Rest in power to one of boxing broadcasting’s best to ever do it.
Legendary boxing analyst Harold Lederman passed away over the weekend.
The longtime boxing judge and HBO television analyst died from cancer on Saturday. He was 79 years old.
Lederman is a 2016 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee that first got his start as a boxing judge in New York State in 1967. He joined the cast of HBO World Championship Boxing in 1986.
Lederman stayed with HBO Boxing until the program’s last broadcast in 2018. After judging hundreds of fights globally, Lederman retired from active judging in 1999. However, his position as the “unofficial ringside scorer” made him the fan’s judge. His unique voice and inside knowledge kept causal fans informed and die hards polarized.
“Harold Lederman had a lifelong love affair with the sport of boxing,” said Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President of HBO Sports to Boxing Scene. “Over the past fifty years he was universally respected and celebrated by the many people who make the sport what it is.
“Harold was happiest when seated ringside, studying the action and scoring the fight. When he joined HBO Sports in 1986 he added a new and critical component to live boxing coverage.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ_Bpe2n56k
Lederman was part of the integral broadcast fabric of HBO which included Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, and various fighters like Roy Jones, Jr.
“It was one of the greatest privileges of my broadcasting career to work with Harold, whose unique humanity and lifelong love of boxing brought joy to the hearts of millions of fans, show after show after show. They waited for his moments, they were thrilled by his insights, they gloried in imitating his voice. No one in the sport had more friends, because no one in the sport.
“As deeply saddened as I am by his passing, I am equally deeply joyful that he made it to the final bell on December 8. Nothing was more important to the legacy of HBO Boxing, so in that we can all that solace. Now his scorecard is complete.”
Lederman served as an official judge for 32 years, from 1967 to 1999. He was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.
