Boxing

Jim Lampley Reveals Legendary Muhammad Ali Babysitting Story

Legendary boxing commentator Jim Lampley shared a fantastic story about the time Muhammad Ali babysat his daughter.
Grant Young|
Jim Lampley (HBO USA) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA on May 8, 2010.
Jim Lampley (HBO USA) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA on May 8, 2010. | IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

Jim Lampley has asserted himself as one of the most iconic boxing commentators in the sport's storied history. This is owed to him being the blow-by-blow announcer for HBO World Championship Boxing for 30 years along with covering 14 Olympic Games on U.S. television.

While Lampley isn't in the spotlight within the boxing world as much as he used to be, he still makes an appearance from time to time. And during a February 24 interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, Lampley details a fascinating story about the time Muhammad Ali babysat his daughter.

"[Ali and I] were in the green room together in the middle of the day, and I had some errands to run in Manhattan," Lampley said after mentioning that Muhammad Ali was a keynote speaker at a US Boxing Writer's Association Dinner that he was Master of Ceremonies for.

"And now I realized that I had to go out in daytime traffic in the middle of Manhattan to run a whole bunch of errands, and it was going to take me longer to do it if I took [my daughter] with me," Lampley continued. "So I looked around the green room and I said 'I have to go out and run some errands. Can somebody watch my daughter for me?' And Ali instantly said 'I'll do it.'

Lampley then goes on to say how he watched Ali (who had Parkinson's Disease at the time) pull out a deck of cards before leaving, and when he returned an hour and a half later, Ali was still entertaining his daughter with his iconic card tricks.

During the aforementioned dinner later on that day, Ali continued his tricks with Lampley's daughter but used forks, napkins, and other available utensils instead of cards, and then delivered a fantastic speech. Later that night, Lampley's daughter asked him who "that man" was, and Lampley responded by telling her, "He's the most famous man in the world."

"I got babysat by the most famous man in the world?" his daughter replied.

"Yes, you did," said Lampley.

How's that for a cool cocktail party story his daughter can share?

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.