An Official Member Of The Max Kellerman Fan Club

An Official Member Of The Max Kellerman Fan Club



You know, after viewing HBO since Max Kellerman has been ushered into the spotlight; it's hard to believe how much he's grown on me. Has he stayed the same and grown on me or is he turning into a different kind of commentator? The truth is, I don't believe I ever really liked Max before his move to HBO and my earliest memory of him there wasn't fond. I disagreed with his take on the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight and I can recall getting pissed at it, too. But, since then I must say, I've increasingly favored his skill as a commentator and moreover, I've grown to look forward to what he has to say. That's right, I look forward to it. I looked forward to what Larry Merchant had to say also, but that was usually because I found him more entertaining than useful in pointing out technical aspects of the fight or about the fighters. With Max, I keep either having him pull the thoughts right out of my head and saying something that I'm thinking, or enriching my thought process as I break down the fighters and what they're doing. For a guy who isn't a trainer or former boxer, this is pretty special.

Max has come in to the team with what I believe to be a respectful tone to the other commentators but he's also shown that he's his own man and needs to be respected. He has not let any athlete back him down or looked particularly worried about speaking his mind on anything. After Hopkins/Calzaghe-a fight which I found dreadful to watch- Kellerman challenged the seriousness of Hopkins's low blow damage in a straight up manner. He wasn't overly aggressive, still maintaining a friendly demeanor with Bernard, but he made his position clear. It was a funny, awkward interview but it was great. My buddy from Say what?, the humorous quote blog picked up on it. His name is JD and he is an avid HBO boxing fan and did a post on the Bernard Hopkins quote that made many laugh, including Kellerman. You can see that post here: Bernard Hopkins has an unusual complaint

I always knew Max had a great deal of knowledge about fighters in his head and valuable information as well. I just didn't know he had the strong personality that could work on the HBO big time and I'm so pleasantly surprised that he does. I was so impressed with the way he pointed out that Miguel Cotto's timing was ''nullifying'' Shane Mosley's considerable speed. I was so impressed by his handling of Bernard Hopkins and now I'm beside myself with appreciation, having watched the last HBO boxing installment with Michael Katsidis VS Juan Diaz. When the moronic audience was booing Katsidis, needlessly and distastefully, Kellerman spoke up. He didn't do it in a smug manner. He simply told them that this wasn't a fight anyone should be booing for any reason. He didn't care if the audience didn't want to hear it. They, as a group, were wrong for booing. That's that. Kellerman also did us all a favor and ripped the judges. Again, he tried to respectfully and logically convey that it's possible the for a judge from a different angle can score a bout differently than the ringside commentators are scoring it and that perhaps the group mentality of the commentators took over and they had a slanted perspective that had its own momentum. This was a mature, highly self-aware disclaimer that I fully respect. . . It was a disclaimer to saying that it was some of the worst judging he'd ever seen! AND additionally intimating that there could be a corrupting influence! I believe he actually said ''Corrupting influence'' and I was shocked. Not shocked that my beloved sport could have a corrupting influence (part of boxing, sadly) but shocked that Max had the considerable testicular measurements which would have to be involved in order to say this on Live TV, I think, even risking his future employment.

Thank you, Max. You are an honest, helpful, utterly professional man who is doing good for the sport. Thank you and sign me up for your official fan club.

~BE

PS: I intend to do a round by round breakdown of the HBO fights mentioned here, soon.