Larry Merchant- GOAT Analyst

[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.

[imp]

I was re-watching Livingston Bramble fight Ray Mancini and Al Bernstein is an iconic and quality commentator.

Al bernstein is a lovely warm guy.
He appeals to many.

[Master]

I was re-watching Livingston Bramble fight Ray Mancini and Al Bernstein is an iconic and quality commentator.

Al bernstein is a lovely warm guy.
He appeals to many.

He is on channel 5 and should be at the De Gale fight this weekend.

[Beanz]

I liked Gutteridge and Carpenter but I also like Ian Darke, alongside a boxer, Glenn McCrory, Barry McGuiggan, Jim Watt etc, Darke is great.

[greynotsoold]

Don Dunphy used to do tv fights and hardly say a word during the round- you can see for yourself, after all. Jim Healy didn't say much, except to point out things that, being ringside, were apparent to him, but maybe not to a tv audience. He'd point out that a punch that got the crowd going may not have been that great, or that one guy was moving the other with his punches. They were good commentators, and they worked alone.

Today, you have three jackasses- and they are almost all jackasses- that typically know fuck all about boxing (as in how to do it) and they all feel like they have to be saying something at all times. Even George Foreman, who does know about boxing, ended up staying a lot of stupid crap because he felt like he always had to say something.