Most of my heroes as a teenager were men who wore boxing gloves and put their records, as well as their their reputations, on the line every time they stepped through the ropes. More often than not, I watched these gladiators on HBO, “the Network of Champions.” However, there was one hero who looked nothing like the others, an older gentleman who walked to the ring not in trunks and robe but in a suit and bow-tie. His name is Larry Merchant. I grew up watching this man call boxing’s biggest and best fights. He has been a frequent visitor to my parents’ home - and now my condo - for nearly 20 years. I knew Merchant’s face before I learned how to drive and on Sunday afternoon I was probably 40 feet from him as I witnessed his induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, a man who has always carried himself with class- and who, like Merchant, I had watched from my teen years into adulthood - also was inducted. While a great deal of boxing writers and photographers made plans to be in Manhattan last weekend for the welterweight title fight between Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey this past Saturday at Madison Square Garden - instead of taking in the four-day Hall of Fame weekend - there was no doubt where I was going to be. I had to be in Canastota, NY to see Lewis and Merchant get their Hall of Fame rings.
While Merchant’s broadcast partner, Jim Lampley, is perhaps boxing’s best ever blow-by-blow announcer, Merchant has been the soul of HBO. He is the network’s expert storyteller, although his official title is special analyst. He is loved and hated and that’s OK, because the best broadcasters and writers, if they do their job right, will end up offending somebody. Merchant isn’t afraid to speak the truth. He says what’s on his mind no matter what a fighter or a promoter might think of him.
When former world champion Vernon Forrest thanked a ton of people following a controversial decision over Ike Quartey in 2006, Merchant quipped, “Would you also like to thank the judges?” He is not about making friends with fighters. He’s about asking the questions others wouldn’t dare ask. He’ll critique where others won’t, such as when a young Oscar de la Hoya, of Mexican descent but born in America, had Mexican flags waving and a Mariachi band playing a tune while walking to the ring prior to facing off against WBC welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker in 1997. Merchant said amid all the hoopla, “you know Jim, looking at all this, one thing comes to mind, this sucks.” He later issued an apology after de la Hoya allegedly tried to get him removed from HBO.
Merchant says what he feels no matter what the repercussions might be and for that he deserves respect. With Merchant, unlike the rest of the HBO broadcast team, you truly never know what’s going to come out of his mouth. While the fights are often entertaining, Merchant is often just as entertaining, and sometimes more so. Broadcasts without Merchant - where Max Kellerman gets his “Larry Merchant” on - seem to be lacking something.
Merchant’s background, among other things, includes a stint as a reporter for the Associated Press, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and later a columnist for the New York Post. Merchant happens to be a great writer who turned in his typewriter for a microphone and HBO and boxing wouldn’t be the same without him. There have been so many occasions where he said something poetic and profound and a day later wished I had jotted it down in a “Larry Merchant Best Of” notebook. A couple years ago, after a less than tantalizing bout between middleweight champion Jermain Taylor and Kassim Ouma, Merchant said, “not only boxing, but the whole world would be better if every division had a Manny Paquiao; the world would cool off, and global warming would end.”
Merchant has a way with words. While certain broadcasters who come from a fighting background may be able to provide more insight into what is transpiring in the ring, Merchant can sum up a fight night with the greatest of metaphors. He is the greatest broadcaster of my generation. He is just as famous, if not more so, than most of the fighters he has covered. As great an analyst as Merchant is, HBO has been using Merchant less and less over the last few years, thinking perhaps that maybe Max Kellerman can bring in a younger audience. I don’t know where this logic comes from. I don’t tune in to a program because the guy behind the microphone is decades younger than the other guy. Also, Kellerman, let’s be honest, is no Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp, so I don’t think his presence in place of Merchant is making women tune in to HBO in record numbers. He simply is not a proper substitute for Larry Merchant. Actually, no one could do Larry Merchant justice in Kellerman's position. He’s irreplaceable. And now the man is a Hall of Fame inductee. Congratulations Larry. I appreciate you.
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