Notebook: Lampley returning behind the mic as voice of Triller Fight Club events

Joe Smith-Jacobs talks; Jake Paul fight set; New Badou Jack foe

Jim Lampley, the International Boxing Hall of Fame broadcaster and Emmy Award winner viewed by many as the greatest blow-by-blow man ever, will soon be back behind the microphone calling fights.

Triller Fight Club on Tuesday announced that Lampley will serve as the play-by-play voice for its future boxing events. He will begin the deal June 19 with the pay-per-view card headlined by unified lightweight world champion Teofimo Lopez defending his belts against mandatory challenger George Kambosos Jr. at loanDepot park in Miami.

“It is an honor and a privilege to welcome the preeminent voice in boxing, Jim Lampley, to Triller Fight Club,” Triller co-founder Ryan Kavanaugh said. “We will blend all the best elements of music, entertainment and sports, and there is no one better to help lead our broadcasts for fans of all ages than Jim.”

Lampley has not called a fight since HBO ended its involvement in boxing with its final card on Dec. 8, 2018. But he has wanted to call fights and this opportunity became available.

“I am impressed that Triller Fight Club is aggressively seeking to put together the best telecast possible, and it is that mentality that makes Triller the best possible platform for my return to ringside,” Lampley said. “This first telecast features Teofimo Lopez, conqueror of the great Vasiliy Lomachenko and an exciting new talent who has already made a historic mark on the sport. That says it all for me.”

Lampley, a four-time Emmy winner, called fights for 30 years for HBO, meaning he was the voice of many of the biggest fights in boxing history. Before he was at HBO he called fights on ABC. He is also well known as a studio host for numerous Olympic Games.

Joe Smith, Jacobs in talks

Newly crowned WBO light heavyweight world titlist Joe Smith Jr. could make his first defense against former middleweight titleholder Daniel Jacobs this fall, both sides told The Ring.

The Smith camp is weighing an offer made by Jacobs promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing for the fight, which would place in the fall in New York City, where it would be a major fight since Smith is a popular draw from Long Island and Jacobs is from Brooklyn.

The fight offer came as a surprise. Smith co-promoters Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing and Top Rank had been aiming toward a three-belt title unification fight with Artur Beterbiev, who is also with Top Rank, this fall. Now, there is a significant offer from Hearn for the fight.

I wrote about the details in a story for The Ring website, which you can read here: https://www.ringtv.com/622412-joe-smith-jr-may-defend-light-heavyweight-title-against-daniel-jacobs-this-fall/

Mike Tyson memories

I joined Prim Siripipat, my former ESPN colleague, on her “The Next Chapter” podcast to discuss my history of covering Mike Tyson to coincide with ABC airing the second part of its two-part, four-hour “Mike Tyson: The Knockout” documentary on Tuesday night. We discussed some of my many interactions with Tyson over the years and what it was like to cover his fights. Lots of good stuff. Give it a listen here:

Jake Paul to face Woodley

Jake Paul (3-0, 3 KOs), the social media influencer and YouTube personality turned popular novice cruiserweight, will meet former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in an eight-round boxing match at 190 pounds in August on Showtime PPV. The fight is the first of a multi-fight deal Paul has made with Showtime.

While there were various reports on Tuesday that the fight would take place Aug. 28 at a site to be determined — and Paul also said that was the date — Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza told Fight Freaks Unite that was incorrect. He said while the fight would take place in August, it would not be Aug. 28, which is already scheduled for a Showtime network event headlined by former two-time super middleweight world titlist David Benavidez against former titlist Jose Uzcategui and that the bout would not become part of the Paul-Woodley event.

Woodley will be making his professional boxing debut and will be Paul’s second fight in a row against a former UFC champion. He knocked out Ben Askren in the first round on April 17 in the main event of a Triller Fight Club pay-per-view, but now he’s headed to Showtime. Woodley, 39, who was a close friend of Askren’s, and Paul, 24, got into an argument before the fight, which set the stage for the August bout.

“I have a list of people I plan on knocking out and as I enter my fourth pro fight, I am excited to cross the first one off the list by challenging myself against Tyron Woodley, a 5 time UFC Champion known for his knockout power,” Paul posted on social media. “Tyron ran his mouth a little too much in the locker room when I knocked out his best friend Ben and earned himself a top spot on the Problem Child death list. Tyron’s a seasoned striker who has fought the best MMA fighters in the world but will be dropped by a Disney teen star in 2 rounds. Maybe this time (UFC president) Dana White will actually be a man of his word and put his money on his former champion instead of trying to undermine my success like a jealous ex. Influencer vs MMA….let’s get it on. It’s Showtime.”

New Jack opponent

Former two-division world titlist Badou Jack will face short-notice opponent Dervin Colina in a 10-round light heavyweight fight on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a Showtime spokesman told Fight Freaks Unite.

The fight is the co-feature on the Showtime PPV card headlined by the exhibition bout between Floyd Mayweather and Logan Paul.

Jack (23-3-3, 13 KOs), 37, of Las Vegas, was supposed to challenge secondary light heavyweight world titlist Jean Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs), 38, of Montreal, in a rematch of Pascal’s split decision win in December 2019, but Pascal tested positive for three banned substances — Drostanolone, Drostanolone metabolite and Epitrenbolone — in Voluntary Anti-Doping Association-administered drug tests, whose results were returned on Friday.

