Jimmy Lennon Jr. (born August 5, 1958) is an American boxing ring announcer who is employed primarily by

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

and Fox Sports as ring announcer for their '' Showtime Championship Boxing'' and Premier Boxing Champions, also by Bob Arum's Top Rank on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

events. Lennon was also employed by Fox Sports when it previously had rights to professional boxing and was the ring announcer for Don King Promotions' fights that aired on various networks. He is best known for his catchphrase, "It's showtime!" but the catchphrase is not spoken during Fox's fight coverage.

Announcing career

Born in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, Lennon has been a ring announcer for over 25 years, during which he has been at the microphone for some historic fights, including

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...

vs.

Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and is the on ...

, Winky Wright vs.

Félix Trinidad Félix Juan Trinidad García (born January 10, 1973), popularly known as "Tito" Trinidad, is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes and is said to b ...

and

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (''né'' Sinclair; February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer. He currently owns a team in the NASCAR Cup Series named The Money Team Racing. As a professional boxer he competed b ...

vs. Manny Pacquiao. He followed in the footsteps of his father

Jimmy Lennon Jimmy Lennon Sr. (April 13, 1913 – April 20, 1992) was a ring announcer for boxing and professional wrestling matches. Early life Lennon sang as a young boy in church and later formed a singing group, The Lennon Brothers, with his brothers in V ...

who was a ring announcer as well. He also announced MMA fight cards for

Strikeforce Strike Force may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Strike Force'' (video game), a 1991 arcade game *'' Commandos: Strike Force'', a 2006 video game *'' Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce'', a 2009 video game *''Marvel Strike Force'', ...

, both the regular MMA shows which aired on CBS and

and

's SHO XC shows which aired on

. He formerly announced fights for the now-defunct

Elite XC Elite Xtreme Combat, also known as EliteXC, was a United States-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization owned and operated by ProElite. It was founded as a partnership between Showtime Networks and ProElite and officially announced on Decembe ...

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

promotion, and also for the

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

promotion in Japan. Lennon began doing ring introductions with PBC promotions in January 2019. Lennon, much like his father, speaks Spanish and makes an effort to pronounce all fighters' names correctly. Lennon has also done work for EA Sports, having been the ring announcer for its Knockout Kings series of boxing video games and its

EA Sports MMA ''EA Sports MMA'' is a 2010 sports video game which was developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Sports. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 19, 2010, in North America and October 22, 2010, everywhere else. Online serv ...

game.

Movies

He has appeared as himself in several movies, most notably ''

Hot Shots! ''Hot Shots!'' is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Jim Abrahams, co-writer and co-director of ''Airplane!'', and written by Abrahams and Pat Proft. It stars Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, Jon Cryer, Kevin Dunn ...

'' and ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

''.

Honors

Lennon has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He was also selected as an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lennon, Jimmy Jr. Living people Boxing people Sportspeople from Santa Monica, California Strikeforce (mixed martial arts) International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees 1958 births Mixed martial arts announcers Public address announcers

Announcing career

Movies

Honors

See also

References