Shannon Briggs to become a regular substitute commentator for ESPN

According to Mike Marley he'll be on the broadcasts when Teddy Atlas is unavailable.

He will be on this week's broadcast of Chris Byrd-Shaun George, and will be working when Atlas is at the Olympics.

 

Somehow, REED Doesn't Think Briggs EVER Saw himself Being "The Next Scott LeDoux"...

But Oh Well:dunno: ...

He'll B GOOD @ the Gig...Well-Spoken & OPINIONATED...


REED

 

I don't think Briggs is particularly good which will make him a nice improvement.

 

Teddy should stop confronting/scaring execs...

 

::

Well said.

ESPN boxing suffers because most of their fights aren't great and their commentating isn't either.

There's hardly any announce teams I like these days outside of Showtime's CB crew (and that's because I can tolerate Albert).

I don't particularly like HBO's, though I'd like it better if Papa replaced Lampley.

I don't really like Nick Charles, which is problematic since he does Shobox and Versus (which also has Wally Matthews whom I don't like).

I am glad that at least O'grady is basically off the air.

Bernstein, Marotta and Farhood are the only ones I really like to listen to.

 

I love the HBO crew

Lamps is a cheerleader.. foreman is hilarious, max is pretty knowledgable, and Larry is a raging drunk

 

Lampley is atrocious, IMO.

Foreman? What year is this? ::

Max isn't all that knowledgeable...and sometimes when he thinks he is (like when he's correcting Lampley) he's wrong. He knows more about some boxing history (whereas Lampley knows virtually none), but he can't analyze a fight. Steward is supposed to do that, but he often doesn't.

Atlas is the opposite, he over analyzes fights, even the ones where you'd wish they'd talk about anything but the garbage going on in the ring...like an undefeated prospect vs. washed up never-was.

 

well.. to me it's all comical..

Lamply makes it funny.. even Manny makes it funny, saying "Spare-ing" and I enjoy him

Max is good IMO.. he LOVES boxing

and Larry is a trip!

 

Lampley just likes to be on tv and near celebrities, IMO.

He brings nothing to the role except his cheering.

Merchant is at least somewhat interested in boxing, though probably not as much as he used to be.

 

Merchant is by far the most boring TV personality in the history of TV personalities.

 

I completely disagree that Merchant was boring, but even if you think that, he had the smallest role on the HBO broadcast team.

Lampley is the lead, and dominates the broadcast, which makes his shortcomings even worse, IMO.

 

Not saying it as a joke, I do actually believe it. The man pauses 5 seconds in between each word.

 

Larry Merchant hates Floyd and thinks he's a farce and laughs in Floyd's face when Floyd gets defensive. Larry rules! He can make any ghetto thug wannabe look like an idiot.:: :clap:

 

For a guy who hates Floyd, you sure do think about him alot.

 

Actually I was thinking about Larry Merchant. And with Merchant comes Hopkins and Floyd, 2 of the more entertaining subjects during Merchant's post-fight interviews.

 

I can not believe the hate on Larry:dunno: he is awesome!

I love the 5 second pauses or when he loses a train of thought.. or even more when he is slurring from too many jack and cokes

 

I don't recall seeing Hopkins name in your first post.

 

The only thing I hate more than Lederman's scorecard is when Merchant chimes in...."I have it....................................6rounds..........................................to....................................0......for...............................................................................................................Oscar."

 

I like his scorecards better than Lampley's punch stats.

 

tallest midget

 

Merchant improved a lot in the 00's. In the 90's his preparation was pathetic. Not sure about how he was in the 80's.

 

he was at his best in the 30's

 

Disagree.

Without Merchant's scorecards, you'd basically just have Lederman's card as the only unofficial scorecard on HBO.

Punch stats are meaningless without context, which Lampley fails to provide.

 

For smaller fights I can agree to some extent.

But for the bigger fights, I think he got worse.

 

hmmm...i never distinguished so i'm not sure. HBO had far fewer fights in the 90's than they do now. I just remember him not knowing who Eubank was, never seeing Hamed...that kind of stuff. Inexcusable, imo.

 

What I meant was that for the World Championship Boxing/Pay Per Views (main events, primarily), he was better then than he is now.

He was sharper and more insightful with his comments, because he knew of the fighter's involved and had more interest, IMO, and seemed to follow the fights more closely.

Lampley was better then, as well.

But Lampley's wandered and Merchant hasn't kept him in the ballpark as well as I'd like, in some broadcasts in particular.

He may be more informed now on some fighters, but then, many of those great and more obscure fights/fighters (that were a staple of BAD) are gone from the network, so the pool of fighters is much more shallow now, IMO, so the homework may be less....especially when he's splitting duties with Kellerman.

 

The punch stats Lampley quotes are based on data which is largely accurate. Merchant's scorecard is based on an opinion which, whether seen as accurate or not, takes way too long to convey.

 

Merchant was BETTER N the 80's...

He Actually Seemed to LIKE Boxing Back Then, he was MUCH More RESPECTFUL to the Fighters & he DIDN'T have a Built In HATRED of Fighters (Not Until the LATE 80's when Tyson Began to Feel his Wrath)...

Merchant Wasn't JADED Back Then & Actually APPRECIATED a Chess Match as Much as a Slugfest...Nowadays, if it AIN'T Gatti-Ward I, Merchant's a Bitter, Old, UNinterested Fart...



REED

 

What was the reason for the enmity between Merchant and the young Tyson back in the day?

 

Punch stats don't tell you the effectiveness of the punch...they don't tell you where a punch landed, how cleanly it landed, or what force/impact it landed with...and they hardly differentiate for the viewer between punches that are blocked (partially or fully) and ones that land (partially or fully).

In a particular fight, they're not a very good tool to analyze anything and are not very insightful...except in the number of punches thrown and in what category (jabs/power punches)...and because of that, don't need to be brought up every round like the grand analysis of what's occuring in the ring.