Least favorite commentator.

[Fenster]

As a Brit I never knew who Larry Merchant was until i joined this forum. Over the years, thanks to youtube and whatnot, i've watched dozens and dozens of fights he's commentated on and have no idea why he's so hated (flomos aside). He's terrific. Love the way he argues/disagrees with his collegues and comes out with some cracking lines made all the better by his slow as molasses voice.

Merchant/Foreman doing Naz-Kelly, Naz-Sanchez and Lewis-Grant are absolute gold.

[TitoFan]

[El Kabong]

Steve Bunce

[Batman]

Steve Bunce

I like Buncey, yeah he is annoying as fuck and he screams and shouts and chats absolute shite but you can't knock his enthusiasm.

Did you know that BoxNation don't intentionally cut the ring walks, they only show the footage that is given to them and a lot of the times that doesn't include the ringwalk, there is no point in tweeting BoxNation about it because they can't do anything about it and 99% of the time they are rubbish anyway...or so Buncey has told me every single time I've watched an international fight on BN.

Plus he always seems grateful when I stay up until 6am to watch a fight.

[holmcall]

Mauro Ranello. He starts wit hysteria, moves quickly to bedlam and then ends up with chaos and insanity. Guy is awful.

Max is also bad with his bug eyes.

[El Kabong]

Steve Bunce

I like Buncey, yeah he is annoying as fuck and he screams and shouts and chats absolute shite but you can't knock his enthusiasm.

Did you know that BoxNation don't intentionally cut the ring walks, they only show the footage that is given to them and a lot of the times that doesn't include the ringwalk, there is no point in tweeting BoxNation about it because they can't do anything about it and 99% of the time they are rubbish anyway...or so Buncey has told me every single time I've watched an international fight on BN.

Plus he always seems grateful when I stay up until 6am to watch a fight.

Indeed, he talks out his ass and this is why I do not care for him.

[Gandalf]

Steve Bunce

A man that sounds like that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a microphone. It's quite unbearable to listen to. If I was in the studio I would be tempted to creep up behind him with a tube of extra strength super glue. I would be doing humanity a service.

[Spicoli]

From ex-current fighters to regular announce people. Jim Lampley and his invisible punches. Recently it's Mauro "please take a folding chair to me" Ranallo. The guy is tone deaf and makes direct plugs for his wrestling show. He also talks over Paulie who knows of what he speaks. Gus Johnson had a run and my ears bled. Someone had the brilliant idea of using Ed Lover on the mic for HBO. That was painful. Dan Dierdorf and Alex Wallue back on Wide world of sports. Barry McGuigan and Ray Mancini were not so hot. And small mention to our beloved Teddy Atlas . There was a specific time that didn't last long but Teddy was obviously going through 'coaching' or something. He was calling fights nothing like he does now. It was over the top and he would over pronounce and end every single sentence with some elevated sentences. It was like stuffing him in a suit and reading from flash cards. Just very odd and phony.

[TitoFan]

Everyone seems to hate on Lampley and yeah... he can't call a fight worth a damn. But you gotta give him credit for trying to keep boxing relevant to the fan masses. His program The Fight Game is fairly popular, and has covered many a topic in an interesting way. What I didn't like about Merchant was that he was a self-serving, conceited, pompous drunk.... who loved to make pauses for effect, as if we were dying to hear his next words. He also reached very far for words that would make him seem intellectual, like when he tried to quote Shakespeare or some other asinine thing like that. He looked less like a boxing commentator, and more like a drunken pervert, who would hit on any woman who came within striking distance.

[mikeeod]

Some of my least favorite:
1. George Foreman: Love the guy and think he had some funny moments, but also saw some of the most horrific calls from him. Watch Hop vs Tito and listen to George through the first 9 rounds. Completely biased and asinine comments. Another great example, can't remember who was fighting, but he said the ref would be the most important man in the ring... Besides the two fighters. No shit. He said that.
2. Teddy Atlas: Compketelt biased and would always just make outlandish predictions with the hope that he could say he was the only one who called it afterwards. The one time he got it correct was Tyson getting disqualified vs Evander. He was dead wrong every other time.
3. Ray Leonard: I just remember him sucking abpnd being horrible behind a microphone. Literally no redeeming qualities as a commentator. Hell of a fighter though!!!!

[J_Undisputed]

Everyone seems to hate on Lampley and yeah... he can't call a fight worth a damn. But you gotta give him credit for trying to keep boxing relevant to the fan masses. His program The Fight Game is fairly popular, and has covered many a topic in an interesting way. What I didn't like about Merchant was that he was a self-serving, conceited, pompous drunk.... who loved to make pauses for effect, as if we were dying to hear his next words. He also reached very far for words that would make him seem intellectual, like when he tried to quote Shakespeare or some other asinine thing like that. He looked less like a boxing commentator, and more like a drunken pervert, who would hit on any woman who came within striking distance.

Agreed. I am forced to cut Lamps some slack. He's got a job to do and that's to sell the fight so he has to inflate the action to do so. Some fights i'm sure are a pleasure for him to call. A provodnikov/Matthysse fight kind of writes itself and you can just do the play by play and it sounds like you're doing an amazing job. The other times "Kovalev pounds ward with a sledge hammer to the body and take the opportunity to get in some stiff body work as they jockey for position and each man delivering vicious body shots trying to take the wind out of their opponents sails" (however unrealistic) still sounds better than, "Kovalev lands a jab, ward turtles away from the right, and hugs... Kovalev clinches back... theyre still hugging.. some wrestling.. and the ref breaks it up again... ward slips and clinches again.... kovalev clinches back... here comes the ref..." Unfortunately for Lampley, the onus is on him to make you feel like you're getting your moneys worth from HBOs promise.

With Merchant, I think many people took exception that he was trying to correct people that actually fought professionally before. His armchair fighting pedigree just wasn't going to trump Roy's or George's insight. I'd let him correct Deontay Wilder or someone like that probably because i don't consider what wilder does as boxing anyway. The tangents he'd run off on were awful as he would be grasping at straws at the end to bring it full circle and make it pertain to his original point. "When we talk about a fighter, we wonder what goes on in the mind of a fighter... yanno i knew this dusky gal once out of Pasadena.. she used to serve drinks in a roadside whorehouse... sometimes the glasses were dirty... blah blah blah... so tonight we saw that you never know whats going on in a fighters mind.. it can be a dirty glass that you can never quite see the bottom of... Jim?" * Merchant's self appreciating grin*

Ranallo is like listening to someone cut styrofoam with a plastic knife ...

[chef97]

Mr. Larry Merchant is an award winning boxing commentator and author.... Here's a couple of Larry Merchant quotes off the top of my head Boxing is the Theater of the unknown or the quote from that pic in TitoFan's post where FMJ told Merchant "you don't know shit about boxing" and Merchant responded w/ I wish I was 50 years younger I'd kick your ass....