Larry Merchant Quotes

“Only fighting each other could have brought that much effort out, at a time in their careers when fighters, given all the punches that had landed on them, generally don't want to go that far.”

“He had long ago established he wasn't just another pretty face, but it was a reminder of what was going on inside his body while he was entertaining us.”

“Everyone remembers Ali afterwards could hardly get off his stool because of the effort he gave.”

“It was the third fight. They had both been beaten. If the fight was as significant as it may seem in hindsight, it wouldn't have been held in Manila. It would have been the Thrilla in Chicago.”

“Frazier was never the same after his first fight with Ali. He fought the best fight of his career in that fight.”

“I don't think that boxing historians have been able to find a case in which a great fighter, or a fighter presumed to be a great fighter, came to such an ignominious end.”

“It's hard to break through the clutter of fighters out there trying to get attention.”

“I haven't seen Johnson enough in the past to know, but he's a guy who's fought all these years, 16 years, finally gets a title, he's fighting for his biggest payday, he's still fighting back in occasional flurries, just as Jimmy Garcia did when he fought Gabe Ruelas. So he was still fighting back, Every time he went back to the corner he seemed to be going slower and slower. In fact I did mention after the eighth, ninth round that he sorta wobbled onto his stool. So the signs were there and it's in the hands of the referee.”

“The thorough bred against a clamor, or rather the Porsche vs. the pickup truck.”

“There are too many governing bodies. They're all corrupt. I think they have replaced the old Mobsters with the kind of 'corporate rule' of boxing.”

“Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth.”

“I think it all depends on how good this fight is. I don't know how to rank it. If this turns out to be a dramatic fight and Roy wins, people will look back at all three (in a fond way). But he has to win in a theatrical way. That would make it a great trilogy, maybe.”

“He's so good, you wonder what's wrong with him.”

"Maybe he won't look like a guy who's been eating too many of those airplane cinnamon buns."

Lampley: "will the seething undercurrent of the buildup now be reflected in what we see in the ring?"

Merchant: "probably. sure. because mayorga is a rude, crude dude in the ring as well as outside. in a sense, what we have here is class warfare with boxing gloves....mayorga looks at him as a hated slumlord, and oscar is coming to collect the rent"

"Chris Byrd has two punches - pitty and pat."

"Peter comes from the old school of swing in case you hit something."

"Castillo used his hands more when he was making his way from Cuba to Florida."

"He had a Michael Richards kind of bad day."

"That whale was just harpooned."

"You can see the colors of Ghana on Jantuah's trunks and robe. Bright, vibrant colors. You can take the boy out of the tropics, but sometimes, you can't take the tropics out of the boy"

"Despite the reality of what goes on inside the ring, the business of boxing is based on illusion. And if you want an example, I'll give you an example. The last big fight that Mike Tyson won was against Michael Spinks fifteen years ago."