Forgotten Voices of Boxing: Dunphy, Clancy, Steward, Pacheco
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Boxing historians may overlook one particular category of boxing which has less historical significance than what actually takes place in the ring. Boxing had its Don Dunphy, Gil Clancy, Emmanuel Steward, and Dr. Ferdie Pacheco. Today we have faces and voices like Teddy Atlas, Larry Merchant, and Max Kellerman, but the famous voices are gone.
Hall of Fame sports announcer Dunphy (1908-1998) voiced over 2000 fights, especially ABC Television’s radio and television Friday Night Fights, which were broadcast every Firday nigt from 1939 to 1981. Hall of Fame boxing trainer and commentator Gil Clancy (1922-2011). Clancy trained George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Emile Griffith and Oscar De La Hoya, among others. He trained Griffith exclusively. Clancy announced for CBS, HBO and has his own cable television show, Gil Clancy’s Boxing Journal, on the FNN / Score Cable Television Network.
Besides being a Hall of Fame boxing commentator, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco was a medical doctor and established artist. And was best known for being the physician in the corner of Muhammad Ali. Pacheco called fights for NBC and Showtime.
Hall of Fame boxing trainer and commentator Emanuel Steward (1944-2012) trained 41 world champions from his famous Kronk Gym in Detroit, Michigan, most notably Thomas Hearns and Wladimir Klitschko. Steward also did considerable charity youth work.
In historical context, Dunphy has a boxing run which covered six decades, which more than justified his commentary in the film Raging Bull. Dunphy was only voicing for the movie what he did in real life. Clancy was the reflection of boxing itself beyond a certain point, having achieved a high level of respect in the boxing community for his expertise. Pacheco rode the Muhammad Ali train, and rode a surfboard wave into respectability by virtue of public recognition. Steward represented boxing best person in terms of personal character. In a sense, Dunphy, Clancy, Steward, and Dr. Pacheco were ‘the big three’ faces and voices of boxing in the 20th century. In the 21st century, certainly Teddy Atlas, Larry Merchant and Max Kellerman and well known now, but the current century still has 82 more years to go. The faces and voices of boxing will certainly change by then. MMA and boxing, this reporter predicts, will be more interconnected on the same sports card as combined box office and telecast draw by the time the current century ends.
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