![]() ![]() He accidentally hit me with a hook to the face and he realized it right away. Ray had promised me he would do one with me and – because Ray is a man of his word – we ended up doing it during the 2012 International Boxing Hall of Fame weekend before a live audience. “Getting in the ring with Sugar Ray Leonard was a dream come true, but we couldn’t do the in-ring at the time we taped the show. The next day I had trouble standing up at first, and no wonder,” he continued. “I remember when Bernard Hopkins demonstrated some of the ‘dirty tactics’ he did with Felix Trinidad and they took my legs away. “For a split second I’m thinking, ‘what if he has a flashback? This is it for me.’ Mike’s hands were so heavy that when he hit me with a shot on the left side of my face, my bridge was loosened and the next day it fell out. “When I did the in-ring with Mike Tyson, there was a point where he had me against the ropes and I asked him to demonstrate the combination that stopped Frank Bruno in their rematch – the right to the ribs followed by the right uppercut to the jaw,” Smith recalled. Sometimes those demonstrations took a physical toll. For those who haven’t seen it, the half-hour programs that have featured active and retired boxers as guests unfold in two parts, the first being a conventional one-on-one interview in which the fighter discusses his life and career and the second being an in-ring segment in which the guest explains – then demonstrates – the techniques that led to his success. The vehicle that has best illustrated his fusion of in-the-trenches experience and broadcasting know-how is his show “In This Corner,” which has been televised weekly since its first episode aired nine years ago today. His sense of showmanship helped him fit in during a stint with the professional wrestling company WCW, where he interviewed Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Diamond Dallas Page and Captain Lou Albano among others. The Brick” program and Radio Sport New Zealand, which he has done nearly every week since 1998. His boxing expertise has earned him frequent appearances on pay-per-view pre-fight “Countdown” shows, Fox Sports Radio’s “J.T. He has served all three commentary roles in a boxing broadcast – blow-by-blow, color analyst and roving reporter – and, like Howard Cosell and Don Dunphy, he has executed the TV equivalent of flying solo. and Mike Tyson, and he’s done cards with entertainment figures such as singer Aaron Neville and San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark. ![]() Bob Sheridan, Al Bernstein, Steve Farhood, the late Nick Charles, Sean O’Grady, Arnold “Tokyo” Rosenthal, Roy Jones Jr. ![]() His broadcast partners have included Col. In fact, Smith did play-by-play during the first live boxing broadcast over the web in May 1997. ![]() His 28-year broadcasting career has spanned the spectrum – radio (1985-2003), television (1997-present) and, in recent years, the internet. After that he turned to professional boxing for three years and sparred with the likes of Alexis Arguello, Johnny de la Rosa and Sugar Baby Rojas at Miami’s legendary 5th Street Gym. Despite his diminutive stature, the speedy Smith – who wowed his gridiron teammates by benching 300 pounds and running a 4.55 40-yard-dash in his final year of college – played wide receiver at Carol City High School in Miami and at the University of Minnesota Tech for two years before a knee injury ended his playing career. But when one looks beyond the stylish exterior, one finds a man of considerable substance whose accomplishments have been the product of initiative, hard work and uncommon fearlessness. ![]()
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