Max Kellerman: For Love of the Game

By Clinton Mollett

18.03 - Let's be honest, no one likes boxing more than Max Kellerman himself. He lives it, breaths it, and loves it more than life it's self. The guy treats boxing more like a religion than a sport. Think about it, who else would sit down and study Flyweights from the 1970's...I mean really. But it is this type of dedication and passion for the sport that has got him this far.

The first time I come across Max Kellerman was in 1989 whilst sitting in front of the box watching his public access show Max on Boxing. Max was all of 16 years old then and chanted the names of the fighters of old like he'd been around the game for decades, it was impressive to say the least. When he took front and centre stage in the world of televised boxing as a network studio analyst on ESPN's Friday Night Fights I was not even slightly surprised because it is hard to watch Max Kellerman with his undeniable passion for boxing, without getting excited about the sport, and it's this passion that makes up part of his attraction and this ultimately translates into results (Friday Night Fights is ESPN's highest rated year-round series). I think world renown boxing historian and author Bert Sugar put it best when he said, "Max is like Scot! ch- you get used to him, previously I found anything else to do (rather than watch Friday Night Fights ). But now it's part of my viewing diet because I really want to hear what Max has to say."

As a youngster, Kellerman was captivated by fights on TV as we all were, and after reading the biography of Muhammad Ali, when he was 8 years old, he joined the following of hardcore boxing fans.

In Junior High his father took him to a near by Police Athletic League Club to try the sport for himself and young Max took to it like a bulldog takes to a pork chop. But in 1982, Duk Koo Kim, a Korean Boxer, died after a fight with lightweight champion Ray Mancini, which lead to a siege of negative publicity about boxing. This tragic event frightened Kellerman's mother, who banned young Max from participating in his beloved sport, so Kellerman in his own words, "sublimated all that energy into following boxing instead." And follow boxing he did, specializing in the history of the sweet science, he acquired knowledge far beyond his years and inevitably that pugilistic wisdom had to come bubbling out some where, so his father helped him launch the public access cable television show Max on Boxing. The show was so successful it ran for eight years. "I watched it all the time", sa! ys Bob Raissman, sports Media critic for The New York Daily News. "For his age, he had an incredible knowledge of boxing history. It was impressive because here was this kid who was probably going to school but had studied up on this, taking a lot of time. It showed a lot of gumption."

Kellerman began Max on Boxing at age 16 and in just two years was mentioned on MTV where Adam Curry prefaced his opinions on boxing by saying, "Now I'm no Max Kellerman...."

The call-in show has even featured celebrity phoners including Dustin Hoffman and others seeking Kellerman's perspective, predictions and insight. Mike Tyson was also a regular viewer of the show while one of David Letterman's producers caught the show and saw the novelty of it, a 16 year old talking knowledgeably about old-time fighters - won Kellerman an appearance on The Late Show.

When Max was approaching his 98' graduation from Colombia College, he put together a demo tape and press kit representing the best of Max on Boxing which he started in high school, and sent it off to various television networks. Evidently, the tape packed some punch, because ESPN come calling and Kellerman, then just 24, went from student to network studio analyst in one quick step- or giant leap.

In October 1998 Friday Night Fights debuted on ESPN2. "I never planned on going into boxing to make a living," says Kellerman, "but I was about to graduate, I realized it was either talk about boxing or work. I figured talking about boxing was a better deal."
When Kellerman landed the job at ESPN, people were skeptical because everyone new he hadn't paid his dues inside the ring or even outside the ring for that matter and yet he had been given a high platform to voice his opinions without even earning it. But I still think Max has paid his dues, maybe not in the same way as say, Teddy Atlas, but just in his own way.

"I love my job," says Kellerman, every time I have something to say, all I have to do is wait a few days, turn to the camera and say it." To prepare for Friday Night Fights, he only has to do what comes naturally- watch bouts that he would be watching anyway," I liken it to an episode of Cheers in which Norm gets a job as a beer taster,"Kellerman says. "Every boxing fan is frustrated because he wants to get his opinion across, he wants to have some kind of influence on the sport, I've been put in that position and get paid for it. It's great."

"If someone was to say on T.V that Hank Aaron holds the all-time homerun record, he hit 755 homeruns, no one would be that impressed, "he says, "But when I get on T.V and say, 'Joe Louis has the all-time defense record. He made 25 title defenses, 'people say,' Oh, my, he's a walking encyclopedia. 'I think every one has a encyclopedia mind for things their interested in," says Kellerman.

Max Kellerman- a Sports Emmy nominee and no doubt a future boxing hall of famer should be appreciated for his ability to accurately compare fighters of present to fighters of past and in doing so, put an interesting twist on boxing commentary and he should also be credited for injecting extra life into this great sport...a true asset to the sweet science indeed.

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