A longtime broadcaster, he's been in the boxing ring with more than 60 World Champions.

James "Smitty" Smith is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

His television show In This Corner has been on the air 20 years.

And on it, not only does he interview World Champion boxers, but he gets in the ring with them so they can demonstrate their moves.

For this, as well as his many years of work as a boxing commentator and play-by-play announcer, he's been inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame and the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame.

He's also the host of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

James "Smitty" Smith, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

(James "Smitty" Smith) Great to be here.

-Tell me when was it that you knew you wanted to get into broadcasting?

-You know, I think as a youngster growing up in Miami, my mom worked late, and I would always watch Johnny Carson.

Johnny Carson was, you know, I idolized him.

And that is where the bug bit me.

And then as I got into sports and it all transitioned, I wanted to have my own radio show, which I did for many years in Southwest Florida and even national.

And then that set up the stage for the television career.

You mentioned the show, In This Corner.

That has been on the air for 20 straight years.

And I've called thousands of fights on TV and documentaries and things also that I'm interested in, in my future.

But it started at a really young age.

-It was the TV show that brought you to Vegas, right?

-Yeah.

I moved here in 1997 from Florida because I knew I had this idea of doing boxing commentary, but I wanted my own show.

And I figured there's no other place that I could get the athletes, the fighters, to be able to do this type of thing.

And April 1, 2004, we launched on Direct TV.

And somehow, some way we've been on the air ever since.

-It was none other, though, going back to your childhood, than the late great Muhammad Ali, who told you when you said, I want to be a broadcaster, he said, I think you can do that.

-It was at the 5th St. Gym.

He was getting ready to fight Smokin Joe Frazier in their first fight, their epic fight, the most important not just fight, but sporting event, March 8, 1971.

We're at the 5th St. Gym, and he took a liking to me.

He let me go, and he was hitting the heavy bag and different things.

He said, Little Dude, what do you want when you grow up?

And I said, I want to be like Johnny Carson and have my own television show.

And I think Ali had just been on the Carson Show.

And he said, You will have your own TV show because you're just like me and Johnny, you never shut up.

And the rest is history.

But when he said that, it just-- and that's why it's so important for kids to have positive role models, because he made me believe that anything was possible.

-Another positive role model in your life was none other than great wide receiver Paul Warfield of the Miami Dolphins.

How on earth did you make that connection?

-You know, it's amazing.

Paul and I to this day talk about it.

He's like a father.

He was like a father figure to me then, and he still is.

You know, I became a ball boy for the 1972 Miami Dolphins, football's only perfect team.

But I met Paul, and Paul knew that I was seeing Ali.

They were both 29-year-old black men at the pinnacles-- Ali, the most famous man in the world; Warfield, the best wide receiver --and they were both somehow smitten with Smitty.

And Paul just loved to hear my stories about Ali in preparation for the Frazier fight.

And that's kind of how it started.

And Paul is the first one that put me on television.

He had a little cable show, and he put me on there as a little kid.

So it's amazing how karma and all these things work out.

Fate maybe.

-And didn't you learn a very important lesson from him about editing and what gets cut out?

-Yeah.

I did a, I did a piece with Howard Cosell called On Location.

And Howard Cosell, who I idolized, came in.

They set it up that I would do a segment with Howard, that it was about a 30-minute segment.

We did trivia, and I beat him in trivia.

And we talked, and then I wait.

It was supposed to air the next Sunday, and it was two episodes and it didn't air.

And then the next Sunday, the following Sunday, it didn't air, and I was in tears when I saw Paul.

I said, They cut out my segment.

And he said, Well, Smitty, that's the way they cut the tape.

So don't you cut the tape on this interview, Amber.

-If you're too loquacious, I might have to because of timing.

Being part of that '72 Dolphins team, the "perfect team," only perfect team in football, what impact do you think that had on you in your later career as a sports broadcaster and the views you have on sports?

-Yeah.

I was the one that Coach Shula told to flip off the lights so they could watch them, the Dolphins, get beaten in Super Bowl VI by the Cowboys.

And then I flipped the light back on, and he made this speech about how it doesn't mean anything to get to a Super Bowl without ultimately winning it.

And I just learned about work ethic.

I learned about detail.

You know, I learned about confidence and, you know, sometimes not taking yourself so seriously, which I struggle with.

But I learned so much.

And I still think that '72 team doesn't get the credit it deserves.

It's all these years later.

Nobody's ever going to beat it.

They might, you know, replicate it.

But that Dolphin team...

Being around Ali-- and sometimes in the same day I'd be with Muhammad Ali because I skipped school.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson, for letting me do that.

I would be with the Dolphins in the afternoon.

It was just an amazing ride that led to all of this.

-All right.

So radio show first.

You venture a little bit into the WCW?

-Yeah.

Well, WCW became one of my great sponsors of Smitty's Sports Talk.

And I used to-- and I learned so much.

I'm the one that really got Diamond Dallas Page in wrestling.

It's a long story.

But I just learned so much about the mixture of sports and entertainment and how they blend.

I used to build my show, my radio show, as "sports entertainment at its best," you know.

And I got that, I got a lot of that from wrestling and "Captain" Lou Albano.

And so yeah.

-You move to Vegas, you start the TV show.

The part where you get in the ring with the fighters, you refer to them as "In Rings," and I think you're probably most well known for the one you did with Mike Tyson?

-Yeah.

-You think?

What do you remember about that one?

-Mike was still fighting professionally then, and he was-- I faced a much tougher Mike Tyson than Jake Paul will face.

