James Frederick "Jimmy" Lennon Jr. (born August 5, 1958)[1] is an American boxing ring announcer who is employed primarily by Showtime and Fox Sports as ring announcer for their Showtime Championship Boxing and Premier Boxing Champions, also by Bob Arum's Top Rank on ESPN events. Lennon was also employed by Fox Sports when it previously had rights to professional boxing and was the ring announcer for Don King Promotions' fights that aired on various networks. He is best known for his catchphrase, "It's showtime!"[2] but the catchphrase is not spoken during Fox's fight coverage.
Announcing career
editBorn in Santa Monica, California, Lennon has been a ring announcer for over 25 years, during which he has been at the microphone for some historic fights, including Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield, Winky Wright vs. Félix Trinidad and Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao.[2] He followed in the footsteps of his father Jimmy Lennon who was a ring announcer as well. He also announced MMA fight cards for Strikeforce, both the regular MMA shows which aired on CBS and Showtime and Strikeforce's SHO XC shows which aired on Showtime. He formerly announced fights for the now-defunct Elite XC mixed martial arts promotion, and also for the K-1 promotion in Japan.
He occasionally subbed for Michael Buffer on HBO World Championship Boxing and even Buffer subbed for Lennon on Showtime Championship Boxing.
Lennon began doing ring introductions with PBC promotions in January 2019. [3]
Lennon, much like his father, speaks Spanish and makes an effort to pronounce all fighters' names correctly. [4]
Lennon has also done work for EA Sports, having been the ring announcer for its Knockout Kings series of boxing video games and its EA Sports MMA game within Strikeforce rules.
Movies
editHe has appeared as himself in several movies, most notably Hot Shots!, I Spy and Creed III.[5]
Honors
editLennon has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He was also selected as an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013.[1][6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "Jimmy Lennon Jr". International Boxing Hall of Fame. 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
- ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Jimmy Lennon Jr. To Introduce DeGale and Eubank Jr. Clash". February 2019.
- ^ Levinson, Scott (2013-04-10). "Jimmy Lennon Jr. is the greatest ring announcer in the world". ProBoxing-Fans.com. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
- ^ Jimmy Lennon Jr
- ^ Mitch Abramson (January 13, 2013). "Jimmy Lennon Jr. Finally Gets His Day in The Sun". BoxingScene.com. Retrieved February 11, 2013.