By Chris Robinson
This past weekend was another successful one for proven champion Juan Manuel Marquez as the Mexico City fighter defended his WBA and WBO lightweight titles with a thrilling 9th round TKO over rugged Australian Michael Katsidis at the MGM Grand. It was vintage stuff from Marquez, as the 37-year old rose off the canvas in the third round and proceeded to pick his younger foe apart with accurate and devastating blows. Referee Kenny Bayless had no choice but to halt the action after seeing how helpless a reeling Katsidis was a little over two minutes into the round.
During the post fight press conference I caught up with HBO analyst Larry Merchant, known best for his candid and blunt delivery while calling the fights. Merchant has been with the network since 1978 and I jokingly asked him how many times he figures he has been to Las Vegas for anything boxing related.
“I’ve got to hire a researcher,” Merchant quipped. “Both back in the day when I was writing a column and covering the fights for HBO which has now been thirty-three years.”
Getting a bit more serious, I asked Merchant for his thoughts coming away from another scintillating outing from Marquez.
“Marquez gave a terrific performance,” he said with obvious admiration. “The kind of performance that was expected against the type of opponent he was fighting. A tough kid who would come right at him. That was designed for a veteran boxer-puncher like Marquez.”
On the undercard WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto electrified with a highlight reel knockout over Freddy Hernandez. Merchant has been critical of Berto in the past and you could sense that same pessimism as he weighed in on the right hand bomb that raised the Haitian-American’s record to 27-0 with 21 knockouts.
“You’ve got to give him credit for throwing the punch,” Merchant claimed. “But I’m sorry, the guy he was in with takes most of the credit for that knockout.”
At the presser both Marquez and Berto showed serious interest in a fight with reigning pound for pound champion Manny Pacquiao, two weeks removed from his domination over Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium. Asked who he felt was more deserving of such a bout, Merchant opted for Marquez, pointing to his past fights with the Filipino star as well as dishing out some statistics that aren’t quite in Berto’s favor.
“Keep this in mind,” Merchant mused. “Boxing is also a business. As Bob Arum says it’s about the Benjamins. And as far as Pacquiao is concerned it’s about the million dollar Benjamins. And Berto drew less than a thousand people in his home state when he fought the last time. He’s never proven to be an attraction, largely because he hasn’t fought top opponents so that people have a true measure of who he is.”
While Merchant has been sharing World Championship Boxing duties with Max Kellerman, he hinted that he would be returning to town for the December 11th clash between WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan and interim titlist Marcos Maidana at the Mandalay Bay. Merchant has obvious respect for both guys but didn’t hesitate when asked for a logical winner.
“I like Maidana. I think he’s a tough guy who keeps coming at ya. But it appears that Khan just has too much skill and has made some major advances in his career after joining Freddie Roach.”
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. An archive of his work can be found here, and he can be reached at Trimond@aol.com
