I caught up with Jim Lampley of HBO Boxing to talk about the Mayweather-Marquez fight and what’s next for Money May. Along the way we mixed in Chris Arreola, Vitali Klitschko, and Lamps gave his thoughts on Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame speech.

HG: Jim thanks for the time.

JL: My privilege.

HG: That’s funny. I’m pretty sure the privilege is mine. Let’s get right to it this past weekend we saw Floyd Mayweather make his return to the ring against Juan Marquez. Can you give me your thoughts on the fight?

JL: I think naturally you expect that there’s an adjustment for somebody to come back to a sport like boxing after 21 months off. Obviously many great fighters have been through this process before but I think you could argue that nobody has ever come back so spectacularly from a long layoff from boxing as Floyd Mayweather did. He produced probably the most technically profound performance of his career and looked as though he was better and more effective at what he does than ever before. I think what’s most important to note about Floyd is that despite what appears to be a crazy, excessive lifestyle and a lot of distractions which surround him, his dedication to conditioning and the craft of boxing would appear to be incomparable. You can’t miss that. Maybe he’s working out at 1 O’clock in the morning and maybe that’s not the normal time to be working out but whatever he does, he’s getting done the most important things you have to get done to preserve your self as a fighter. That’s part of what showed up in his amazing performance Saturday night. I expected him to win. I expected him to control the fight but what he did was my expectation multiplied by about three.

HG: Did the wear and tear Marquez has been through have anything to do with the outcome or do you give all the credit to Floyd?

JL: It was Marquez’ 56th fight and he’s had a number of difficult, hard fights in the past few years. You never rule that out as a factor but more important was the fact that Floyd knew he was the larger, stronger man and fought that way. As he often does, he fought a safety first fight. He devoted himself first to dismantling Marquez’ offense and then he looked for opportunities to score without any retaliation. You know, he never puts himself in position to be hurt by a counter-punch or to extend himself in such a way that he makes himself vulnerable. He doesn’t care whether he provides the drama or entertainment of the knockout. He would rather win all 12 rounds. It doesn’t compute over the long haul to the highest entertainment value possible but it does compute to an unbeaten record and that’s what he’s got.

HG: After the fight was over we saw Shane Mosley enter the ring. During the fight I believe it was you that mentioned Floyd winked at Shane as if to say ‘I’ll give you a shot’ and then after the fight Shane was in the ring to say a few words. What do you think of Mosley-Mayweather for boxing and of the match-up itself?

JL: Life is unfair and boxing is even more so. Shane is in the wretched position of being the person that is most deserving of a chance to fight Floyd Mayweather and having the least clout of any of the proposed candidates. Obviously, if money stirs the drink, Floyd would hope that Manny Pacquiao beats Miguel Cotto on November 14 and then Floyd can have another huge pay-per-view revenue fight against somebody with larger drawing power than his own, who also happens to be a smaller fighter. That’s what happened Saturday night, that’s what happened against Ricky Hatton. De La Hoya wasn’t smaller but he certainly had larger drawing power and he was older and closer to the end of his rope. Floyd has got a lot of useful niche opportunities taking advantage of other people’s drawing power and the Pacquiao fight would be yet another perfect example of that. Or, what if Pacquiao were to lose to Miguel Cotto? Well, then there’s another no-brainer. Cotto has his own built in following. A huge constituency which is represented by Puerto Rico’s devotion to the sport and all the other people who have been entertained by his amazingly entertaining, high-suspense fights over the course of the last few years. So the winner of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight, regardless of which one it is, is going to be in the driver’s seat for a fight against Floyd Mayweather. Shane Mosley has wanted this fight for five or six years. Given that Floyd fights in the welterweight division and that Shane is very presentably the number one welterweight in the world at this moment. There’s all the reason in the world to believe that the fight should take place but Shane is inhibited by the fact that his bargaining power is not the same as that of Pacquiao or Cotto. He’s also big enough, fast enough, and a good enough boxer to potentially pose a threat to Floyd. So that makes it very difficult for Shane to get the fight. He’s extremely frustrated by that. You had an unusual condition the other night because Shane is affiliated with the promoter which was providing promotional services for the fight. That gives him a pass that allows him to go into the ring and be right there when Floyd is doing that post-fight interview. And you have another factor which is that the sport’s number one master instigator, Bernard Hopkins, is a partner in the same promotional firm and was clearly barking in Shane’s ear all night long. All those factors combined to create a very unusual situation which I think is probably as close as Shane will get, at least for the time being, to a fight with Floyd Mayweather. At least he got into a camera picture with him. That’s better than he’s done before.

