CBS has occasionally broadcast boxing events; its first broadcast occurred in 1948. The network's most recent broadcasts of the sport have fallen under Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions banner, and its most recent primetime broadcasts have been produced by sister pay television channel Showtime.
CBS' earliest experience with boxing dates back to 1948 with the debut of Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts . The program, featuring blow-by-blow commentator Russ Hodges, [1] lasted through 1955.
CBS had a renewed interest in boxing after losing the National Football Conference package to Fox following the 1993 season. In 1994, they had a new series of fights on Saturday or Sundays under the Eye on Sports [2] banner. Tim Ryan (blow-by-blow) and Gil Clancy (color) were the commentators during this period. [3] CBS continued airing boxing on a somewhat regular basis until 1998, by which time they had the NFL (after acquiring the American Football Conference package from NBC) and college football back on their slate.
On the afternoon of December 15, 2012, as part of a larger marathon of live boxing events being broadcast that day by sister premium network Showtime, CBS broadcast Showtime Boxing on CBS—which featured a main event between Leo Santa Cruz and Alberto Guevara from Los Angeles. The telecast, although delayed due to an overrunning college basketball game, was seen by approximately 1.5 million households. It marked the first live broadcast of a boxing event on CBS since 1997. [4] [5]
In February 2015, CBS Sports reached a deal with Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions to air a series of eight, Saturday afternoon cards (branded as PBC on CBS). [6] CBS Sports Network also aired shoulder programming for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao. [7] [8] In 2016, CBS Sports Network began to pick up a larger number of events from smaller promoters such as Roy Jones Jr. and Pep Gomez. [9]
On June 25, 2016, as part of PBC, CBS broadcast Showtime-produced coverage of a card featuring a WBC welterweight championship fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter, marking the first boxing event broadcast on CBS in primetime since 1978. [10] [11] The following March, CBS aired Thurman's welterweight unification bout against Danny García. [12] [13] [14] [15]
Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali's trainer, was brought in to be Sugar Ray Leonard's trainer and manager. Long-time coaches Janks Morton, Dave Jacobs and lawyer Mike Trainer made up the rest of Leonard's team. Promoted by ABC-TV as their replacement for the aging Ali, Leonard made $40,000 for his first professional fight (then a record) against Puerto Rican Luis Vega. The fight was televised nationally on CBS-TV, and the novice Leonard won by a 6-round unanimous decision.
For decades, from the 1920s to the 1980s, world championship matches in professional boxing were scheduled for fifteen rounds, but that changed after a November 13, 1982 WBA Lightweight title bout ended with the death of boxer Kim Duk-koo [16] in a fight against Ray Mancini in the 14th round of a nationally televised championship fight on CBS. Exactly three months after the fatal fight, the WBC reduced the number of their championship fights to 12 rounds. It was also the last fight to air as part of strike replacement programming on CBS because of the NFL strike, [17] which ended three days later.
A then 14-0 Oscar De La Hoya appeared on a December 10, 1994 card for CBS.
The last time CBS aired a live boxing event [18] prior to 2012, was on January 20, 1997, when then-middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins knocked out Glen Johnson in the 11th round.
HBO World Championship Boxing is an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973 with a fight that saw George Foreman defeat Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica.
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Barry David Tompkins is an American sportscaster. He is better known for his work as a boxing commentator, but he has covered football and other sports.
Larry Merchant is an American sportswriter, a longtime commentator for HBO sports presentations of HBO World Championship Boxing, Boxing After Dark and HBO pay-per-view telecasts, called "the greatest television boxing analyst of all time" by some, including ESPN Boxing analyst Dan Rafael.
George Allen "Pat" Summerall was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN. In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announced 16 Super Bowls on network television, 26 Masters Tournaments, and 21 US Opens. He contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame host or analyst.
The NFL on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts since 1956. From 2014 to 2017, CBS also broadcast Thursday Night Football games during the first half of the NFL season, through a production partnership with NFL Network.
Don Dunphy was an American television and radio sports announcer specializing in boxing broadcasts. Dunphy was noted for his fast-paced delivery and enthusiasm for the sport. It is estimated that he did "blow-by-blow" action for over 2,000 fights, including historic bouts like the 1971 Fight of the Century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The Friday Night Fights were broadcast every Friday evening from (radio and television 9 P.M. to 10:45 P.M on ABC.
Thomas Jefferson Brookshier was an American professional football player, coach, and sportscaster. He was a starting defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons, from 1953 to 1961. He later paired with Pat Summerall on the primary broadcast team for NFL games on CBS during the 1970s.
Mauro Domenico Ranallo is a Canadian sports announcer, commentator and mental health advocate. He is currently signed as a play-by-play announcer with MMA organization Bellator, and also performs play-by-play duties for boxing broadcaster Showtime. He is also known for his time with WWE on the NXT and SmackDown brands. He has experience in Canadian football, ice hockey, professional wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts events.
Tim Ryan is a retired Canadian-born American sportscaster. Ryan was born in Winnipeg and raised in Toronto and attended De La Salle College (Toronto). His father, Joe, was general manager of three Canadian Football League teams in Winnipeg, Montreal and Edmonton and is an honoured member of both the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Showtime Championship Boxing is a television boxing program airing on Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it is broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. Showtime Championship Boxing, which is very similar to HBO World Championship Boxing, features Mauro Ranallo on play-by-play, Al Bernstein as the color analyst, Jimmy Lennon as ring announcers, and Jim Gray as reporter.
Boxing on NBC is the de facto title for NBC Sports' boxing television coverage.
Keith Fitzgerald Thurman Jr. is an American professional boxer. He is a former unified welterweight world champion, having held the WBA title From 2015 to 2019, and previously the WBC title from 2017 to 2018. Nicknamed "One Time" for his formidable knockout power, Thurman is considered one of the hardest punchers in the welterweight division. As of August 2020, he is ranked as the world's fourth best active welterweight by The Ring magazine, fifth by BoxRec, and sixth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, billed as the Fight of the Century or the Battle for Greatness, was a professional boxing match between undefeated five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. It took place on May 2, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Mayweather Jr. won the contest by unanimous decision, with two judges scoring it 116–112 and the other 118–110. Although the fight was considered to be one of the most anticipated sporting events in history, it was largely considered a letdown by critics and audiences alike upon its broadcast.
Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) is an ongoing series of televised boxing events connected to manager Al Haymon.
Stephen Espinoza is an American sports and corporate executive. He is the President of Showtime Sports.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
Boxing on ABC refers to a series of boxing events that have been televised on the American Broadcasting Company. Many of these events aired under the Wide World of Sports banner which began on April 11, 1964 when challenger Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeated champion Sonny Liston in the seventh round. ABC's final boxing card occurred on June 17, 2000.
Boxing on Fox refers to a series of boxing events produced by Fox Sports and televised by the Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Sports 1.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Logan Paul, billed as "Bragging Rights", was an exhibition boxing match between former five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and YouTuber Logan Paul. It took place on June 6, 2021, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The fight reportedly sold more than one million pay-per-view buys.