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by Steve Springer Los Angeles Times Prior to Showtime's first boxing event, company producer Jay Larkin was asked by fellow Showtime executive Fred Schnier if he knew who the little old man standing near them was. "Billy Conn," replied Larkin. "Congratulations," said Schnier, "you are our new head of boxing." Larkin was stunned. "I only knew who Conn was," he said, "because somebody had told. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known Billy Conn if he had hit me in the chin. I didn't know the IBF from FBI, and those lines sometimes got blurred. Timing is everything." Boxing soon became everything for Larkin, whose previous involvement in boxing had consisted of attending no more than two or three matches in his life. "I was trained in the theater," he said. "When I watched boxing, I realized there is nothing more theatrical, nothing more dramatic. It's 'Guys and Dolls' without the snappy tunes." Larkin and Rich Marotta are being honored with the Sam Taub Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. Larkin poured his enthusiasm into his new venture and built Showtime boxing into a bona fide rival for HBO. In the 20 years since he got his on-the-spot promotion, Larkin has produced 323 Showtime boxing events, involving 300 title fights on five continents, in 14 countries and in 25 states. On the Showtime stage, 92 new champions have been crowned. Under Larkin, Showtime produced the biggest pay-per-view event ever, Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield II in 1997, which drew a record viewing audience of just under two million. Under Larkin, Showtime produced the first live boxing events in China and Australia and the match that drew the largest crowd in boxing history, the 1993 Julio Cesar Chavez-Greg Haugen fight at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, staged in front of a crowd of 132,247. "I've had a great ride," Larkin said, "and I've enjoyed every minute of it." In a broadcasting career that began 33 years ago, Rich Marotta has covered hockey, football and basketball and has done a daily sportscast for nearly all of his career. He has been behind the mike for the L.A. Kings, the L.A. Clippers and the L.A. Raiders. But boxing was first love. As a kid, he remembers the stack of Ring magazines his father had collected dating back to the 1930s. He devoured as much information as he could from those dusty relics, became a huge fan of Floyd Patterson and would listen and watch boxing events in awe, fixated by the action and dreaming of the day he might somehow be involved in this fascinating sport. Marotta's chance came in 1982, after he was already established as a sportscaster. He began working fights for promoter Don Chargin, with late sports columnist Allan Malamud as his broadcast partner. Over the years, Marotta has covered around 1,000 fights, including 150 title matches, worked for Fox Sports, Prime Ticket, the USA network and various other outlets, been involved in national and international feeds, and has sat beside broadcast partners like Barry Tompkins, Tom Kelly, George Foreman, Sean O'Grady, Jerry Quarry and Alan Massengale. Marotta also has a weekly boxing talk show, "Rich Marotta's Neutral Corner," now in its sixth year, and hosted a show for Fox called "Nothing But Knockouts." "The single most exciting moment of my career," said Marotta, "was doing the international broadcast of the George Foreman-Michael Moorer fight. When Foreman knocked Moorer out, he fell right in front of me. I have never experienced the kind of deafening roar I heard from the crowd that night, nor felt the excitement I experienced at watching Foreman win back the heavyweight title at age 45." Marotta has been rewarded for his ability to transmit that excitement and enthusiasm to his audience. He has won 10 Golden Mike awards and four L.A. area Emmys. |
Sam Taub Award
1982 -- Don Dunphy 1983 -- Gil Clancy 1984 -- John F.X. Condon 1985 -- Larry Merchant 1986 -- Tim Ryan 1987 -- Alex Wallau 1988 -- Al Bernstein 1989 -- Sam Rosen 1990 -- Ross Greenburg 1991 -- Reg Gutteridge 1992 -- Jim Lampley, Barry Tompkins 1993 -- Bob Yalen 1995 -- Al Albert, Sean O'Grady 1997 -- Dave Bontempo 1998 -- Bob Sheridan 2001 -- Teddy Atlas 2002 -- Steve Farhood 2003 -- Bernardo Osuna 2004 -- Brian Kenny 2005 -- Jay Larkin, Rich Marotta |
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©2004 - 2008 Boxing Writers Association of America. All rights reserved. |
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