DO you all agree with Mayweather when he said...

[northstar]

I don't think some dude who has watched a millon fights for a 100 years has the right to bash someone for not brawling....like does that mofo know what it feels like to get hit flush in the face or or in the chin?!?...does that mofo know what it feels like to have his vision blurred from head shots?!?...WTF do he know besides who beat who and when?!?....not a ***ing thing imo....he's no better than me or some other dude who love the sport and come on here and talk our 2 pennies...dude just wear a suit and tie and gets paid to be a fan...thats all he is!!...no expert!!

I agree with your criticism of Merchant's favoritism towards fighters that brawl. People forget (commentators and fans alike) that punches cause actual physical damage. Punch resistance thresholds vary from fighter to fighter. That's why I never criticize a fighter for not brawling enough etc.

Secondly, I think that the subjective way in which boxing matches are made and judged leads to more opinionated commentary.

[The Big Dunn]

They every right to commentate but that isn't what Merchant does. Merchant treats the broadcast like its his op-ed piece for a newspaper. We don't need to hear fighters talked down about because they are not fighting in a style the commentators feels they should be. Commentators job is to talk about the action in the fight not about what they feel should be happening in the fight and why they don't like it.

That is the only problem that I have with commentators like Merchant.

Which is Merchants job. hes a reporter who covers boxing. Not a boxing diehard who became a reporter. People criticize rafael for this. Its no different.

[Oh you out son]

WRONG

That is completely untrue and no basis in reality. There have been many a great trainer like Nacho Berenstein, Cullo Hernandez, Eddie Futch who never went pro, Joe Goossen and I can go on and on.

Being a great trainer you need to be a great TEACHER. You don't have to compete to have certain insights to the sport. Bert Sugar understood boxing as does Larry Merchant and they never boxed. If you are around something as long as they have and study it the way they do, you will be able to evaluate talent and really understand the sport.

Same with analysts, they are around enough to understand the sport very well.

Floyd is just an idiot, bottom line. I was embarrassed watching that interview because he is delusional. Who talks about themselves in the 3rd person?

He actually said "You think ***** is powerful, I will show you how Floyd Mayweather is powerful. If I fight Pacqauio, I will have ***** hold my belts and walk with me to the ring"

He actually believes that and if you see the reaction on the interviewers face it was priceless. He just said "I would pay to see that"

Listen bro. I never said they had be a high level pro. I said they need to have competed. Larry Merchant doesn't know **** about boxing, he knows about fighters, he knows about the history of fighters. Judging talent is a different thing altogether than properly analyzing a fight or a fighters skills. Blatant talent (ex/ Floyd) is obvious and basically anyone can identify it.

Also, being a good trainer vs. being an "expert" on boxing do not always go hand-in-hand. ex/ Roch is considered one of the best trainers, yet his predictions on many fights turn out to be way off so he is probably not the best at analyzing fights and how certain styles will play out

Floyd probably could get ***** to bring his belt into the ring, ***** is a bit of a joke president anyways often getting far too involved with sports.

[Fish_Scotland]

next thing you know, fmj, will have in the contract, that he will only fight manny pacquaio, if larry merchant isn't commentating...fmj, makes far too much money, to really care about who does a post fight interview, which amounts to a small fraction of time, than the time spent in the ring boxing, during the actual fight...fmj, is very slick, in dodging a fight with manny pacquaio, and justifying why manny pacquaio, will never get a 50/50 split in a fight, so it should be fairly easy for fmj, to handle hard questions during a post fight interview for 3 minutes, without losing his cool...

This is the truth. On topic, the comment re commentators being ex fighters is BS IMO after recently sitting through a fight where Enzo Maccarenelli was doing the commentating.....Oft he was terrible. (too many punches to head maybe lol) Could you imagine the egocentric Floyd on a mic......no thanks.

Ex footballers (soccer) tend to be popular with the UK broadcasters and 95% are absolutely ****e. Footballing legends like Alan Shearer who played over 600 games yet he can't give any better tactical insight than your average Joe on the street.

[AlwaysOnTop]

It’s time for larry merchant old racist ass to retire or die which ever come first I’m ok with. I do prefer my commentators to be boxers or trainers or anybody with extensive knowledge of the sport and non biased.

I agree totally..

[AlwaysOnTop]

Floyd has a point. Merchant's treatment of black fighters at the top of the sport, ALi, FLoyd, Roy, TYson, has always been problematic. His bias is clear as soon as the interviews begin. He has never been in the ring but criticizes people for not brawling and taking a beating. That is wrong IMO.

But you could see floyd looking at schaeffer a few times and then went off before Merchant could ask about manny! It looked staged. But Larry was likley to do his usual crap so I even though I didn't agree with the actions I get it.

Larry didn't like Pernell either...

He actually asked him if he'd fight Roy Jones...

Whitaker said "that is preposterous"...

[#1Assassin]

That commentators that never fought should not be commentating. He said how can they be called experts when they never fought.
Then that possie uncle tom interviewer didnt really follow up.
I disagree with him and think that he is just mad cause Larry owned him and has been owning him for years. I rewatched the inteview and Larry did nothing wrong. Floyd knew the Pac question was coming up and instead chose to act like a little 3 year old that got his toy taken away.

What do you all think?

i think you are an idiot.

merchant never in his life "owned" floyd. he has been hating on him in an unproffessional manner waiting for the day mayweather got beat so he could rejoice in his defeat. instead floyd kept making him look a fool by winning every single fight making merchant more and more bitter and with it more and more biased and unproffessional.

merchant is the 3 year old constantly taking cheap shots at floyd for no reason and trying to diminish him as a fighter and a person. mayweather has been the bigger man for years, choosing to overlook merchants constant unprofessionalism but everyone has their limit. even when hes "complimenting" floyd he always sneaks a worse insult in there at the same time, never giving him full credit. i think floyd should have put him in his place years ago.

floyd is right to a certain degree, regardless of how much boxing someone watches they can never truly understand the sport unless they boxed themselves. that said some ppl make up for it in other areas, unfortunately merchant sucks in those areas as well. hes a perfect example of someone who has no business working with boxing at this level. its disgraceful how bad merchant is at his job.

[AlwaysOnTop]

Not to defend Floyd but I've never liked Larry Merchant
I think Max Kellerman is a better analyst
even though Max he lookes like he came out of some cartoon

my opinion

Max worse than them all...
he actually said Librado Andrade has the best chin in boxing HISTORY...

[McFearless]

That commentators that never fought should not be commentating. He said how can they be called experts when they never fought.
Then that possie uncle tom interviewer didnt really follow up.
I disagree with him and think that he is just mad cause Larry owned him and has been owning him for years. I rewatched the inteview and Larry did nothing wrong. Floyd knew the Pac question was coming up and instead chose to act like a little 3 year old that got his toy taken away.

What do you all think?

You don't need to be a master chef to know what good food tastes like...

[I Love Jesus!]

That commentators that never fought should not be commentating. He said how can they be called experts when they never fought.
Then that possie uncle tom interviewer didnt really follow up.
I disagree with him and think that he is just mad cause Larry owned him and has been owning him for years. I rewatched the inteview and Larry did nothing wrong. Floyd knew the Pac question was coming up and instead chose to act like a little 3 year old that got his toy taken away.

What do you all think?

there not boxing experts they're commentators. Floyd is an uneducated moron.

Boxers will be considered for the job when they complete 4 years at a university majoring in broadcasting.