The first time I saw him I wondered if he was half-witted. Having seen him many more times, I know that my initial impression was wrong. He doesn't have that many wits.

If I'm not already in a bad mood from seeing judges rob someone,Merchant seems determined to put me in
one;I don't know if he thinks he's doing Hamlet or...Howard Cosell on the rag.I "heard" George Foreman stopped doing fights because he was about to kick Merchant's ass;I believe it.

Larry Merchant will be mourned for the simple reason that he's so stupid he's amazing. Nobody quite misses the point and substitutes an irrelevant one like him. Max Kellerman is trying, but, in my opinion, he has a few years to go before he matures to such a profoundly entertaining level of stupidity, although his comparisons of every white fighter to to LaMotta or Gatti can be amusing. But what's up with the crazy eyes, Max? You live near a meth factory?

Aside from Kellerman and Merchant, I think boxing commentators are decent these days on the whole. They don't sound like other sports announcers (i.e., they don't have that fake radio voice that other announcers learn in Broadcasting 101). They know their stuff, but, unlike, say, baseball and football commentators, they don't fill dead air with meaningless trivia (usually). They actually talk about what they're seeing in front of them.

Teddy Atlas, Steve Farhood and Al Bernstein are all great to listen to. The great-hair/fantastic-teeth people they're paired with aren't terrible either, even though they're obviously there just to soften the blow on the viewing public. And I think the regular guest commentators are good too.

If Max Kellerman were gone, I'd say the boxing commentary universe would be pretty much ideal. As it is, I don't have much to complain about, especially when Emmanuel Stewart and Jim Lampley blatantly ignore or even cut off Max Kellerman's commentary. (Good for you, guys.)

Maybe boxing wouldn't suck any more if they would redo EVERYTHING, including new commentators. MMA will unfortunately take over all of this & boxing will cease to exist if they don't change their act.

The most inane, anal-retentive, senile, uninformed, pompous idiot I've ever had to suffer in my 50+ years of being a fight fan. Hell... I'd rather suffer through a Howard Cossell broadcast than one of Merchants. Remember the Bentsen/Qualy debate??? Well, Larry, you're damn sure no Nat Fleischer. The only way I can make it through a fight on HBO is by muting the volume.

Larry Merchant hands down the worst boxing commentator of all times. The combination of him and Jim Lampley make HBO boxing very unenjoyable. They are ther worst duo in the history of proffesional sports. Larry is full of senseless babble, with his futile attempts to always say something profound during the course of a fight. He's to biased in his commentating. HBO would do much better in their ppv market without him

Should have retired 40 years ago. You wonder if he's not felling the effects of punches landed on fighters. SENILE.

as one comment read on eastsideboxing - "Another step towards the ultra capitalistic society where nobody criticises and everybody robots around smiling the heck out of themselves. Scary. Larry was a free thinking human and right on the spot 9 out of 10 times." (jerry).....
and besides all that, he is a great source of entertainment, i always look forward to his scatheingly honest views. Too bad - he will be enourmously missed, HBO - BAD MOVE.

hey larry. I THINK YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT THE FIGHT.I THINK YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT EVERY FIGHT.I THINK HBO shold have fired you a long time ago. I can tell you are not a very intelligent man you should imaginary title and f-kng title retire.

AWFUL. Knows the sport, no question about that, but is ridiculously pretentious. If you want to see a regular boxing match with normal coverage from the commentators, forget about it. He'll compare the winner of a hard battle to the defenders at Thermopylae and similar pompous, overblown comparisons.

If you watch Larry Merchant these days, it appears he is reading his commentary from a teleprompter. He is a legend in the sport and deserves everyones respect, but his senility is becoming evident and he should hang up the gloves soon.

The Ronald Reagan of Sports Announcers- the senility is overwhelming but no one wants to hurt the old man's feelings. . .

He thinks he's saying something so profound and his delivery is so constipated as if he's talking about the theory of the orins of mankind. Make your point Larry! I bet Lampley is thinking to himself when Larry's giving his oh so important opinion of the fight, dude, were talking about boxing, not a thesis on the impact of global warming in the western world. Make your point already.

I've watched him for 6 years, and he is the John Madden of Boxing. Now when the one guy hits the other guy with his fist thats called a punch. Retire already.

This guy is witty and great

When I used to get HBO, in the 80's , he ruined every single boxing match , not to mention every other sports show that was on HBO .He's rarely been right about anything , whatever ther topic .Will say something he thinks is insightful , but every viewer at home responded with : DUUUUuuuuuuh! . And , his slow , whiney , wimpering voice wraps it all up in one annoying package. MUST have friends in high places .

Larry Merchant knows his boxing, and is an inquisitive-type of questioner during interviews. But his analyzations make you wonder if he's a biased colorman or if he just sees fights in a different perspective from others. His 4-1-1 rounds to Oscar De La Hoya in the Golden Boy's failed attempt to beat Bernard Hopkins (for the first six rounds) was and is open to any argument, but his commentary on Hopkins looking old seem to make it obvious who he favored. Nevertheless, Merchant, when he is an unbiased observer, is amongst the very best.

Phenomenal boxing analyst! I guess it's his job but I always have to chuckle when he jumps in the ring to interview the fighters who have just taken about 200 shots each what they thought of the fight. Duhhhh.. uhhhh well uhhh I uhhhh duhhh wuzzz tryin like to uhhh not git hit wit duhhhh uhhh leff or duhhh uhhhddda han and den uhhh I wuzz tryin ta uhhh... LOL very funny stuff!

the man is getting old and slow no question, but if you love the sport of boxing then you RESPECT larry merchant. the man has been a student of the sport for longer than must of us have taken a breath. he knows the ins and outs of this sport/industry to a tee. hey aper422, he's a close personal friend and i'm proud to know him outside of the sport

I'll give him a 4 for having to endure Foreman's commentary. I think Foreman may have been hit a few too many times.

Pound for pound, the man has taken more shots of whiskey than any other announcer in the history of sports broadcasting. Pre-fight, he's fine. By the last round, he's slurring his speech, unable to focus on the camera or the boxer, and sweating profusely. Spectacular.

I wish i can mute out larry merchant from all the fights. this guy does not know what its like to fight so how can he critize anyone. I cant wait tell someone gets mad at him and just knocks the ?hit out of him. He's senile and looks half drunk the whole time. talks at a rate of 1 word a minute.He's a damn joke. I only listen to Foreman he knows exactly what he is talking about.

Oh will this old bastard just retire already?

It almost feels like it isn't a big fight if Larry Merchant isn't broadcasting the bout. He provides great insight during the fight and can always be counted on to ask the tough questions in the ring after the fight. One of the funnier moments in recent broadcast history came during a fight (it may have been Trinidad-De La Hoya, but I don't remember) when Merchant basically told scoring guru Harold Lederman to shut up because he was saying too much and Larry didn't agree with what he was saying. Classic stuff

Perhaps the only ray of integrity in a sport that's gotten as rotten as an Irish potato in 1847. Too bad there's no way to blame the British for this one. Larry Merchant's disdain for the corruption reminds me of the way Howard got after Ali's last fight.

His obvious disgust for some boxers and the boxing world make him enjoyable to watch.Does not mince words when doing postfight interviews.Does not accept bulls**t answers from fighters and puts them in there place when it's warranted.