Al Bernstein has always been a man that likes to stay busy, but the coming weeks may be a tad hectic – even for him.
As SHOWTIME Sports® gears up for what will be a sizzling summer of fistic action, Bernstein will be preparing himself for his impending induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, the honor of being named the winner of the Marvin Kohn “Good Guy” Award by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and the launch of a new book, “30 Years, 30 Undeniable Truths About Boxing, Sports and TV.” All the while, he’ll continue to prepare for the Showtime Boxing telecasts on June 2nd and June 23rd.
Just days after the respected, longtime broadcaster calls the June 2 quadrupleheader in Los Angeles on SHOWTIME featuring boxing legends Antonio Tarver and “Winky” Wright in separate bouts, Bernstein will be at The Copacabana in New York City to receive the “Good Guy” Award at the Copacabana on Wednesday, June 6 before heading to Canastota, N.Y., for the 23rd annual Hall of Fame induction weekend ceremonies which takes place June 7-10.
Bernstein will join an elite group of “Good Guy” Award recipients. Past winners include George Foreman, Don Dunphy and Alexis Arguello. It is the second major award he has received from the BWAA. In 1988, Bernstein won the prestigious Sam Taub Award for excellence in boxing broadcast journalism.
Bernstein will enter the Hall after being nominated for the first time. He is only the seventh broadcaster (and first from SHOWTIME) to be inducted.
Since 1980, Bernstein has chronicled the sport of boxing on television as ringside analyst, play-by-play announcer, host and reporter. He has called more than 2,500 fights and 68 pay-per-view telecasts. Bernstein has been at SHOWTIME since 2003. He started on national television at ESPN in the 1980s.
Bernstein’s book, “30 Years, 30 Undeniable Truths about Boxing, Sports and TV” (published by Diversion Books) is scheduled for a mid-June release. In it, Bernstein humorously tells the story of his 30-year run as the “voice of boxing,” recounting the people and events that made this a special time in boxing, sports and television. The upcoming book is Bernstein’s sophomore effort; in 1980, he wrote “Boxing For Beginners,” a historical and instructional look at boxing.
Before that, Bernstein was a featured writer for The RING Magazine and Boxing Illustrated. From 1974-79, he was managing editor of Lerner Newspapers in Chicago. During that time, he won the Chicago Newspaper Guild’s award for best news story – an investigation into illegal land deals by suburban officials.
Bernstein, who’s the executive producer and host of the Boxing Channel at www.boxingchannel.tv, was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009, having received the highest number of votes ever for a non-boxer inductee.
