The voice of boxing

The voice of boxing. 

From a kid who’d turn down the radio to create his own commentary, to the most popular boxing commentator in the world. In conversation with Head of Sky Boxing, Adam Smith follows.

By Johnathan Elderfield

Adam Smith, Sky Sports head of boxing.

“When I was young, I always wanted to be a sports commentator – since I was ten or 11. I’d find myself turning the TV or radio down on various events; whether it was the Grand Nation or Wimbledon; The Masters at Augusta or simply the FA Cup Final, I’d be commentating to an old Dictaphone putting my take on proceedings,” says Adam Smith.

Smith didn’t have the most conventional start in becoming the voice of boxing. 

Starting out in politics, he worked for a local newspaper before moving to American and working for CNN. 

There he would have been thinking more about the US primaries, rather than the primary heavyweight champion in the World.

Still though, is there much difference?

At the end of the day, politics and boxing aren’t dissimilar: they’re an odd mix of weight categories throwing a series of punches at each other, the only real difference being, whether those punches are figurative or corporal.

For Adam though, it all started when he moved abroad to study Drama at North Carolina from Warwick University.

Initially, Smith wanted to become an actor but found that he wasn’t good enough, Smith’s voice has been the sound of so many historical moments in boxing. 

Most of these fights are now being fought over in the States. It was in Washington D.C, working on a show called Cross-Fire for CNN where Smith began his career in broadcasting. 

The political show, mainly featuring debates with Democrats and Republicans, gave Smith the most unconventional starts for one of boxing’s biggest executives. 

“I was living in Washington, working for CNN on Cross-fire. I loved it, I wanted to stay for the World Cup, which was in 1994, but my visa ran out, which meant I had to come home,” says Smith.

After CNN, Smith then did a small stint at ITN back in Britain. This afforded him an opportunity to spread his wings further into politics and current affairs. It was here he believed he could have made a career as a home new reporter.

“After returning home from the US, I worked for most of the year on the home news desk at ITN. I absolutely craved every day here, I thought it was brilliant. In fact, I was then contemplating whether I wanted to go into sports.”

Smith insists it was the passion of sport that made him follow his childhood dreams.

“I decided I’d have to write to everybody in sport if I wanted to follow my passion from a young age. Eventually, I found myself, luckily, tripping into Sky Sports, where I am today.”

When Anthony Joshua stopped Wladimir Klitschko in the 11^th, on the 29^thof April 2017, people around the world would have been listening to Smith’s voice dictate the sharp, deadly and death-defying movements of both fighters. 

An emotional Smith, showing just what it means to be ringside calling a fight.

“What fitness, what heart from Klitschko, but the fight has been stopped, lift off for AJ,” says Smith in the defining moment of Anthony Joshua’s career, with his historic win over long-time world champion Wladimir Klitschko.

In recent times, it is Smith’s voice which has dictated the great moments in the sport. Sometimes, if the moment is big enough, It’s Smiths voice that echoes through a generation.

Together with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sport, whose stable includes Anthony Joshua, Katie Taylor, and Daniel Jacobs, he has taken the sport to new heights.

The partnership, up until recently, has acquired not just the best fighters in Britain, but some of the top talent across the globe.

Since 2010, Smith has been the Head of Sky Sport’s Boxing, overseeing plenty of changes, not least in the commentary team. 

“If you ask me what my favourite part of the job is? It will always be sitting six-feet from ring-side of any fight. That is what my heart and passion is about; it’s commentary,” says Smith.

Commentary requires more than just personality; it requires an encyclopaedic knowledge of sport, one that can pluck out facts, present opinion, and add detail to description all in the moment of greatness.

“I’d done some presenting and reported all around the world, basically, I sort of did a bit of everything by the time my former boss left, says Smith 

“So, I threw my hat in the ring and said, If I can have a good team behind me; a great producer; a great director, I’d still quite like to do the talent part [commentary] while also strategies the boxing and progress.”

In 2010 when Smith became head of Sky Sports Boxing, Carl Froch, to occasional debate, had put Britain’s greatest boxer into retirement. 

The Cobra never fought Joe Calzaghe. 

A lot of the boxing media and fan opinion claimed that Calzaghe had ducked Froch to keep his spotless record. 

Joe Calzaghe retired; 46 wins, 32 by way of knock-out; 0 losses.

Froch, who in recent media is contemplating stepping back into the ring, was fighting Mikkel Kessler when Adam took the lead at Sky’s Boxing department.

Unfortunately for Froch, unlike Calzaghe, it would be his first defeat inside the ring.

According to Smith, his start at Sky was reminiscent of the 90s that saw shows like the Eubank/Benn fights. British boxing was at the top of their game at this point, with several world champions spread across the board.

“Since 2010, when Eddie Hearn [Matchroom Sport] teamed up with Sky. We worked very closely together to rebuild the boxing on Sky which was in a pretty bad way at the time,” says Smith.

“We’d adapted our strategy and outlook on boxing, taking our coverage from predominantly small hall shows that were on every week, to fewer shows, in bigger, better arenas that told bigger stories. We needed narratives to get the fans excited.”

