NEW YORK, June 8, 2007 – Veteran HBO Sports boxing commentator Larry Merchant has agreed to a new contract, it was announced today by HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg. “We are delighted to have one of sports television’s most respected broadcasters continue to call them as he sees them,” said Greenburg. “Larry is an institution at HBO. Sharing the workload with Larry will be Max Kellerman, which essentially gives us two formidable broadcast teams on ‘World Championship Boxing’..”
Merchant, who has called more than 600 fights for HBO over the past 29 years, will be on the broadcast team for the June 9 HBO Pay-Per-View telecast from Madison Square Garden, headlined by the bout between Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah.
On June 8 in New York City, Merchant will be honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America with the James J. Walker Award for long and meritorious service.
Max Kellerman, who joined HBO Sports in April 2006, will also work “World Championship Boxing” events, alternating the workload with Merchant. Among Kellerman’s upcoming assignments are: the June 23 Hatton-Castillo fight in Las Vegas; the Atlantic City portion of the July 14 “World Championship Boxing” tripleheader; and the July 21 HBO Pay-Per-View event from Las Vegas, featuring Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright.
“It’s exciting to have Larry continue with his unique perspective on our telecasts and to expand the role of Max Kellerman,” said Rick Bernstein, executive producer of HBO Sports. “We feel the winners are our subscribers, who will continue to get honest and insightful commentary from all our broadcast talent.”
Upcoming HBO announcer assignments include: Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, Emanuel Steward and Harold Lederman for the June 9 HBO Pay-Per-View program from Madison Square Garden; Bob Papa, Lennox Lewis and Lederman for the June 16 “HBO Boxing After Dark” card; Lampley, Kellerman, Steward and Lederman for the June 23 “World Championship Boxing” presentation from Las Vegas; and Lampley, Merchant, Lewis and Lederman for the July 7 “World Championship Boxing” HBO show in Cologne, Germany. With two sites for the July 14 “World Championship Boxing” tripleheader, Lampley and Merchant will be working from Carson, Cal., while Papa and Kellerman are in Atlantic City. For the July 21 HBO Pay-Per-View presentation from Las Vegas, Lampley, Kellerman, Steward and Lederman will be on hand.