Larry Merchant was tripping on Steve Smoger

[CletusVanDamme]

An early report out of Sasketchewan has the fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco taking Merchants place and not Kellerman who was widely reported as doing so.

Uneblievable news.

I have a Pacheco painting of Marciano. He is a much better painter than announcer imo. Until he pulled a Cosell and spoke of the ills of Boxing.

[scap]

I have a Pacheco painting of Marciano. He is a much better painter than announcer imo. Until he pulled a Cosell and spoke of the ills of Boxing.

I never forgave Ferdie for questionig McClellan's hear tdirectly after the bout.

[CletusVanDamme]

I never forgave Ferdie for questionig McClellan's hear tdirectly after the bout.

Especially after his involement with Ramos-Moore and Paret that makes it that much worse. Atleast he didn't say what King said about Gerald. His turning on Chavez after kissing his ass for years was pretty bad aswell.

[K-Nan]

Smoger was completely 100% correct in what he did.

The extra time was him looking into the eyes of Miranda and making sure it was safe to let him go on.

Idk what LARRY was getting all worked up about

I don't either. Was Miranda supposed to go out there without his mouthpiece? I think that Larry is too far removed from the danger of this sport. He wants everybody to box like they're trying to kill eachother. To him it's the only aspect of the sport, it seems. I still love the guy, but damn.

[ml2niceguy]

HBO can't get rid of Larry. They should have Larry on the hbo show till he dies!!!

even though larry says some ****** ****...its true...hbo wouldn't be the same without him

[Phantasm]

Smoger is one of the best in the biz, imo. Notice how many of the most entertaining fights we've seen the past few years have had him as the third man in the ring. He did the right thing, imo...he was evaluating Miranda's condition when Miranda spit the mouthpiece out he is required to have the mouthpiece cleaned and there was a break in the action (Miranda was being given his 8 count.) It was obvious that Miranda did it purposefully, to buy himself time, so Smoger deducted the point. Larry started his usal huffing and puffing without even realizing that they had deducted the point. Larry is way past his time. He was good a few decades ago, but he failed to catch up with the times, which is why he is so grumpy. The sport, whether we like it or not, has changed; fighters dance their way to the ring, theatrics, showboat, rap...this is the sport today. It's equal parts sport and entertainment. He hates all of that, and expresses it. Which would be fine, except he is in the position of analyzing and commentating on a fight; his job is to describe the action and leave the opinions to the fans. It's a commentators job, not an editorial-opinion piece.