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Ringside, Where He Belongs for HBO
By Steve Kim (June 11, 2007)

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It was a raucous night at the world famous Madison Square Garden Saturday, where the next Puerto Rican legend-in-the-making, Miguel Cotto, systematically dispatched of the game Zab Judah over 11 exciting frames after some rough early moments, in a bout that had the partisans on their feet for much of the night.

It was the type of night that boxing needs more of. Entertaining bouts in front of packed houses in big cities that are both critical and commercial successes. The world really awaits these type of evenings.

Calling the action ringside for HBO Sports, which broadcast and distributed 'X-Plosive' (which lived up to its name) was long-time analyst and sage Larry Merchant, who was rumored the past few months to be on his way out after nearly three decades with the network.

He would go to New York last week to pick up an award from the BWAA for 'Long and Meritorious Service' on Friday night at their annual awards dinner. But he didn't know till late in the week if he'd back at work for HBO the next night.

"Well, I never thought I wasn't back on the job," he would tell Maxboxing with a hearty laugh on Sunday afternoon. "Since it was the next fight I would've been doing anyway."

This was the type of event that that keeps Merchant's juices flowing.

"It just made me glad I'm keeping the faith with boxing, despite all the cynics and naysayers. I can be as skeptical and as cynical as the next guy about that aspect of boxing but I recognize what it's status is today and I recognize that no one fight or event will make or break any sport, as the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight was hyped," he would say. "This was proof that the game was still alive and well, at least in the welterweight division."

And the demise of Merchant's run on HBO, like boxing perhaps, was as Mark Twain once uttered: greatly exaggerated. Merchant's new deal with the network will still have him ringside for many of the game’s biggest bouts while he splits duties with Max Kellerman. But by no means was HBO going to be his swan song, regardless of what happened.

"As recently as a month ago, when I was resigned to - and was OK with - moving on, while I was having this long standstill in negotiations, I had some other feelers, opportunities, offers and so on and I thought, 'Well, this would be an interesting, tantalizing way to go into the next phase of my working career,'" Merchant would say. "So I was cool with it. I thought, 'Y'know, I've been lucky; 29 years with one show. How often does that happen in a medium with a very short attention span?' And it's amazing that this hasn't happened to me before. So I was cool with it."

"But when HBO changed its mind and offered me the current deal, I was happy about that because I do like going to fights, preparing for the fights, talking about the fights, talking at the fights, in all their many dimensions. So I'm very pleased the way it turned out."

Merchant, who is 76, says he still has the same zeal to cover events like he has in the past.

"Well, I feel I do," he clarifies. "Sometimes people think they have the same passion, but it doesn't show. And I could remember when I was a newspaper man, a young up-and-coming columnist and reading some of the older columnists and it felt like they kept repeating themselves. I, at that time, decided that I would leave the column when I felt I was on the brink of doing that. So I was really conscious of trying to stay on top of it. Not mailing it in, not thinking I knew all the stories because they seemed like other stories I had once covered. And just digging a little deeper to stay current, rather than living in the past."

It's fighters like Cotto - and all their imperfections -that keep Merchant on the job and hopeful about the sport. He may not be in the stratosphere of Puerto Rican predecessors like Wilfredo Gomez, Felix Trinidad and Wilfred Benitez, but he's steadily building a resume that suggests he might one day reach those heights.

"I do think he's on his way," Merchant agreed. "He may be one of those rare fighters in this generation who fights his way to the top, instead of maneuvers his way to the top. And who not only is a relentlessly aggressive fighter, but knows how to do it. The notion that because he got dazed or buzzed or hurt in a few previous fights, that somehow it was a serious flaw, I never accepted that because I always feel that the test of a fighter is what he does next. Because if he doesn't get buzzed or knocked down occasionally, he's not a fighter I'm interested in watching. He's fighting too safety-first."

Merchant and Bob Arum, haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but they both are in agreement with this - boxing, more than ever, needs boxers to be fighters in the ring, not businessmen.

Cotto is all fighter.

"He is now," says Merchant, "but we've gone through a phase in which so many veteran fighters’ main goal was to survive and thrive on their names and to last as long as possible and make money. And many of them in the later phases of their career- Shane Mosley is an exception - use their 'experience and guile' to fight crowd dis-pleasing fights to keep going. I don't think that's a very good thing for boxing because I think boxing, like any sport, needs to give young, hungry fighters a chance because they will fight to get to the top."

How ironic would it have been if the May 19th snoozer between Jermain Taylor and Cory Spinks would've been the last fight he ever called for HBO?

"We'll, y'know what?" he said, laughing loudly at the thought. "It doesn't always end in a garland of roses and the way you hoped that it's going to end. That might have been just as appropriate to end my career on that note, as any."

Merchant understands that certain fighters have styles that aren't necessarily conducive to making great fights. And not all fights will be Corrales-Castillo I. However, he adds, "But I do think that the sport has drifted in ways that they try to take the danger out of a dangerous game, too much. And so I've become a strong advocate in recent months to help the sport get back to what it was, where drama is possible."

