This content is protected Man Hopkins was such a great eloquent talker. He handled Merchant pretty well in here specially compared to how other fighters like Floyd, Roy, Toney etc did.
Hopkins handled himself well and told off Merchant as straight forward and articulate as he could. Never understand why Hopkins was getting so much criticism for this fight with Hakkar when that was his mandatory. I'm glad he put Merchant in his place, especially after being disrespected right in front of his kid.
Hopkins KO1. Different story if Larry were 50 years younger tho. In all seriousness, Merchant was being a right tosser. Hopkins shut him up because he's a real G.
Ah yes Brilliant Bernard he's a regular Archie Moore. Like when he ran his mouth about MMA and then retracted, a real genius.
I understand Larry was p*ssed that he had to sit through that fight but it was a mandatory, not Hopkins fault and Hakkar was super negative. Hopkins did eventually stop him but what annoyed Larry was that Hopkins was doing a bit of showboating and messing around which prolonged the fight. It was bad from Hopkins to be honest. Nobody wants to watch that kind of fight and showboating like he was doing was only prolonging it so I can understand Larrys frustration. I don't think he was articulating it well enough though, possibly because he was just so frustrated but when he was saying "Do you think the fans want to watch this kind of fight?" I think he was partially referring to Hopkins fighting in a way that prolonged a sh*t fight. Hopkins obviously didn't care.
I have come to agree with Larry more over time in this scenario. I think Larry was out of line in his tone of the interview but I think his point stands. This fight did nothing for Hopkins's legacy and he could have faced a more meaningful opponent for more money. I think mandatory challengers is an interesting idea on paper and then you get fights like this
Merchant was an uncouth drunk. He didn’t have to attack Hopkins like that. Especially in front of his daughter. An absolute lack of professionalism. Hopkins had to tell him to stop being ignorant so that he would shut his liquor laced mouth and listen to why he was in there with someone that was not in his level. But his sauced up neurons still prevented him from comprehending. Embarrassing.
