ESPN laid off Max Kellerman nearly two years ago to the day. ESPN paid Kellerman over $10 million not to work, and he has not been seen or heard from since.
Kellerman reappeared for the first time on Sunday at the press conference for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford superfight.
UFC president Dana White, who is promoting the fight, introduced Kellerman to the New York crowd and said he'd be part of the official broadcast on Netflix on Sept. 13.
The fight is the first of a long-term agreement between Saudi official Turki Alalshikh and TKO, the parent company of UFC and WWE.
Alalshikh has vowed to save boxing by giving fans the fights they want to see when they want to see them. Pitting Canelo vs. Crawford in September does that.
And by partnering with TKO--specifically Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan--the prospects for boxing are the highest since at least the early 2000s.
Fight fans will also appreciate the addition of Max Kellerman, who has been synonymous with the sport for decades. He began his career as a teenager hosting "Max on Boxing" on New York’s public access channel and was eventually the lead analyst for HBO Boxing.
So expect Kellerman to be a featured face of TKO's venture into boxing. Kellerman was one of Khan's first and closest clients when the latter was an agent at CAA.
On Saturday night, Alalshikh posted a photo of Kellerman and Jim Lampley together, suggesting the legendary blow-by-blow announcer could join Kellerman on Netflix ahead of the fight:
In addition to boxing, Kellerman will likely have other options within the sports media. Sources tell OutKick that Kellerman is officially a sports media free agent. His contract with ESPN has run out.
People around the industry expect him to reunite with Marcellus Wiley at some point, perhaps to start a podcast.
Kellerman and Wiley are personal friends and hosted the successful "Max and Marcellus" radio show in Los Angeles before Kellerman left for "First Take."
Speaking of "First Take," the issues between Kellerman and Stephen A. Smith are well documented. In fact, four years later, Smith is still trying to drag Kellerman through the mud publicly.
Smith pushed Kellerman off the show in 2021, essentially because he was afraid that Kellerman had become more popular within the black community than he was. Terrell Owens even told Smith that, to his face, during an appearance on ESPN in 2020.
But while Smith promoted Kellerman's firing from ESPN as a victory, Max made out just fine. He got even richer and is now in line to be the face of boxing's renaissance.
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