Larry Merchant- GOAT Analyst

[p4pking]

Larry Merchant and Jim Grey should have a duel with assault rifles. IMO

Throw Sheridan in there and make it a three way. Dude just does not shut up.

Yeah Sheridan is proof positive that you don't need to have any real insight to make it behind the mic. I guess he kind of has the drunk uncle at Christmas appeal or something though as people like him. I thought he was particularly bad last night, he has absolutely no idea what the hell he is watching and can't score a round to save his life, he does make Larry Merchant look good though.

[El Kabong]

Al Bernstein is one of my favorites, class act.


as for HBO, the problem with any lineup they put out there is that they are all too willing to be negative. If you watch UFC you'll NEVER hear Joe Rogan say anything bad about a fight, it just never happens or in the cases where it DOES happen the commentator takes a stance siding with the audible fans who are booing the action or lack thereof. At HBO you'd better be 100% action 100% of the time because as soon as there's a lull we'll hear about how bad the fight is, how shit the fighters are, and how "boxing didn't use to be this way".......yes, yes it did. Boxing has always had fights that are good, fights that are bad, and fights that are so-so but what we didn't have are a bunch of Negative Nancy's out there bitching about the product nonstop!

[El Kabong]

UFC knows that commentating is a tied to the marketing of their sport. as much as I dislike Joe Rogan he does an excellent job explaining techniques, strategies, and delivering excitement as the color man. HBO COULD do that, but Merchant is cynical as hell, Lampley is half crazy, Kellerman has not found himself yet (they don't know if he's an analyst or color man), and half the boxers they have call the fights are always comparing what's going on in the ring to what THEY did in the ring, which would be ok if they weren't constantly spouting off with a tone akin to "Yeah, I was better than both of those chumps in the ring"

[p4pking]

Agreed, it's taken a real turn in the past few years even that I've noticed. I think it must be in part due to the popularity of the UFC, it's like they are trying to provide damage control for the viewers out for blood, who don't want to watch boxing. Their matchmaking and roster of fighters lately tells the same story.

[El Kabong]

Agreed, it's taken a real turn in the past few years even that I've noticed. I think it must be in part due to the popularity of the UFC, it's like they are trying to provide damage control for the viewers out for blood, who don't want to watch boxing. Their matchmaking and roster of fighters lately tells the same story.

And the tragic part is 100% of those guys are smart enough to teach the average Joe Sixpack an enormous amount about boxing.

Just because not every fight is Corrales-Castillo I doesn't mean they're boring. Each fight has different points you can discuss, different strategies, and you can always explain how a boxer is doing well or poorly. It's just cheap and lazy to say "this fight is boring, that fighter is out of shape, I'm bored, what fight is coming up next? Gee I hope it's better than this one".....who will stick around and watch if they do that shit all the time?

[p4pking]

Agreed, it's taken a real turn in the past few years even that I've noticed. I think it must be in part due to the popularity of the UFC, it's like they are trying to provide damage control for the viewers out for blood, who don't want to watch boxing. Their matchmaking and roster of fighters lately tells the same story.

And the tragic part is 100% of those guys are smart enough to teach the average Joe Sixpack an enormous amount about boxing.

Yeah of course, and even without that fact it's self defeating thing as you say. MMA is a different sport and a lot of the finer points of it aren't appreciated by it's viewers either, there's a huge chunk of fight fans that just want to see carnage. If a fight happens to be shit it doesn't help to start chastising the boxers or preaching that this isn't what the sport is about It's almost as backwards as trying to make soccer more competitive with the NFL by having guys up there saying "Oh there's way more contact and goals scored than this in most games, what a let down"

[thehook13]

Larry Merchant was always high quality. He never compared to Al bernstiens straight forward critical scoring, unbias analyst approach. But I think he brought a lot of that Vegas appeal, fight business mentality to the presentation. He had a great understanding of the game, inside knowledhe and insight into mentality of the fighters, fairly good understanding of the sport of boxing. he had a very good journalistic aesthetic when presenting important moments to the masses. His best work was alongside Letterman and Steward IMO. The best team to present a great era of boxing.