Boxing commentator, producer and director at ABC Sports and former president Alex Wallau has died at the ageo of 80. Wallau appeared on-camera alongside legends Jim Lampley, Howard Cosell and Al Michaels after beginning his career in 1976 as a temporary staffer at ABC. He worked his way up to become one of the leaders of ABC's sports division. Lampley issued this tribute to his former broadcast partner: "As much as any boxer I covered via the vast foundation of knowledge with which he and he alone first blessed me, Alex Wallau was a fighter.  His survival in a gruesome battle with throat cancer in the early 1990s was beyond courageous. The simple fact he endured for another thirty years is an example of epic courage. He taught me how to see and call boxing matches, and through that the eventual emblem of my entire fifty-year career was a gift from him.  I'm devastated that he is gone, but eternally grateful he was here.  All his friends and familial survivors have my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy.  Thank you forever, Alex."

How difficult was Wallau's battle with cancer? Here is how the LA Times reported it:

On the morning of Sept. 27, 1987, ABC boxing commentator Alex Wallau was washing his face when he felt a lump in his neck. A week later, he was told he had throat cancer. Because Wallau felt no discomfort, the cancer grew to Stage 4 before detection.

Boxingtalk sends its deepest sympathies to the firends and family of Alex Wallau