larry Holmes (left) lands a jab against challenger and former champ Muhammad Ali in 1980 But for as much time as Lampley has spent ringside, courtside and in the booth, he's had nearly as much firsthand experience with the biggest names in music, film, business and politics. Lampley was golfing buddies with Hollywood hero Jack Nicholson, befriended Simpson's co-creator James L. Brooks and even spent some time with then New York real estate developer Donald Trump, although he can't say they were ever real acquaintances. And as is so often the case in these elite circles, Lampley's A-list friends would often introduce him to an even higher echelon of socialites, like the time Arledge invited him and Mick Jagger to watch Muhammad Ali's 1980 loss to Larry Holmes on closed-circuit television. 'Closing stage of his career, Ali is fighting the necessary passion play against Larry Holmes,' Lampley said ahead of dessert. 'And Holmes, [Ali's] former sparring partner, is now going to wipe the canvas with him and become the heavyweight champion, and the fight is not mercifully brief.' The viewing took place on the 16th floor at ABC, where guests slowly began imploring referee Richard Green to stop the fight all the way in Las Vegas. Ali's corner would throw in the towel after 10 rounds, but not before Jagger offered a perfect synopsis of what the crowd of 30-somethings were witnessing. 'I feel this little poke at the bottom of my rib cage,' Lampley said. 'I look down and it's Mick. And Mick says, "Do you know what we're watching, Lamps?" 'I said, "No, Mick, what are we watching?" '"It's the end of our youth,"' Lampley said, quoting Jagger. 'That's the greatest line of commentary: "It's the end of our youth." Because so many from the Baby Boomer generation had dated themselves by [Ali].' Yes, Lampley is, himself, a Baby Boomer. But like his recently deceased friend George Foreman, whose 1994 upset of Michael Moorer is referenced by the title of It Happened!, Lampley has remained relevant for decades. Announcers don't have expiration dates, and as long as they know how to tell the right story in the most interesting way possible, there will always be an audience willing to listen. And for that, Lampley remains eternally grateful. As he wrote about his memoir in the book's prologue, 'It's the story of how my life constantly and repeatedly rescued itself from self-destruction and left me with identities and encounters that are in some ways unique for an American sportscaster.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP TEAM: NBA CHAMPION MATT BARNES NAMED CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, BRIAN DAILEY NAMED PRESIDENT AND COO
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS today announced the appointment of co-founders Matt Barnes and Brian Dailey to formal roles within the company. Barnes, the NBA Champion-turned-media entrepreneur, will serve as Chief Executive Officer, while Dailey, a former Showtime Sports programming executive, will assume the role of President and Chief Operating Officer. ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS was founded in 2024 following the closure of Showtime Sports, the television network division that helped launch the sports and culture-shaping digital series ALL THE SMOKE WITH MATT BARNES AND STEPHEN JACKSON in 2019. The ATSP ethos stems from its flagship series, focusing on unfiltered, authentic storytelling led by athletes themselves. "We founded ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS to change the game and that is what we are doing," said Barnes. "We are telling authentic stories that matter, and it's been an incredible journey to see the impact we've had in such a short time. Year two of this company is about expanding that vision and creating more opportunities for athletes to have a voice in how their stories are told." "The world of sports media is rapidly evolving," said Dailey, "and ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS is at the forefront of that transformation. We're not just creating compelling, important content—podcasts, series, documentaries and brands—we are leading a movement to amplify varied and diverse voices, inspire audiences and engage fans on a deeper level." In 2024, the company made significant strides to quickly re-establish infrastructure, launch new intellectual property and continue to grow its already sizable digital audience. It also launched a new content division, ALL THE SMOKE FIGHT, bringing its total digital reach to over 20 million. The company signed Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Andre Ward and Roy Jones Jr., to key roles and established a progressive distribution strategy across social platforms, YouTube, and all major podcast outlets. New deals are pending with major OTT and streaming services. Additionally, ALL THE SMOKE expanded its brand with a coffee table book from Simon & Schuster, a new premium Mezcal, a limited-edition sneaker collaboration, and a premium merchandise line. The company partnered with Live Nation to launch a live series, Smoke Tour Live, strengthened its alliance with online sports betting leader DraftKings, audio giant iHeartRadio and formed strategic partnerships with Meadowlark Media and Kevin Durant's Boardroom brand. Today, just one year after its founding, ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS produces more than eight regularly scheduled premium digital series at the intersection of sports and culture, including ALL THE SMOKE, UNPLUGGED, THE ART OF WARD, MORNING KOMBAT and, in conjunction with Kevin Garnett's Content Cartel, KG: CERTIFIED and TICKET & THE TRUTH. Additional series along with multiple documentary film projects are currently in development to be announced this year. Barnes, a member of the 2007 "We Believe" Warriors and the 2017 NBA Champion Warriors, transitioned into media following his 14-year NBA career. Along with fellow Champion and friend Stephen Jackson, Barnes founded ALL THE SMOKE in 2019, and the series quickly gained success, earning multiple awards and industry accolades, including the 2024 NAACP Image Awards, 2023 Webby Awards, and the 2021 iHeart Radio Podcast Awards. Dailey served as Senior Vice President of Sports Programming and Strategy at Showtime Networks from 2019 until the department's closure. His leadership played a key role in transforming Showtime Sports into a leader in innovative, culturally relevant sports content and distribution. Dailey's connections with athletes, artists, and creative brands set new standards in collaborative promotion and fan engagement. He has produced several unscripted sports films and series for both linear and digital distribution. Prior to Showtime, Dailey worked at ESPN, where he developed key partnerships and pioneered broadcast integrations. Media Contact:Chris DeBlasioE: Cdeblasio99@ @AllTheSmokeProductions * @allthesmokeprod * @ * All The Smoke Productions View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE ALL THE SMOKE PRODUCTIONS
