Do some boxing analysts and commentators hurt our sport's popularity?

[Dan...]

Sometimes it sounds like they HATE boxing.

Bernstein, Matthews and Atlas often find stuff that isn't even real to ***** about.

For example, Bernstein is extremely biased against European and British fighters. He went on for an hour about Calzaghe-Mitchell being an early stoppage, but it wasn't. But he will never say anything when an American boxer wins a stoppage that's obviously a quick one.

I kind of get what you are saying with this.

Whilst it is sometimes good to have commentators that are not afraid to point out negative things, if it is just a seemingly endless stream of criticism of the fight, a fighter or the sport in general it does lead you to think that a casual fan might consider the question "well why the *** should i even bother?"

[The Hammer]

If your going to criticize someone for being negative and who's on the big stage where the casual fan will tune in, then do with so with Merchant. Of course you never bring him up.

I've always thought Larry is okay. His comments are always intelligent and he has a good voice, although he's slowed down with age. He's always given credit when it's deserved, and given honest criticism when it was necessary. For example, he was hard on Vitali when he quit against Byrd, but gave him credit for his tremendous effort against Lewis and fine performance against Johnson. Atlas and Kellerman always discredit the fighters they don't like, regardless of how well they do.

Larry Merchant is just part-time now and works fewer telecasts, he's very close to retirement.

I have news for you - no one watches FNF fights other then hardcore boxing fans.

In Canada, our TSN covers the ESPN fights, and it comes as part of a basic cable package. HBO Canada is only available as part of a more expensive package that includes several movie channels, and doesn't even carry all the HBO fights.