NEW YORK (Feb. 10, 2012)–-SHOWTIME Sports® has named award-winning sportscaster Barry Tompkins and renowned boxing historian Steve Farhood to serve as the announce team for the inaugural presentation of live undercard boxing on SHOWTIME EXTREME—Saturday, Feb. 18 live at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).
The two-fight SHO EXTREME telecast immediately precedes the live SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING doubleheader featuring Paul Williams vs. Nobuhiro Ishida and Tavoris Cloud vs. Gabrielle Campillo, live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).
A 12-round heavyweight bout between American contender Chris Arreola and Eric Molina will headline the SHOWTIME EXTREME telecast which also features Malik Scott vs. Kendrick Releford in an eight-round heavyweight bout.
SHOWTIME EXTREME, the premium network’s sports and action focused multiplex channel, is available in more than 99 percent of SHOWTIME subscriber households nationwide.
“We are proud to welcome Barry Tompkins to the family,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports. “He and Farhood bring a tremendous amount of broadcast and boxing experience to the booth. I am excited to expand our live coverage for the network’s loyal boxing fans and for the fighters who will benefit from the additional exposure.”
The versatile Tompkins’ 40-plus years in broadcasting include calling college football and basketball as well as many legendary fights such as “Sugar” Ray Leonard vs. Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson vs. Trevor Berbick and Aaron Pryor vs. Alexis Arguello. In 2006, he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.
Since transitioning from a full-time journalist as editor-in-chief of “The Ring” and “KO” magazines, Farhood has provided the color commentary for every ShoBox: The New Generation telecast in the series’ decade-long tenure. Still an active writer in the sport, he received the Nat Fleischer Award for “Excellence in Boxing Journalism” from the Boxing Writers Association of America in May 2011.
Tickets for the event are priced at $25, $35, $50, $75, $100 and will available at the American Bank Center box office and on Ticketmaster.com starting Saturday, January 14 at 10 a.m. CT. VIP packages are also available by calling (817) 296-4546.
For information on SHOWTIME Sports, including exclusive behind-the-scenes video and photo galleries, complete telecast information and more, please visit the website at http://sports.SHO.com.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
