I am on Merchant's side on this one. It was the perfect DEFENSIVE plan. But Barker had really no offensive plan (except some counters) and even if he did he rarely used it. When he did open up, realizing he was not going to win by decision, guess what? He tasted the canvas. And LOL - yeah what happened to Merchant hating only on defensive loud cocky black men?
I don't have a problem with Merchant, most the time he's pretty close to right on, I can respectfully disagree peacefully. Barker did good, I had him winning a few earlier rounds. And he was fighting a solid tactical fight, but as the fight wore on it seemed obvious that he was not willing to let his hands go, and its really hard behind that high guard to counter effectively against a moving fighter. I don't think what Larry said was far off, given the fact Barkers corner was telling him the same thing "you have to let your hands go more". Credit to Barker for hanging in there, but to me it was obvious from the 6th round on that the fight was changing momentum and Sergio was going to take him apart slowly. But I will watch Barker again, I thought he really gave Sergio some problems and just didn't quite have the experience to keep it up the whole fight.
Once sergio started going to the body, that one power shot over an over again, barker stayed in "his hands to face defense mode", i lost himself a chance at hearing the final bell, i like the fight till about the 6th, then it was alot of bodys shots with a few licks from barker, i thought barker won 2 rounds, an after about the 8th it looked as thoe he was beat IMO...... I think if sergio would of done that body attack from let say the 3rd, the fight would of been done by the 8th, Merchent is no PC *****, he a ****EN MAN
Even Pavlik?? (and PWill??) Even the Lineal Undisputed Unified (at that the time of the fight anyways ) Middle Weight Champion was able to land some punches on Sergio? :rofl:!:
Larry decides if he is going to **** on someone the first time he meets them. Like a group of middle school girls judging the new girl that comes in and hating on them out of trivial jealousy. Larry didnt like Barker before the fight started and even though Barker did way better than he expected, he still kept talking ****. Larry started talking **** on floyd over 10 years ago and becoming an ATG and top p4p hasnt deterred larry in the slightest.
And? Pavlik had pizza face, PWill took a nap eyes open and etc. Barker went defense first mode compared to the other two. When he attempted to go offense first he ate the canvas. Yes he got Sergio's nose but so what? He won what - 2 maybe 3 rounds? He was only keeping it close because he shelled up like Clottey.
I think people make a big deal out of what the commentators say. Sometimes they'll give the underdog credit for performing better than we thought, sometimes they'll criticize him for fighting a fight that he's still losing. Merchant is old and cranky, Steward is friendly, Lampley has an erection, get over it. They're not as biased as people always make them out to be.
Merchant today is no better than Jim Gray. At some moments, he is worse. People feel all nostalgic about him and get the warm fuzzy feeling remembering when his meandering tangential observations were still somewhat cohesive and only mildly perplexing. Stop living in the past. Merchant in this decade is a poopy-pantsed (literally, he probably wears diapers) malcontent with nothing insightful or valuable to contribute anymore.