Tompkins first came into prominence alongside Larry Merchant and Sugar Ray Leonard as a member of the HBO Boxing show's team. He called fights at HBO for many years, and some of his commentaries became famous, such as the one he made when Alexis Arguello was hurt by Aaron Pryor in round fourteen of their Battle of the Champions (Arguello...oh! Arguello is hurt!!), when Hector Camacho was buckled by Edwin Rosario in round five of their fight (Camacho had never been hurt before!) and when Mike Tyson won the WBC world Heavyweight title with a two round knockout of Trevor Berbick (A new era in boxing has just begun!).
Tompkins in 1985 made his acting debut, when he portrayed an USA Network sports-caster during the Rocky Balboa-Ivan Drago fight in Rocky IV. Later on, he moved to the ESPN network, where he covered mostly ten round bouts alongside Al Berstein on Thursday Night Fights for a number of years.
Currently, Barry Tompkins is the color commentator of the Fox Network's Sunday Night Fights, and he travels throught the United States alongside Sean O' Grady and Amy Hayes each two weeks to tape the Fox fight show.