What did you think of Larry Merchant?

Larry Merchant was his own biggest fan

 

I loved his style. Almost always agreed with his opinion and scorecards, he's funny and insightful.

I like him even more with the knowledge that he was saucing it up during broadcasts... He makes even more sense now...

My introduction to Larry was that special about the heavyweight greats with Bill Gallo and Curt Gowdy. They featured "the punchers" and "the stylists"... Larry talked about his ties to Frazier and Cloverleaf, it was obvious he loved the game and the history. Gowdy was an imbecile and knew very little about boxing, and even in that stage of my boxing experience could tell so.

I liked his contrast to Lampley and Foreman, who he always clashed with and called out on his ridiculous statements.

I did value George for entertainments sake and to get into his head a bit.

Curse all you who mentioned Jim Grey in the same sentence as Merchant. He was a weasel. Never liked him. Always condescending and unintelligent. Never entertaining or insightful. Little nerd.

 

I am really conflicted about Merchant. On the positive, he was entertaining and honest. This honesty made him more than willing to identify and call out stupidities - especially when George Foreman made dumb comments (which was every other time he opened his mouth - e.g. "the best way to beat a slugger is to slug with him!" [WTF? Yes, that may work with YOU, George, since you were among the hardest hitters ever; but it doesn't work when Miguel Canto is going up against Jimmy Wilde!]). On the negative, this very honesty at times made him obnoxious - especially when he was wrong. Perhaps worse yet, he was often ignorant and even unprepared - as well as drunk.

So I am sort of neutral.

Still, he was much better than the other two members of his team - Lampley and Foreman. Lampley did not know much boxing, and even when he had sharp insights, he was too diplomatic to "tell it like it is." Foreman, in spite of his obvious boxing accomplishments, at times seemed to lack even a fundamental grasp of his craft.

I know some people use the tiresome "he was a pro!" - "in fact, Foreman was not only a professional but a world champion!" - defense, but this is not as persuasive as you may think. There are some athletes who get to the top of the field in spite of their utter lack of grasp of their sports' fundamentals, largely because they had certain natural gifts. Foreman was surely among those among boxers.

God, I freaking hate Foreman...

Edit: I dislike Foreman not as a person, but as a commentator. Just wanted to make that clear.

 

Better than what we have today

 

I agree with this! In the Byrd fight he was horrible (I didn’t like him in general). He was saying in round 1 Byrd isn’t even fighting like a man. We reviewed this in a FOTW thread. It has been a couple of months but I think it was RJJ??? /George??! Who called him on that comment, but he still just said he’s not fighting like a man to me. Then when Byrd was out of it like you mentioned he was disgraceful in his call of that. I also hated the smug way he would conduct post fight interviews FMJ in particular stand out in my mind.

 

Great analyst

 

I liked him...thought he was funny.

 

He was an outstanding journalist and commentator. We saw him get old and crusty over time but he knew the sport, knew it's history and brought talent to the coverage.

 

So annoying and abrasive that even when I agree with him or when he makes a good point, I still don't want to hear what he has to say.

 

Larry was good he had a good personality he was smart. Brought a bit of humor sometimes. He seem to always be looking for the meaning of it all the big picture deep thoughts.