Merchant's next scheduled assignment is for July 7th, when Wladimir Klitschko rematches against Lamon Brewster. A few wanted him out, feeling it was time for new blood and to skew younger. But many others in the media - and whether HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg wants to admit that he was influenced by what he read and heard or not - came out strongly in support of Merchant.

It was like going to your own wake and finding out you had more friends than you thought.

"Well, I haven't had the experience of going to my own wake. But I can say it's like that," he joked. "But it kinda took me by surprise how strong the feelings were by many people in the media. I feel that print is in my blood, that's where I came from, that's who I really am. I have respect for the written word as well as the spoken word. I've always treated my colleagues on the back side of the ring with respect.

"But I didn't know whether my song-and-dance appeared to them like a clown act or what. So it was re-assuring and it made me feel good that people supported me."

But soon, he'll say something rather controversial or incendiary, and he'll hack somebody off. Hey, that's his job.

"I’ll know I'm doing something wrong if nobody is ripping me."

TOP RANK, TOP RANKED

It's not even close, as of now, Bob Arum and Top Rank are 2007's 'Promoter of the Year' so far. No, they haven't had any record-breaking events, but if there is a promotional firm that has sold tickets consistently (like they did in New York and San Antonio), had exciting cards and continually developed young talent, it's them.

And they've done this by being the truest independent promoter in the United States. And they press on with more business for the near future. On Tuesday they will be in Chicago to formally announce their August 4th show featuring David Diaz taking on Erik Morales, before coming back to Las Vegas to work on other pressing issues.

One of them being the immediate future of Manny Pacquiao.

"Manny Pacquiao is going to fight October the 6th, either in Vancouver or Macau and the opponents for Manny will be determined on where the fights take place," said Arum on Sunday afternoon. "If the fight’s going to take place in Macau, then we'll probably go with Edwin Valero. If the fight takes place in Vancouver, we'll go with either Humberto Soto or Joan Guzman."

As for Cotto's next bout, whether it's Antonio Margarito - should he defeat Paul Williams in mid-July-or not, there's very good chance it could land back at the Garden.

"We never thought we would do that but now we're having second thoughts and the Garden is all over us to have Miguel's next fight - not wait for the June date - but to come immediately," said an effusive Arum.

When Arum was asked if Cotto has reached Trinidad-status, he would say, "Oh, I think so, I think the truth is that a lot of it is the promotion and what Todd (duBoef, Top Rank's president) did to sell the fight. Todd did a great job and we sold it out. We gave the fans a show, there was dancing in the aisles, the music was incredible, they were all so happy that next time we'll have an easier time selling it out.

"We put 20,685 in the building. I mean, that's incredible. There hasn't been that many in the building for anything in years."

Yeah, especially the Knicks.

As for the status of Kelly Pavlik challenging Jermain Taylor for the middleweight championship on September 29th?

"According to Lou DiBella (who promotes Taylor), everything is on course. It should be wrapped up next week and Lou is looking very seriously at the Staples Center (in Los Angeles), which I think would be a marvelous venue for the fight."

FNF

I thought Randall Bailey got jobbed against Herman Ngoudjo on Friday Night Fights. It was a very competitive bout but I was of the belief that Bailey controlled large stretches of that fight with his jab from the outside.

Jean Pascal is a real good looking, athletic prospect that I'd like to see more of against stronger opposition. How bout him against Librado Andrade?

By the way, I thought Joe Tessitore did a fine job in capturing the lively atmosphere at the Uniprix Stadium in Montreal, Canada.

SHOWTIME

I had tabbed Elvir Muriqi to upset Antonio Tarver, but 'the Magic Man' showed his class in the second half of their spirited 12-rounder. But I still think that Tarver gets beat by the elite of the 175-pound class, from Chad Dawson to Paul Briggs, and you know he wants
no part of one Glen Johnson.

As for Dawson, who decimated Jesus Ruiz as expected in six, he did what he was supposed to. Let's hope a Dawson-Tarver bout can be made for the fall.

FINAL FLURRIES

I think I've said this before, but flyweight prospect (who's turning into a young contender) Giovanni Segura, is the very definition of 'awkwardly effective'. He showed that once again by blowing out vet Daniel Reyes in one...Mike Alvarado may have some defensive holes, but he is a fun TV fighter....How bad were those low-blows by Cotto to Judah? I heard that Rock Newman wanted to get to the Garden and incite another riot....OK, please tell me that the September 15th fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Jorge Barrios is not on pay-per-view? This is just further exploitation of the Latin fan base, which is being almost punished for its continued support of the business....Is this 'saving' or 'helping' boxing from Golden Boy Promotions and HBO?....I know one thing, you can watch Tenn-Florida and Michigan-Notre Dame that day for a lot less than $44.95 on TV.....