Earlier today, CNN announced it is bringing HBO boxing analyst Max Kellerman on board as a regular contributor. According to CNN, “Kellerman will provide his passionate perspective and insightful commentary on news related to sports and pop cultural issues for CNN’s American Morning program (weekdays 6a-9a ET), and other CNN programs.”
Kellerman’s background is mostly in the sports world as one of the original hosts of ESPN’s Around the Horn and hosting a sports radio show until early last year. He is probably best known for his boxing commentary, however, being regularly featured on HBO’s Boxing After Dark as a color commentator alongside play-by-play man Bob Papa and former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, and long thought to be by some the heir apparent to HBO’s signature boxing analyst Larry Merchant.
It’s an interesting hire for CNN. Kellerman’s area of expertise, impressive as that knowledge may be, is in a niche sport. Either CNN is hoping there is a place for boxing commentary (outside of oddball stories like welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s Congressional victory in the Philippines) on American Morning, or they are banking on Kellerman’s appeal to extend to topics around which he may not be as thoroughly knowledgeable— not that he won’t know what he is talking about, but anyone who has followed Kellerman’s career will know that his encyclopedic knowledge of his sport is unparalleled.
This won’t be Kellerman’s first foray into political punditry, however. In 2007, Kellerman was featured in a regular segment on Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC program The Situation called “The Outsider,” though his role on that show was playing a deliberately uninformed nonpartisan forced to engage and play devil’s advocate against an experienced pundit. Kellerman also appeared, in a much more serious capacity, on The Rachel Maddow Show as recently as last February (Kellerman and Rachel Maddow had also appeared together on The Situation).
At the very least, CNN can bank on the fact that unlike, say, RedState.com editor Erick Erickson, Kellerman is a decidedly non-divisive, nonpartisan voice that has proven to do well on cable news, even if he’s not there to talk politics. The odds of either the far left or far right getting up in arms about Max Kellerman seem slim, and Kellerman is exciting (and excitable!) enough to make up for his lack of controversy with some much-needed early morning energy.
