By Bill Emes

Lou DiBella has fired back at HBO's veteran broadcaster Larry Merchant. In an earlier article on BoxingScene.com, Merchant told the website's Chris Robinson, that middleweight king Sergio Martinez should stop continuously chasing fights with boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. - and instead to do something great by moving up to 168-pounds to challenge super middleweight champions Andre Ward and Lucian Bute.

DiBella, who promotes Martinez, believes HBO is protecting some of the fighters that Martinez is trying to secure. He won't match Martinez against Bute and Ward, who DiBella says are physically much larger than Martinez.

"The guy ate steak and potatoes all week and weighed 157. He came into the week weighing 154 and he could have weighed 154 in the ring [against Matthew Macklin]. I don't want to listen to HBO commentators talk about Bute and Ward, it's horsesh*t. Why [should he fight them], so they can continue protecting certain guys who have the leverage because they are being promoted by the same guys who promote Mayweather and Pacquiao? F*** that!," DiBella shouted off.

"Larry is running around saying that great fighters move up in weight. Well f***, the motherf***er is not a 160-pounder, he already moved up weight. The guy ate a full meal every day this week and he weighed in at 157 and I have to listen to a network that is protecting certain guys, telling me to fight Bute and Ward who walk around 25 to 35-pounds heavier than [Martinez]."