HBO needs a new crew.

[ShoulderRoll]

Larry Merchant is the worst. It's like he deliberately finds something to be negative about, and then keeps harping on it all night.

That transfers to the viewer and brings down the level of excitement.

Jim Lampley used to be good in his prime, but now he seems old and tired and unenthusiastic. Maybe if Merchant was booted off it would help Lamps, but maybe not.

Age gets to all of us eventually.

[BartBears]

Also whoever thinks that bum Pirog can mess with Martinez is smoking the good stuff.

Mess with Martinez? Pirog will beat Martinez for sure.

[Carpe Diem]

Y u hating on the almighty Merchant? He's very straightforward with his blunt questions that most fans admires him for, he has no other agendas at all.

[Carpe Diem]

Yeah, I can't stand Merchant anymore and I was a person who always enjoyed his "commentary". Kellerman, Lamps, and RJJ is my all-star HBO team.


And was it me or were they really pushing for Martinez to call Floyd out and not Chavez Jr? Almost like they were protecting Chavez or something and barely referred to him the whole broadcast.

It sure did seem like it. I'm not that surprised though. They completely overlooked and swept Chavez Jr's DUI incident under the rug, not once did they brought it up during and after[post-fight interview] his fight against Rubio.

[jbp23]

I don't think HBO has any problems with Martinez. Hell, they have gone to bat for him many times. They have routinely put him on HBO as their main event. They had that fighter's life episode on him. They have routinely praised him and when he was robbed in the Cintron fight they stood up for him as said he was robbed. Its just that so many boxing fans on this site cannot stand criticism of their favorite fighters. I bet many so-called boxing fans on this site grew up in the era when they played little league baseball and everyone received a trophy and their were no losers, everyone was a winner! People who cannot accept perfectly reasonable criticism are immature and that's all HBO was doing tonight offering perfectly reasonable criticism. The HBO announce team can't win, either their too tough with their commentary or they are too nice with it. I found myself agreeing with some of what they said. When Larry said Martinez should be throwing combinations instead of just one punch, he was correct. I found myself saying that Martinez was admiring his work, landing one good left hand and then standing back and admiring his work instead of following up with combinations. Plus Macklin gave a hell of an effort and I had him pretty close on the score cards until the 8th rd when Martinez started to work much more and thus he took over the fight. I gave Macklin rds. 4, 5, 7 (7th was a 10-8) and he possibly won one more close rd which was an early rd. You add that up and it was a close fight. So people whining that HBO was too harsh, stop being babies and go to your room and hold that meaningless trophy you were given in Little League even though you finished last place, in order to find comfort and security.

[Carpe Diem]

Where to begin on this.. The HBO team, Its a geriatric dinosaur.. They detracted from an otherwise good fight for me. They should be lauding praise on Martinez for getting another ko. He's on a streak. These are underrated fighters he's putting down. When they down Martinez for his age, style, and pretty much everything else they are hitting him where it hurts most. His MONEY. Broadcasters should in a sense help to promote fighters to the casual fan as Showtime does. These HBO clowns detract from enthusiasm for the sport with their obvious biases and (very)undeserved superiority complexes. Fighters carry the day in boxing, not announcers. Tar and feather them and cast them into the street!

And Sergio does surely needs that type of media boost if he could get it, but having those geezers around with their negative agendas, it's not going to happen. A guy like Sergio needs all the help he can gets to get more fans to acknowledge that there's a third elite fighter in the race of the whole Mayweather/Pacquiao hype train. Instead of helping him, they're more focused on belittle him.

[Syf]

I don't think HBO has any problems with Martinez. Hell, they have gone to bat for him many times. They have routinely put him on HBO as their main event. They had that fighter's life episode on him. They have routinely praised him and when he was robbed in the Cintron fight they stood up for him as said he was robbed. Its just that so many boxing fans on this site cannot stand criticism of their favorite fighters. I bet many so-called boxing fans on this site grew up in the era when they played little league baseball and everyone received a trophy and their were no losers, everyone was a winner! People who cannot accept perfectly reasonable criticism are immature and that's all HBO was doing tonight offering perfectly reasonable criticism. The HBO announce team can't win, either their too tough with their commentary or they are too nice with it. I found myself agreeing with some of what they said. When Larry said Martinez should be throwing combinations instead of just one punch, he was correct. I found myself saying that Martinez was admiring his work, landing one good left hand and then standing back and admiring his work instead of following up with combinations. Plus Macklin gave a hell of an effort and I had him pretty close on the score cards until the 8th rd when Martinez started to work much more and thus he took over the fight. I gave Macklin rds. 4, 5, 7 (7th was a 10-8) and he possibly won one more close rd which was an early rd. You add that up and it was a close fight. So people whining that HBO was too harsh, stop being babies and go to your room and hold that meaningless trophy you were given in Little League even though you finished last place, in order to find comfort and security.

Hbo might not have a problem with Martinez but the announcing team did. Larry said Martinez will inevitably get exposed and is Macklin good enough to do it. They all trumped up the age factor. In this broadcast they treated Martinez like an overrated club fighter. They werent enthusiastic enough in there, thats their JOB, to hype viewers up about what they are watching. They fail to do that now. They seem discontent, bored, grumpy obsolete and crotchety. They detract from the fight's mood instead of adding. They have progressively become more and more bad for boxing, from broadcast to broadcast.

Your points are irrelevant. Even if they were right about Martinez needing to step on the gas, the way in which it was said, in addition to downplaying Sergio the whole fight, and generally them sounding like they were miserable to be there calling it, detracted from the fight and nothing else. They did not give Martinez the respect a champion of his caliber should command. Period.

Oh and by the way i made the all star team in little league. 2nd baseman. And my team was ranked 2nd place out of over a dozen teams. Speak for yourself. Lol

[Carpe Diem]

Hbo might not have a problem with Martinez but the announcing team did. Larry said Martinez will inevitably get exposed and is Macklin good enough to do it. They all trumped up the age factor. In this broadcast they treated Martinez like an overrated club fighter. They werent enthusiastic enough in there, thats their JOB, to hype viewers up about what they are watching. They fail to do that now. They seem discontent, bored, grumpy obsolete and crotchety. They detract from the fight's mood instead of adding. They have progressively become more and more bad for boxing, from broadcast to broadcast.

Your points are irrelevant. Even if they were right about Martinez needing to step on the gas, the way in which it was said, in addition to downplaying Sergio the whole fight, and generally them sounding like they were miserable to be there calling it, detracted from the fight and nothing else. They did not give Martinez the respect a champion of his caliber should command. Period.

Oh and by the way i made the all star team in little league. 2nd baseman. And my team was ranked 2nd place out of over a dozen teams. Speak for yourself. Lol

I couldn't have said it better myself. Great post, Sir.

[Alec900]

yeah it's pretty obvious larry doesn't like martinez much

[shade darkar]

not seen the hbo broadcast yet, but i watch a fight for who is fighting, not who is commentating.