One of boxing’s greatest blow-by-blow commentators had his iconic voice muted in 2018 when HBO threw in the towel on boxing.

For more than six years, Jim Lampley, an International Boxing Hall of Fame member and broadcaster, has been sitting on the sidelines, patiently waiting for another shot at calling fights.

Lampley, 76, kept busy by teaching communications classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, moved behind the screen to offer his unique insights for PPV.com live chats during tentpole boxing events and recently published the book “It Happened! A Uniquely Lucky Life In Sports Television” to share stories spanning his 50-year career.

On Friday, when he calls The Ring Magazine card in Times Square on DAZN PPV, a four-bout bill headlined by the fight between Ryan Garcia and Rolando Romero.

“It has happened,” Lampley told The Ring in an interview. “I am grateful to be coming back. The timing is unbelievable. Now we see what happens next.

“I'd be lying to you if I told you that a part of me didn't give up. I've spent years waiting for the phone to ring. I ultimately came to the conclusion that this was it, and it's not going to happen and that my arc was over. But I was always eager, anxious, and determined to watch fights and pay attention to them. A part of me was always expecting that this would happen.”

Lampley’s long-awaited return quickly kicked into second gear on Feb. 1 when The Ring owner Turki Alalshikh shared a post on social media extending him an invitation.

"Those were the magic words,” said Lampley, who was in Las Vegas that night covering David Benavidez’s win against David Morrell for PPV.com. "It was tremendously flattering for Turki Alalshikh to ask me. I am grateful to him and all of the others involved. Now it's on me. I will try to do the best job that I can do. I have no way of anticipating exactly what that night is going to be like.”

Just like a fighter coming off a long layoff, Lampley is naturally worried about his version of ring rust. To prepare for the grand occasion, he’s been revisiting calls from yesteryear to familiarize himself of his rhythm, timing, cadence and how he interacted with his broadcast colleagues.

“I think I am something of an unknown quantity now more than six years removed from calling a fight,” said Lampley. “I think what Turki Alalshikh is counting on here is that there is a certain level of curiosity and anticipation of, 'Can this guy still do what he used to do?'

"I have to approach that with respect and a certain level of fear, and I am doing that. It will help me prepare. Some people said it's like riding a bicycle and that you'll just get back up and be the same. I don't know that. I am more respectful to the challenge than to say that it's going to be easy. But I know how to do the work. I hope by the evening of May 2, I am prepared to do a credible job of blow-by-blow, because that's what fans deserve.”

The support and warm embraces Lampley has received is much different than what he experienced earlier in his career during his original foray into boxing, when television executive Dennis Swanson assigned him to call the sport on ABC to put him in what he believed was a dead-end position to justify eventually getting rid of him.

“He needed me to walk away from my contract,” said Lampley. “He didn't like the money that he was required to pay me. He thought I wouldn't be a good cultural fit. I would be seen by the audience as the successor to Howard Cosell. He assigned me to boxing for the purpose of embarrassing me, having not realized that the very first sporting event that I sat down and watched was Gillette Friday Night Fights and Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Bobo Olson in 1955. I grew up appreciating boxing. Being assigned to boxing at ABC was a gift in the Cracker Jack box.”

The first event Lampley called was Mike Tyson vs. Jesse Ferguson in 1986. He linked up a year later with HBO and went on to serve as the soundtrack for a generation of fights for 31 years.

Lampley was raised by his mother and grandmother – both of whom were sports and storytelling enthusiasts – after his father died when he was 5. A book came naturally to him.

"Every moment that I was writing the book, I was mimicking them. So the book is dedicated to them,” said Lampley. “I wrote the book entirely from memory. For years, I sat in bars, restaurants and production meetings and shared stories. Many people said I had to write a book with these spectacular stories in my unusually lucky life.”

Lampley shares stories around Muhammad Ali babysitting his 8-year-old daughter Brooke, the night in Tokyo when he called the shocker of the century as Buster Douglas knocked out Tyson and George Foreman's upset of Michael Moorer to become the oldest heavyweight champion in history. The latter inspired the title for his book.

The timing of the memoir’s April 15 release, however, feels ncredibly eerie for Lampley. Almost a month earlier, Foreman -- his longtime friend and HBO colleague -- unexpectedly passed away.

And now, much like Foreman authored one of the greatest comebacks in boxing history to become a two-time champion, Lampley has the chance to do the same in broadcasting.