HG: All of this talk about Pacquiao, Cotto, Mosley, and Mayweather is reminding me of the Eighties when we would talk about Sugar Ray, Hagler, Hearns, smaller weight classes. Right now the heavyweight division leaves a lot to be desired but this weekend we have Chris Arreola taking on Vitali Klitschko. I’d like to get your thoughts on that fight.

JL: It’s a tremendous occasion for the heavyweight division because I’ve said for years that the next giant attraction in the sport, the next person who blows all the economic equations sky high ala Mike Tyson or Oscar De La Hoya is the first Mexican or Mexican-American heavyweight contender or heavyweight champion, that person could become Tyson multiplied by De La Hoya. Obviously there’s a world of opportunity in front of Chris Arreola if he should somehow become the recognized heavyweight champion of the world. And Americans are so desperate for the heavyweight champion of the world to be an American that if Arreola somehow knocks out Vitali Klitschko, Vladimir will soon be forgotten by American boxing media and Arreola will be annointed as the best heavyweight even though, clearly, Vladimir would be favored over him just as Vitali is a heavy favorite over him. The dark side of this, the dark cloud on the horizon is that Chris Arreola is not a dedicated, 365 day per year conditioned athlete and the Klitschkos very much are. While there’s a chance that he does something exciting in the first three or four rounds of the fight because he’s that rare heavyweight that throws punches in bunches and there’s shock value in that. The likely possibility is that he runs out of steam somewhere in about the fourth or fifth round and what we see after that is what we’ve seen in almost all of Vitali’s fights which is Vitali standing tall, hiding back behind his jab, popping you with the jab every time you step in, waiting to land the right-hand, and ultimately beating you down.

HG: I’ve seen some pictures of Arreola and I’m a little worried. He definitely gets out of shape in between fights, but he says he’ll be OK. I’m not sure about that… Jim, one of the big controversies we hear about all of the time now is boxing vs. MMA. I don’t quite understand why somebody can’t be a fan of both and why there cant’ be boxing and MMA on the same card. How do you feel about the boxing vs. MMA conversation?

JL: I’m told that Golden Boy plans to do it or has already done it once or twice where there are MMA fights mixed in with boxing fights on the same card. I’m in agreement with you that there should be a combined audience for both. I think there are really three audiences. There are people that watch both, there are people that watch only MMA, and there are people that watch only boxing. I personally belong to the third audience because I don’t yet have a big interest in MMA fights. I’m not interested in the way they’re conducted. I don’t care to see guys rolling around on the canvas in a horizontal position. I like watching people stand up and match their hand skills and that’s boxing. But I do think there’s room in the world for both, there’s audiences for both. A lot was made this past weekend of the fact that there was a big boxing pay-per-view and a UFC pay-per-view and several people asked me “Do you think we’ll learn something about the comparative attractions?” and I said no. My reason is the following: There is no independent arbiter, there is no Ernst & Young or Pricewaterhouse who counts pay-per-view buys. The only people who are counting PPV buys are the people who are selling pay-per-views. So the notion that we would get accurate information regarding either of the two attractions this weekend is to me a little bit idealistic. I rather suspect that everything that is announced with regards to PPV buys over the weekend will be more promotional than concrete in nature.

HG: Sort of like the Mall Marches?

JL: Yeah, that’s right. Very much that way. Yes exactly. “We’ve got about 500,000 people here” ahhh no really you’ve got about 40 or 50.

HG: Last question here.. You’re regarded as one of the most intelligent people in sports broadcasting. You’re a cerebral broadcaster. You went to UNC so I’m not quite sure how you pulled that off.. But recently a member of the Carolina family, Michael Jordan, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He gave a speech that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He came across more arrogant than ever. What were your thoughts on Michael’s speech?

JL: I think he embarrassed himself and I think he embarrassed all of us who have loved and supported him. He embarrassed his Carolina heritage, he took a swipe at Dean Smith. Imagine that.. It just goes to show you how extraordinary privilege and extraordinary status so isolates people that even some of the most intelligent ones can lose touch with the simple reality of their relationship to the audience. For this guy to think that he was in any way penalized by his identity as opposed to given the right, the privilege, and the opportunity to succeed to the highest level is very myopic and I feel bad for him if that was a legitimate, sincere representation of his feelings on that occasion.

HG: Well… Mr. Lampley, I appreciate the time and I hope to talk to you soon.

JL: Thanks HG, I’ll talk to you later on. Good luck.