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Merchant Reflects on Hall of Fame Career
By Steve Kim (October 18, 2002)

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In these days of the loud and boisterous, in-your-face, MTV-like analysts that permeate the world of sports broadcasting, Larry Merchant of HBO Sports is unique. There's really no shtick with Merchant, he's not a particularly fast talker, he doesn't have any catch phrases or slogans and he's not an ex-jock.

Merchant in fact is the antithesis of most commentators these days. His words are guarded and well thought out, poetic in fact, and he comes from a true journalism background, having been an acclaimed columnist and editor long ago in the cities of Philadelphia and New York. But it is his work on HBO's boxing series the past two decades that he is now best known for.

He truly is one-of-a-kind and in the days of shock jocks that cater to younger demographics, Merchant is a word-smith whose statements are lasting and deep. There will never be another Larry Merchant. Love him or hate him, you listen to what he says.

And on this Saturday night he gets inducted into the World Boxing Hall-of-Fame in the expanded category for his contributions to the game of boxing.

"I was always a skeptic of Halls of Fames," said Merchant with a chuckle "but now that I've been inducted, I think they're pretty neat."

So how did Merchant react when he got the call?

"Well, I was a little embarrassed to tell you the truth," admitted Merchant. "A non-combatant in the boxing Hall of Fame? It just seems discordant to me, but it's an excuse for a good party and I am a member of the boxing community, so I am accepting it as graciously as I can."

In his tenure sitting ringside at some of the games biggest events, Merchant has seen the recent history of boxing unfold in front of his eyes and some of the game's all-time best, who will soon be joining him in the Hall of Fame, ply their craft. He's seen the best of the best.

"Well, of course, Sugar Ray Leonard, his fights, particularly the one against Hearns (the first one), the one against Hagler. Hagler and Hearns, which is
probably the greatest fight, the most memorable fight of modern times," he said. "Tyson and a number of his fights, the spectacle that surrounded them. The Bowe-Holyfield fights, watching Oscar De La Hoya develop into the fighter he is. 'Sugar' Shane Mosley, a thrilling offensive fighter to watch. And then 'Boxing After Dark' came in and we starting doing more of the little known or lesser known little guys with the Barreras, Moraleses and so many outstanding fights. And of course it became the stage for Arturo Gatti and so there have been a lot of terrific events that go through the whole spectrum of what boxing should be and isn't always."

He's seen the spectacular to the sublime. Who can forget on a chilly November night in Las Vegas in 1993, when Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield were in the midst of their rematch, when 'the Fan Man' struck.
He would land on the ring apron in the middle of the seventh round, causing a 20 minute delay in the action. Leaving everyone ringside and watching at home in stunned amazement at what they had just seen.

"It almost defied description," said Merchant, still in disbelief. "I mean it looked like a human sized insect that had come out of the night. One of the
amazing things about it was that we had a camera that actually caught it circling the ring, not knowing at all that it was planning to become part of the show.

"But it's one of those memorable, crazy things that happen both in and out of the ring that makes boxing in particular, what it is."

And there was the shocking and uplifting story of one Buster Douglas, who would stun the world by knocking out Mike Tyson, as a 42-1 underdog in Tokyo, Japan to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of
the world. Douglas would down the supposedly invincible 'Iron Mike' just weeks after his mothers passing.

"It turned out to be the trajectory of two very human stories," Merchant points out. "Mike Tyson, this explosive, sensational fighter, who was in the process of self-destructing outside of the ring and was building towards a big fight with Evander Holyfield that spring. Buster Douglas, whose father I had once seen at the Madison Square Garden, really tough guy, Buster, it seemed to me, didn't love boxing but he was simply good at it because he had been around his father all those years.

"And suddenly to see him galvanized by the death of his mother a few weeks before, trotting into the ring and right from the start of the opening bell, taking it to Tyson and stunning the crowd which had come to see Godzilla put on a show and didn't quite understand why he wasn't. And then of course the emotion that Buster Douglas had in our interview, where for at least 20 seconds, he couldn't gather himself because of the feelings he had about his mother. It was all a part of something that was memorable and that is probably the most shocking upset in my lifetime and probably in
boxing history."

And after all these years, Merchant still has the passion for his job.

"To my surprise, I still love doing it and I don't seem to have gotten to that point that I did when I was a columnist for newspapers many years back," says Merchant. "Where you start to feel, 'I don't know if I want to go to the ballpark today' or 'Am I repeating myself?' There are just so many interesting stories and positive and negatives about the sport, it's such an intense look at human nature, that I'm not bored by it."

Here is how Merchant would like to be remembered:

"That I cared about the sport, that what we tried to do is to tell what the bout was about. Tell who the fighters are as human beings, human behavior as it displays itself in and out of the ring and that we're trying to tell a story and yet we're still just writing captions for the fighters who are really doing the thing and doing the hardest thing there is in sports."

HOF INFO

The induction ceremony takes place this Saturday night at the Commerce Casino/ Crown Plaza Hotel near Los Angeles. In addition to Merchant, George Foreman, Lupe Pintor, Miguel Canto, Mike McCallum, Freddie Roach, and Bill Caplan will be inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

For more info call 714-978-2002.

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E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com

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