“All of this coincided with the success of the 2012 Olympics,” says Smith.

British boxing dominated the 2012 Olympics. It was here that women’s boxing gained a surge in popularity.

Names like Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor have taken women’s boxing to a new level, one that has never been seen before in Britain. 

“Women’s boxing was massive for me; it was a huge change. I am very much a fighter for women in business and women in sport,” says Smith.

Sky’s poster girl is Irish fighter, Katie Taylor. So far, she is undefeated in her lightweight division, becoming World Champion in 2017.

Her rise to fame came off the back of a gold medal in the London 2012 Olympics.

She is set to fight to unify the division on the 1^st of June. This will take place under Anthony Joshua’s undercard at Maddison Square Garden, considered to many, if not all, to be the Mecca of boxing.

Smith speaks candidly about the difficulties that women have faced, not only in the ring but outside it too.

“It’s been difficult for women in boxing because over the years events have often stipulated that it is men that are only invited,” says Smith.

“I’m part of the Boxing Writer’s Committee, and as their chairman, I wasn’t happy at the fact that my girls on my team couldn’t come and attend the dinners.”

Matchroom have led the way, partnered with Sky Sports, in bringing women’s boxing to the attention of the general public. Fight fans and sports fans alike, now have more access to women’s boxing in Britain thanks to Matchroom and Sky Sports. 

It is down to Eddie Hearn’s ability to see talent and marketability in the women who box, and Adam Smith’s love of all sport, whether it male or female, that women’s boxing is thriving today.

“I was delighted when Eddie [Hearn] signed Katie Taylor, and you know we got with the story. Since then, she’s been unbelievable, both as an ambassador for Sky and as an ambassador for the sport in general,” says Smith.

“Katie Taylor is a fantastic fighter in her own right.”

“We’re always ringside for Katie Taylor fights. She’s huge, Katie Taylor is a class act.”

Adam has deep knowledge of women’s boxing. 

“I see women’s boxing as well as the men’s boxing together very similarly, both hugely competitive, where they weren’t before,” says Smith.

“Just this week we’ve had Shannon Courtney turn pro; we’ve got Claressa Shields in the States; Sandy Ryan is one of the great amateurs, she’s going to be brilliant as a pro. So there loads of great positives for female boxers with Sky.” 

“It’s right that it should be happening because it should have happened a long time ago.”

Adam Smith has lots of boxing stories.

On the 6^thof November 1993, Evander Holyfield faced Riddick Bowe at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

Smith was there, not as a fan, nor just a run of the mill reporter, but in Holyfield’s camp.

“I went to Vegas with Evander Holyfield, spending time with him and his team, which was great,” says Smith.

“I then went to the fight where he fought Riddick Bowe, this was the one where the Fan Man came in!”

“It was a really dramatic night as you can imagine,” says Smith.

For a boxing fan, the chance to see Evander Holyfield would certainly be up there with the likes of Tyson and Lewis. 

Holyfield was an Adonis. His body could be described as being chiselled out of stone; he had extraordinary physical strength. 

Tyson, widely considered to be the best ever, at one point in his career got so frustrated with Holyfield that he infamously bit off his ear.

On this particular occasion, neither the boxing nor Holyfield’s victory over a dangerous Bowe, who’d already beaten him, didn’t make the headlines. 

“The Bowe-Holyfield trilogy of the mid-’90s was very memorable, if only for ‘The Man with the Fan’ incident in Bowe-Holyfield 2 at Caesar’s Palace. Probably the most bizarre incident in boxing history,” says Trevor East, Executive Producer, ITV Sport, during the Holyfield vs Bowe trilogy.

“James ‘Fan Man’ Miller circled the ring on a fan-propelled paraglider before entering the ring in round 7. It caused a 20-minute delay during which Miller was attacked by fans and security and ended up in the hospital for his troubles.” 

Boxing has been a sport that’s time and time again galvanised fans. 

The early days of Dempsey vs Tunney with the battle of the long count in 1927 had fans in an uproar for decades.

The Rumble in the Jungle; Ali vs Foreman was considered the fight of the century when exactly everyone wrote-off an ageing Ali, against a young and strong George Forman. Ali won by knockout in the 8^thround, wearing Forman down in the African head.

“Whether you’re a boxing fan or not, when those big fights happen, people want to watch them. The coverage today with the back stories of each fighter, it really gets me motivated, it all starts a week or so before the fight, by the day before the fight you’re buzzing and just want to watch it,” says Eddie Turner, 32, and a Sports Science M.A., from Staffordshire.

Smith’s influence over the last 10 years at Sky Sports has been integral in bringing the sport on and achieving new milestones.

The appeal, through narrative, in boxing, telling the struggles and successes of fighters has been hugely successful for Sky, which is why they flagship fighters like Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor.

Smith can say, honestly, that he has influenced generations of young girls around the world. 

Women today can proudly say that they want to become a professional boxer, taking Taylor as their example.

Women’s boxing has never been this big before, ever. And Adam Smith is a big part of it.