Merchant was cool, I always thought he was more entertaining, than knowledgeable. I really miss that crew, even Big George, he would come out with some hilarious **** sometimes! Is it just me, or has the commentary gotten much worse (just like practically everything else) in boxing?
Problem me and many others had with Merchant was he was very biased against boxers who avoided getting hit (crazy, huh) as opposed to face first sluggers. In other words he preferred all boxers to fight like Arturo Gatti rather than Floyd, and that bias came out in his commentary. He should have concentrated on wrting rather than tv work.
Well I didn’t respect the ending of that fight but Victor was launching his head like a rocket into the chin/head of Floyd in the turnbuckle
The fight was really bad no doubt, but Larry started asking Hopkins questions that should've been aimed at someone else. Questions like if anyone would pay to see this kind of fight, etc., should've been asked of the reps from whichever organization was going to strip Bernard of the title for not defending. It was classic when Hopkins shut him up lol.
Running like a coward, holding, elbow smashes etc ALL ignored by Cortez Ortiz tired of it & butted him. For this he was rightfully docked a point But the Mayweather pulled the cowardly punk stunt for which he should have been DQ'd Cortez should have been punished too he NEVER told them to box on. Moral of this story is Mayweather plain couldn't FIGHT!!!! like a man. He had to cheat
I forget how bad the commentary team was that we had to put up with, I complain about Bradley but I don’t think he’s much worse than guys like Lampley and Merchant were. Both HBO guys who didn’t know the first thing about boxing, one guy who didn’t even watch the fights and just called whatever fantasy he felt like making up on the spot, and the other was just a drunk antagonist.
Larry and Harold Lederman are certified platinum. HBO was pristine boxing programing. We'll never have something like that again. I get teary eyed even thinking about those telecasts.