Mike was still fighting professionally, and I-- the funny story was I had a bridge.

And Mike has heavy hands.

He wasn't trying to hurt me, or I wouldn't be here with you.

But he tapped me, and the bridge fell out after the interview.

But it was intimidating just to see Mike, but I'm so grateful that all those great athletes let me in.

And this is not a BS segment.

They really, as you know, take it seriously.

And at a high level, boxing is artistic brutality.

And we try to explain the artistry of it.

-And perhaps you will tell the story of how impactful that In-Ring segment can be.

What was Andre Ward's message to you when he first met you?

-Yeah.

It was Andre Ward and Tim Bradley, who I haven't--sorry, Tim--we haven't done a show with him yet.

Andre came up to me.

I was covering a fight, and he tapped me on the shoulder and says, When do I get to be on your show?

And I said, Well, we certainly-- you're one of my top fighters.

He says, No, I can't wait to do the In Ring.

And so after 5, 6, 7 years of doing it, then the fighters started seeking me out and wanting to do the In Rings with me.

The last one I did was with Devin Haney.

But I am, I still have a few left in me.

-Oh, well, you already answered a question that I was going to ask.

But do you have a favorite In Ring that you've done?

-I think, Amber, of all time, it might be Bernard Hopkins, because, you know, he went on-- "The Ageless Wonder," he's the only guy that maybe has almost a draw with Father Time.

But because he went into not just the intricacies, but the extra-casies, which is not a word.

In other words, he explained what he did that wasn't legal.

-Yeah, the dirty tactics.

-The dirty tactics.

And I just really appreciated his honesty and candor.

And he beat up on the sides of my legs and my back, which are illegal.

But later on I said, Now I see why he did that.

-Yeah.

Imagine how many fighters watched that and learn from it.

-To this day, fighters, everywhere I go all over the world, there are people who said, Oh-- you know, they know me more from my YouTube videos with Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, and the like.

-Okay.

How often do fighters get more physical than you would like?

-A few of them that, that when you know them too well.

Jeff Fenech beat the hell out of me purposefully.

And Roberto Duran bloodied my nose, and it was because he was speaking in Spanish.

I thought he said--this is why I should have learned Spanish when I was growing up in Miami.

He said, Go left.

And I went right, and boom.

-And what about at the International Boxing Hall of Fame?

Who was it that-- -Oh, Sugar Ray Leonard.

-Yes.

-Nailed me with a crisp left hook.

But being the entertainer and spontaneous guy that I am, he hit me, and right away, I said, No mas!

No mas!, off the Roberto Duran second fight, yeah.

-You also take a lot of pride in the interview part of that show.

What are you looking to accomplish in those interviews?

What allows you to say, I did a good job there?

-When the fighter is honest and really gets off all the BS, all the stuff that we see with stare downs and weigh ins and, you know, when they just are honest and they reflect.

At the highest point, the great fighters, they're chasing an altogether different type of ghost than any other athlete.

They come from, the greatest ones, from the other side of the tracks from where the buses don't run.

And I'm looking for that candor, and it got to a point later on in my career where almost everyone I would have on would cry.

I used to make them laugh in the beginning and then cry now.

But you just want to take them to a depth that maybe they haven't been to with an interview, because so many of the guys doing--and gals--doing boxing today don't know what they're doing.

-I know you have said that you earn their respect by having been a professional boxer yourself.

-Why are you laughing when referring to me as a professional boxer?

-How would you describe your professional boxing career?

-Laughable.

I had no amateur fights.

I went right in there to the 5th St. Gym thinking I could be like Ali and got the hell beat out of me a bunch of times.

I never got knocked down, never got knocked out, because I ran like hell.

I was a great athlete.

But in not knowing the sport and never having an amateur career, that is really what fueled me to get in the ring with these guys, because now, even at my age now, I'm probably better.

I couldn't beat the 20-year-old Smitty, but I'm better than the 20 because I have the knowledge.

And it really is, at its highest level, it is a sweet science.

And doing that and being an athlete certainly helped.

-You mentioned that you are not hanging up your gloves in terms of In Rings.

However, an issue passionate to you is that fighters should retire at a certain time.

But isn't that subjective?

When is an appropriate time?

-I don't think so.

I mean, not anymore.

I host the Hall of Fame, the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and I see the damage that has been done.

Almost every great fighter, they take-- there's a toll taken on them that is not taken on other athletes, mainly upstairs.

We see it with football, but with boxers, every great fighter is going to suffer.

And I think it's so appropriate now they're making bigger money, get out and be able to at least enjoy what you've accomplished.

So I'm one that really-- and I'm very honest to the fighters, Get out while you still can.

-What keeps them from getting out?

-I think it's an addiction, like Mike Tyson said on my show.

Yes, in the past it was the money.

But now it's also the limelight.

It's like these lights.

How do you get out of this?

Once you've been a broadcaster, if we've all-- you've never been out of work, but I have.

You panic when you're out of work.

-I have been.

-I'm just messing with you, but I'm saying it's an addiction.

And there's, I mean-- and a fighter, again, goes into the ring nearly naked.

And it's just something I can't even explain.

It scared the hell out of me when I did it a few times.

But at the highest level, it is what motivates them.

And it's something special, and I don't want to lose that with all the crap going on in boxing today.

-Last thing.

I know you're gonna send this to your mama.

Wanna send her a message?

-Yeah.

What would I say?

Well, my mother always let me be, and you can see that.

She let me be who, who I am.

And so good to see you, Mom!

Here's Amber.

-James "Smitty" Smith, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.