Pascal was dropped from the card but Mayweather Promotions vowed to keep Jack on the show and secured Colina

Colina (15-0, 13 KOs), 33, of Venezuela, who has been a pro since 2013, will be fighting outside of his home country for the first time. He has faced extremely low-level opposition, so Jack will by far the most reputable opponent of his career.

Sulecki out again?

Middleweight contender Maciej Sulecki, a former world title challenger, has apparently pulled out of his fight with former junior middleweight titlist Jaime Munguia (36-0, 29 KOs), 24, of Mexico, leading Polish boxing writer Przemek Garczarczyk reported Tuesday.

They were due to meet in a Golden Boy Promotions main event on DAZN on June 19 at the Don Haskins Center on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso, but the report said that according to Andrzej Wasilewski, Sulecki’s Polish promoter, Sulecki withdrew from the fight for reasons that were not clear.

Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez told Fight Freaks Unite that they had not heard a word from anybody on Team Sulecki saying he had pulled out of the bout.

“Nobody has contacted us whatsoever,” Gomez said. “As of Friday everything was fine. His visa was approved. Everything was good and solid. We’ve seen the reports that he pulled out but we have no confirmation of if he’s out or not. Nobody on their side has contacted Golden Boy.”

But on Tuesday night it was discovered that Sulecki had emailed Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz to tell him he was pulling out but the reason was still unclear.  

Gomez said he is supposed to talk to Leon Margules of Warriors Boxing, Sulecki’s American promoter, on Wednesday to see what is going on and if they can salvage the fight. Gomez said Margules was unavailable on Tuesday.

The fight was originally scheduled for April 23 at the same site, but Sulecki (29-2, 11 KOs), 31, of Poland, pulled out due to a back injury and was replaced by D’Mitrius Ballard. Then Ballard suffered an elbow injury and also pulled out. That forced the card to be postponed and it was rescheduled for June 19 with Sulecki, whose back had healed, back in the main event.

If Sulecki is indeed out for the second time, Gomez said Ballard is not a possible replacement again because he is still injured.

Mullings dies at 53

Former junior middleweight world titlist Keith Mulling, an Army veteran, who served in Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait in the early 1990s, died on May 29. He was 53.

His death was announced by Gary Pippa, the head trainer at Be First Boxing in Peekskill, New York, where Mullings previously had worked as a trainer.

“Just got sad news that our friend, Keith Mullings, former junior middleweight champ, was found dead this morning,” Pippa posted on social media. “Keith was close friends with our executive director. He spent an entire summer a few years ago coaching with us. My heart goes out to his family, he was a giving man.”

The cause of death was unknown. Mullings lost a decision challenging then-IBF junior middleweight titlist Raul Marquez in 1997, but that performance lifted him into the fight he was best known for later that year — an upset ninth-round knockout of Hall of Famer Terry Norris to take his WBC junior middleweight title. Mullings’ shocker wrecked plans for a mega fight between Norris and Oscar De La Hoya.

Mullings (16-8-1, 11 KOs), a native of Jamaica, who fought out of Brooklyn, New York, boxed professionally from 1993 to 2001. He made one successful title defense, a fifth-round knockout of David Ciarlante, before traveling to Spain and losing the title by majority decision to hometown hero Javier Castillejo in 1999. Mullings then lost a decision challenging junior middleweight titlist David Reid in 1999 and a decision to future undisputed 154-pound champion and Hall of Famer Winky Wright in 2000.

Quick hits

With Las Vegas re-opening 100 percent on Tuesday, Top Rank announced that its three upcoming ESPN events at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will be staged with full capacity — a little over 2,000 — allowed at the hotel’s theater. It will mark Top Rank’s first event with allowable full capacity in the 16 months since the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The upcoming events are June 12 (Shakur Stevenson vs. Jeremiah Nakathila for a vacant interim junior lightweight title), June 19 (Naoya Inoue defending his unified bantamweight title against mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas) and June 26 (former pound-for-pound king and three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko against Masayoshi Nakatani in a lightweight fight).

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The Premier Boxing Champions event on Showtime on July 3, which will be headlined by Chris Colbert defending his interim junior lightweight title against Yuriorkis Gamboa, is ticketed for the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, multiple sources told Fight Freaks Unite.

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The WBO on Tuesday ordered junior bantamweight titlist Kazuto Ioka (26-2, 15 KOs), 32, of Japan, and Francisco Rodriguez Jr. (34-4-1, 24 KOs), 28, of Mexico, a former unified strawweight titlist, to commence negotiations for their mandatory bout. “The parties are granted 30 days upon issuance of this letter to reach an agreement or purse proceedings will be called,” the WBO wrote in an email sent to Ioka promoter Kazutaka Yoshino of Watanabe Promotions and Rodriguez representative Juan Carlos Torres. If the fight goes to a purse bid the minimum offer is $100,000. Either side can request a purse bid at any time, however, before the 30-day window is up.

Show and tell

After the late, great Marvelous Marvin Hagler won the undisputed middleweight title from Alan Minter by third-round knockout in London in September 1980, he made his first defense against Venezuelan contender Fulgencio Obelmejias on Jan. 17, 1981 in a homecoming fight at Boston Garden, where around 10,000 turned out to cheer on Hagler, who was from nearby Brockton, Massachusetts. Hagler, who would go on to make 12 successful defenses (including a rematch with Obelmejias) and engage in several mega fights, pounded him into an eighth-round knockout win. I recently added an absolutely mint program from Hagler-Obelmejias to my collection.

Lampley and Paul photos: Triller Fight Club; Sulecki photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing