" BANG BANG BANG" Pacquiao VS. Clottey

Mike Tyson, Ike Ibeabuchi and Oliver McCall cornered the market on scary/crazy over the last 20 years in boxing. HBO's Jim Lampley is trying to carve out his own niche. Lamps was a raving lunatic throughout the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey fight. Just over four minutes into the fight, he started complaining about the lack of activity from Joshua Clottey. Give him credit, he was ahead of the curve on saying Clottey wasn't there to fight, but it made it difficult to enjoy the match. The call of the fight turned almost entirely into Lampley complaining while Manny Steward and Max Kellerman tried to talk him off the ledge.

The wackiest moment came when Lampley just started yelling, "bang, bang" in the middle of the eighth round. Even when Kellerman tried to break in to save Lampley from a nervous breakdown in front of millions, Lampley continued to shriek, "bang!"

Give HBO credit, the network does allow its announcers to speak their mind. That said, the crew almost seemed angry going into the broadcast. The three lead-in fights weren't completely awful yet the announce team talk them down so much, the audience had no choice but to think the fights sucked.

It was funny to hear, Lampley change his tune from completely negative during rounds 1-10 to lauding Pacquiao for another brilliant fight. Someone must've whispered in his ear or it simply kicked in that it was time to start hyping what was next for Pacman. All in all, it was an interesting night of broadcasting.