Larry merchant is a fan first..analyst second...he likes to see fighters engage and fight...he criticizes fighters that fight like chris byrd, rjj,...or fighters that are not fighting up to their level...i.e. shane mosely when he ko'ed adrian stone...larry said "my response to that is so what" then actually got in the ring and said to mosely "so you beat a B-rated fighter so what?"...I think merchant doesn't not discriminate he even critized PBF against castillo...he didn't like the way PBF was pot shotting him with the straight right...he always does that and last night was no exception..i just think that Zab's bravado makes him an easy and deserving target for all the criticism he gets...