| 03 September 2011
It's been known for a few weeks now that Brian Kenny was leaving ESPN to pursue other broadcasting opportunities, but it became more of a reality earlier tonight when he hosted his final SportsCenter. BK seems to be well-liked and respected by his peers in the industry, and there's little doubt plenty of his ESPN colleagues are sad to see him go. Yet he'll be especially missed by boxing fans for what he brought to the table as the studio host of Friday Night Fights
Knowledgeable and enthusiastic, Kenny clearly enjoyed covering the fight game even though he wasn't an expert on it when first handed the role. Let's face it: At boxing's current level of popularity, hosting FNFis not one of the network's cushier gigs, and it would be easy for someone to go in there and half-ass it. Kenny didn't, nor did he shy away from asking tough questions of fighters and other boxing personalities during interview segments.
As long as Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas are handling the commentating, it's not like FNFis in bad shape. Yet it's hard to immediately come up with someone who can slide in and seamlessly take BK's place. Max Kellerman would have been perfect, but he departed ESPN for (mostly) bigger and better things long ago. Could Dan Rafael do the job? Would he even be able to, considering he's needed in the field covering more important fights most of the time?
Maybe there's a retired fighter who would make a good host, though ex-athletes generally fare best as analysts. The most likely scenario is that someone at the network will simply be given the assignment, and we'll just have to hope he (or she!) grows into the role the way Kenny did.
So farewell BK, whether you're bound for MLB Network or somewhere else. Friday nights at the fights won't be the same without you.
