Why did Larry Merchant accuse Tyson of fighting a carnival parade of handpicked opponents?

Mike Tyson said it on a podcast. You can either believe him or not, but it came straight from the horse’s mouth.

 

Williams's glass jaw and mcneel#s novice skills made earl# kos probable

 

In Merchant's defense, he did actually play football in college at Oklahoma. That is honestly pretty impressive.

 

Football ain’t fighting. Not even near it.

 

Sure, but naming the exact round in a bet (especially if you have foreknowledge) isn’t the same as ‘it probably won’t last long.’ I’d have bet Carl would have made it to the second round at least … and he might well have if the ref didn’t wave it off literally as he was saying ‘Yes’ when asked if he wanted to continue. He wasn’t wobbling around or in a stupor … he had been knocked down, beaten the count and told the ref he was ready to continue.

 

Is the idea that only fighters (or ex-fighters) can comment on fights?

I’d say on the whole they’re terrible announcers. Sean O’Grady and a few others are exceptions but the vast majority of former fighters given the mic at ringside are pretty terrible.

Is it your opinion that Julius Francis and Lou Savarese were top-of-the-heap heavyweights or were they what Larry said they were, hand-picked opponents.

You don’t have to like Merchant to admit that he was just telling the truth here.

 

No, that isn’t the idea. The idea is that Merchant had a wildly delusional sense of self-worth when he made many of the criticisms against various fighters he did.

 

Fair enough. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. Larry was correct in his assessment of Tyson’s resume in the leadup to Lewis. I can’t imagine a fighter on commentary instead of Merchant would have been gushing over how Mike had gone through murderer’s row post-Holyfield to earn this shot.

Some people are so blinded by their Merchant hate (and in some cases Tyson worship) that they can’t bring themselves to say ‘well he was right here.’

 

Perhaps he was, I don’t know enough of the situation off-hand to say. But only Merchant could say it with the pomp he did.

 

of course yes. I consider Tyson to be no. 3 in HW but at that time he was a drugged up celebrity who was cashing in on his former fame. After the fake fight with McNelley he would be no. 1 in all rankings which was a mockery of the sport. Merchant is extremely biased about Tyson but I don't need to know someone's opinion to have my own. Tyson should not have fought Lewis or even gotten a license to compete at that time. He was a myth man.

 

After 2000 he was. But that not's shocking because I'm sure at that point
of his career, knowing deep inside of his head he was past it,
and was trying to make the most money with the least resistance.

 

I do like him sometimes, & I appreciate the fact he wasn’t just a cowering hero worshipper as so many in his profession were. But he didn’t know where the line was between rightly calling out a celebrity fighter & something else entirely.

 

"Carnival parade" is harsh, but Merchant liked his meaty expressions. But I see his point. You'd expect some more top contenders in the years between Holy and Lewis, but of course Tyson made tons of money either way

 

I get why referee Randy Neumann waved it off. He asked if he wanted to continue and Carl shook his head to clear the cobwebs, with Neumann possibly seeing that as a sign he didn't want to continue. Notice Carl didn't answer immediately and it took him a bit to reply and did so rrrrrright when the ref waved it off.

It's right here at the 3:33 mark

This content is protected