HBO Sports, widely recognized for its pioneering, award-winning and distinctive storytelling productions, will launch a new boxing show hosted by four-time Sports Emmy® Award winner Jim Lampley, it was announced today by Rick Bernstein, executive producer, HBO Sports.. Debuting SATURDAY, MAY 12 (midnight-12:30 a.m. ET/PT), and scheduled to appear periodically, THE FIGHT GAME WITH JIM LAMPLEY will be a provocative, engaging and informative experience that delves into intriguing storylines, newsmakers and issues that are top-of-mind in boxing. The series will also be available on HBO On Demand® and HBO GO®.
“Jim Lampley is a gifted broadcaster and one of the most accomplished journalists ever,” said Bernstein. “Developing a new program that will take advantage of all his talents, as well as the strong association that he and HBO Sports have with boxing, is an exciting endeavor. We look forward to launching this new program in a unique and stylish way.”
“I’m excited for all of us boxing fans to have this new platform for comprehensive, unfiltered discussion and analysis of the sport,” said Lampley. “And I am thrilled to work at the only television network capable of this type of program.”
In addition to the resources of the HBO Sports department, the production team for the series will include renowned filmmaker and Emmy® nominee Peter Berg, who will serve as an executive producer along with Sarah Aubrey, Michael Price, Lampley and Bernstein. Jonathan Crystal will be the producer.
Jim Lampley is one of America’s most accomplished broadcasters. Lampley serves as the host and blow-by-blow announcer on all “World Championship Boxing®” and HBO Pay-Per-View® productions.
In 1988 he joined HBO Sports for boxing and Wimbledon coverage. In 1995, he added reporting on HBO’s sports magazine series “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” for which he won two Emmy® Awards for Outstanding Sports Journalism, along with a third Emmy® for writing on HBO’s Wimbledon coverage. He has covered a record-setting 14 Olympic broadcast assignments over his professional career. Lampley also served as an executive producer of the Peter Berg cinema vérité series, “On Freddie Roach,” which completed its critically acclaimed run in February on HBO.
HBO’s boxing franchise launched in January 1973 when the network aired the heavyweight championship bout “Joe Frazier vs. George Foreman” from Kingston, Jamaica. Over the past four decades, HBO Sports has earned its leadership position in the presentation of the “sweet science.” HBO boxing programming includes the flagship series “World Championship Boxing,” which premiered in 1973, and “HBO Boxing After Dark®” (1996), plus HBO Pay-Per-View, the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry.