Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170329
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK TV/RADIO SPORTS COLUMNIST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It's incredible, it's unbelieveable, and I love it," Bartin said.
Bartin, a Las Vegas resident, has been a boxing judge since 1984. She gets her network TV start Friday night with sports' newest telecast venture - Time Warner Sports' TVKO - on what figures to be the most-watched boxing show in pay-per-view history.
The attraction will be the scheduled 12-round battle for the undisputed heavyweight title: champion Evander Holyfield against 42-year-old George Foreman, the comeback (non)kid. Bartin will work the three-bout telecast as a ringside judge - her numbers strictly unofficial this time.
Holyfield-Foreman is an impressive start for TVKO, which plans a monthly Friday night pay-per-view boxing show. Next month, in Davenport, Iowa, Michael Nunn and Michael Carbajal will be featured. Bartin has signed on to be the TVKO telecast judge, in a role similar to the one handled by Harold Letterman on Home Box Office's boxing telecasts.
TVKO and HBO are Time Warner subsidiaries.
Bartin, 34, will tell viewers how she judged rounds and why. She also will do commentary on the technical aspects of the sport, explaining rules, and she will be the authority Len Berman and fellow telecasters turn to should controversy arise on refereeing and judging.
"We're calling Cindy our unofficial ringside official," said Linda Jackson, executive producer of Time Warner Sports. "She came to us highly recommended. She knows boxing and she has good experience as a judge. She has good presence on the air.
"I'm sure there is going to be some added interest in that she's a woman doing a job that would normally go to a man, but Cindy is used to that."
Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that Bartin, a 1975 graduate of Cave Spring High, is the first woman boxing commentator. Jackson is the first woman to produce a boxing telecast, the Witherspoon-Tubbs heavyweight championship bout for HBO in 1986.
"They called me," Bartin said. "Apparently, someone in boxing who knew me suggested me to [Time Warner president] Seth Abraham.
"It isn't easy work, and I don't have a lot of experience. I've been on TV before here in Las Vegas, but very little.
"We've had two rehearsals, where we've actually worked a fight and they run the tape, and then they evaluate us. I think I've been pretty harsh on myself. I think I should be better than I've been, but they say to stay calm, that no one is perfect from Day One."
Bartin said she became enthralled by boxing and its show-biz atmosphere once she moved to Las Vegas a decade ago. She left Roanoke after a divorce and decided to become a flight attendant, based in Phoenix. She soon moved to Las Vegas and attended her first bout within a few days. She dated former lightweight champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
Within three years after leaving Roanoke, Bartin was the first female boxing judge licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Her connections with the sport's major names are strong, and she sells real estate. Now, she has a telecast contract, and she is engaged to be married June 22 to Anthony Barelli, a Las Vegas anesthesiologist.
"I'm not going to give up being a pro boxing judge," Bartin said. "I enjoy that and I think I'm good at it. We'll just have to see how the TVKO work develops. I'm sure my future on TV will depend on how I do when I'm on the air."
Bartin, whose parents still live in the Roanoke Valley, said she realizes she will be watched Friday night by one the largest audiences in a medium - pay-per-view television - that is still in its infancy. She knows she will be second-guessing the work of her peers, the official judges at ringside in Atlantic City, N.J.
"We, as judges, are second-guessed all of the time," Bartin said.
No one can say Bartin isn't taking her new work - and opportunity - seriously. She has worked with a "media trainer," who has coached her on being concise and poised on live television. She also has hired an agent, Alan Jones, who also is the attorney for embattled Nevada-Las Vegas basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.
Bartin, accustomed to the bright lights of Las Vegas, likely will not be intimidated by her new job.
"I'm sure I'll be a little nervous," she said. "You're asked for impromptu remarks. You can be stuck in a situation where you have to fill time, if a fight only goes a couple of rounds. Anything can happen.
"This isn't just any show. This is Holyfield-Foreman. It's a first for TVKO. Me, too."
by CNB