James Frederick "Jimmy" Lennon Jr. (born August 5, 1958) is an American boxing ring announcer who was employed primarily by Showtime and

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

as ring announcer for their ''

Showtime Championship Boxing ''Showtime Championship Boxing'' is a television boxing program that aired on Showtime (TV network), Showtime. Debuting in March 1986, it was broadcast live on the first Saturday of every month. ''Showtime Championship Boxing'', which was very ...

'' and Premier Boxing Champions, also by Bob Arum's Top Rank on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

events. Lennon was also employed by

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 was 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 between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

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 championship (boxing), undisputed champion in the cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight division ...

, Winky Wright vs. Félix Trinidad and

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (né Sinclair; born February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed between 1996 and 2017. He list of undefeated boxing world champions, retired with an undefeated record a ...

vs.

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. He followed in the footsteps of his father Jimmy Lennon 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), ''Strike Force'' (video game), a 1991 arcade game *''Commandos: Strike Force'', a 2006 video game *''Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce'', a 2009 video game *' ...

, both the regular MMA shows which aired on CBS and Showtime and

's SHO XC shows which aired on Showtime. He formerly announced fights for the now-defunct Elite XC

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

promotion, and also for the

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the worl ...

promotion in Japan. He occasionally subbed for

Michael Buffer Michael Buffer (born November 2, 1944) is an American ring announcer (or " MC") for boxing, professional wrestling, and National Football League events. Pioneering a distinct announcing style in which he rolls certain letters and adds other ...

HBO World Championship Boxing ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' (in later years stylized in its title card as ''HBO Boxing – World Championship'') is an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973, with a fight that ...

and even Buffer subbed for Lennon on Showtime Championship Boxing. 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 EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

, having been the ring announcer for its Knockout Kings series of boxing video games and its EA Sports MMA game within Strikeforce rules.

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 ...

'','' I Spy'' and ''

Creed III ''Creed III'' is a 2023 American sports drama film starring and directed by Michael B. Jordan in his directorial debut, and produced by Irwin Winkler, Charles Winkler, William Chartoff, David Winkler, Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Eliza ...

''.

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 The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...

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