Friday, November 14, 2008

Larry Merchant and Jim Grey

I used to love boxing. There were many great names and fighters in the late 80's and 90's. Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Razor Ruddock, Riddick Bowe....heck I liked old George Foreman, Tommy "Rocky V" Morrison, and "Smokin'" Bert Cooper.

Although boxing today isn't as exciting as it used to be (at least in the heavy weight division), one constant has remained and his name is Larry Merchant.

Larry Merchant has been announcing boxing fights as long as I can remember. Jim Lampley, an announcer I can't stand, and he have been doing most of the top fights for the last 20 years or so. As much as I purely hate Jim Lampley, I have the ability to hate Larry Merchant even more but unlike Lampley, I have come to love Larry Merchant as well. Confused?

Larry Merchant can sound like he just found out his entire family was killed earlier in the day. He has no personality, rarely smiles, and just has this depressing auro around him.

Below are some of my favorite Larry Merchant moments.

1.) This gets interesting around the one minute mark and watch Floyd's face as Larry is asking the question. He basically dresses him down for the next minute. Beautiful...





2.) This is even better...don't ever interupt a Larry Merchant post fight interview. I love the boxer's face though. He should be on his way to a hospital rather than answering mundane questions.



On a side note, this is my favorite dressing down of a reporter ever. Its James Toney slamming Jim Grey, the biggest weasel of all reporters. The longest, most random rant ever starts at :25 seconds in and ends with Jim Gray almost getting bitch slapped at the 1:51 mark. Jim is a pro though and calmly walks over to Evander Holyfield and leads with a typical negative question.


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