First off, let me start this by mentioning that I saw Bob Raissman's article in the Sunday NY Daily News yesterday. I try to rarely rip on other people's article, unless they are both influential and deceiving. Like Mike Lupica, or sometimes Bill Simmons (influential, often on point, but once in a while needs to be put in check). Bob Raissman is insignificant. His job is to criticize the media, which could be an important role, but instead he makes himself absolutely irrelevant. He has nothing to say, and when he does say something it is generally silly.
Case in point: "HBO's Plan to replace (Larry) Merchant with (Max) Kellerman a mistake". Bob, you got to be kidding me, right? Nope... check out these choice quotes from his article:
"Moving Kellerman (33) in for Merchant (76) smacks of ageism at its worst."
Your writing smacks of stupidity at its worst, Bob. Ageism? Not when you can't even remember who is fighting! Larry Merchant repeatedly calls boxers in the ring by the wrong name. His behavior reeks of drunkiness, too.
"This would be like replacing Picasso with the guy who sells the Velvet Elvises outside of Graceland."
And we have our first real candidate for most ridiculous line of the year. Let's just get to the point... Larry Merchant is a senile old man. He's also (borderline) racist. I put borderline in that sentence just to be nice - more on that later. He needs to go. His long speeches, drawn out by long pauses for effect, were all too often pointless. Larry hasn't said anything relevant in a long time. He'll just pontificate, comparing the fight to a battle in ancient Greece, overusing the warrior metaphor.
"Merchant is the premier interview - under fire - in TV sports."
What? The guy was a jerk to most fighters during these interviews. Especially the minority ones. Check out this post fight interview with Floyd Mayweather Jr. after he shut out Carlos Baldomir:
For the record, that's only the most recent example. Merchant has gotten similar heat during post fight interviewers with former boxers Chavez and James Toney in the past, too.
Say what you want, but Larry Merchant doesn't get along with his coworkers in the HBO booth, either. A Roy Jones and Larry Merchant exchange during a recent fight:
Roy Jones: "...doing things to humiliate him in front of his crowd..."
Larry Merchant: "I think that is an overstatement..."
Roy Jones: "You haven't boxed before. You gotta know boxing to know what's happening here."
Roy Jones is not the first former boxer in the broadcasting booth to say this to Larry Merchant. George Foreman had similar exchanges - my recollection (hard to remember when and where):
Larry Merchant (defending his point): "I've see about 200 title fights in my life..."
George Foreman: "Seen? I've fought title fights!"
That was in response to Larry Merchant's habit of trying to verbally bully anyone who disagrees with his take, even those who might actually know what they are talking about.
And finally there is the subtle racism that he spews. It's not overt (though we always figured that his career would end one night when he would drink too much and accidently let something slip out that he shouldn't have), it's very low-key. During broadcasts of the (white) Klitchko brothers' fight, he'll often refer to their "beautiful" style. Over and over again. He'll never say that about, say, Mayweather (a far better boxer both in style and technique). Every fight there will be around a dozen of these examples.
It may just be me, but I have yet to talk to a boxing fan who is black who doesn't dislike Merchant. Ditto most other minorities, including myself. I'm sure they are out there, but I'm betting they are outnumbered. And I know there are plenty of other people who support Merchant, whether it's just because of the comedic value of having a senile combatitive broadcaster in the booth and conducting post fight interviews (Simmons seems to fall in this class), or because they actually value Merchant's "analysis".
If other people feel that way, that's fine. I personally think he needs to go. He adds nothing to the broadcast, and takes away from my viewing of it, and I can't be alone on that. Regardless, Bob Raissman's article is completely off-base. Check out this ending line:
"If it is (his last fight), everyone will know that HBO Sports' committment to journalism has been reduced to a lie."
This is pure hyperbole. Reduced to what lie? And nothing Merchant does is "journalism". He's a broadcaster, and an interview. He's poor at both. For "HBO Sports' committment to journalism", might I suggest watching Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel?
Anyway, I apologize for this rant. Just wanted to get that off my chest....
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just a comment on the larry merchant show. boxing hall of fame lol please I am a huge boxing fan bin there myself.and if annoying was a style he would be a champion.he should have stayed a sports writer in N.Y. then a lot of us would not have to listen to bad commentary.at least lennox knows the game from the inside i feel comments such as his are not what ppl want to hear.and i also think if you want a good ppv. you should ask hopkins, or de lahoya:} to fight larry .they would offer it up free and you know how they are about money.but then again it would be a waste of a good pounding if i sound a little ticked .im just tired of larry and his tiny opinion thanx for your time
i agree that larry sometimes rambles and pauses much too long in his interviews but give me a break some of the black fighters can hardly make sense at all, such as george foreman who i love as a boxer but really roy jones ...... give me a break. i guess i need to brush up on my ebonics but until then lets be honest one of the klitchko brothers does have a beautiful boxing style in its purest form ....so did joe louis ...the free lance style of some of the fighters ( ali , sugar ray, ) was amusing and effective but not the true science of the sport. both relied on tremendous athletic quickness and hand speed to throw punches from odd angles. ali thrived in a day when the fighters were very ordinary . his toughest competetion came in the form of joe frazier and kenny norton and joe bugner. if foreman had brain one he would have killed ali ....he refused to train hard and paid the price.
I know this artice was posted a while ago, but I am sitting here watching the PPV broadcast of Pacquiao vs Cotto and listening to Larry Merchant once again annoyed me enough this time to Google "fire Larry Merchant". This was the first thing that popped up and I do agree that replacing him was indeed a good idea. I have written for thesweetscience.com and boxingtalk.com since 2006 and have had 11 amatuer fights myself. I do consider myself very knowledgeable in the sport and very objective as well. That being said, I do have two very big problems with the way HBO has handled this situation. First off, they are going about it in a half-assed sort of fashion, in that they have only replaced Merchant half the time and have still put him on Boxing After Dark. If you are a true boxing fan, this means you still cannot escape this terrible commentator. Secondly, the man they have "replaced" him with, Max Kellerman, is just as terrible as Merchant. Kellerman comes off as a nerd who thinks he knows everything about the sport, however, much like Merchant, his views and opinions are often pointless and incorrect. Merchants long pauses (which I usually find myself waiting for him to just drop dead during), ridiculous logic, and confusing, not to mention useless, analogies are like nails on a chalkboard. Unfortunately, HBO has decided to replace Merchant with a younger version of himself. Kellerman is just flat out annoying to listen to and I often get the feeling he is just an over zealous fan that really has no idea what he is truly speaking of. Roy Jones is a terrible commentator because of his southern jargon and failure to do any homework coming into a gig. Lewis can be a bit boring but at least he knows what he is talking about. Foreman is straight out of his mind but at least he knows what he is talking about through experience and makes things entertaining. The bottom line is that Merchant AND Kellerman are both horrible commentators to listen to. HBO needs to drop them both and run with Lampley, Ledderman (who is an actual judge, not just one on HBO) and Emanuel Steward (who is honestly the best boxer/trainer commentator they have). In the fights when Steward cannot commentate because he is training the fighter competing that night, bring in Antonio Tarver, who proved a few weeks ago that he is an pleasant and knowledgeable commentator in the Showtime Super Six tournament. Merchant AND Kellerman MUST GO!
Somehow I missed the coverage on your site of the Bulls sweeping the Heat on Sunday? Interesting.....go Bulls!!!