Larry Merchant on MMA

[Fijeeto]

i see your story and raise you one

when i was a kid there was local wresting, called "Big Time Wrestling", out of Portland. when i was 19 i went to college with a kid who's dad was the announcer. he brought me to the very last event to sit in the "crow's nest". my 8 year old self would have jizzed myself at this opportunity.

it was soooooo bad. but there were girls there who were waiting outside trying to get an autograph and a lay. poor white trash girls. ages 15 to 50. one wanted MY autograph because i was sitting in the crows nest.

i probably should have fucked her, but i was too stoned. and the whole scene was just so utterly.....Jerry Springer.....it was almost embarrassing.

here it is:



Sandy Barr the ref always wore that stiped shirt Playboy Buddy Rose got big i think.


EDIT: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh a quick glance at youtube and i see that my childhood hero Billy Jack (later called Billy Jack Haynes) actually made it big as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiSj9WpORhE. and he was there the night Portland local wrestling ended. i now remember, he made headlines the next week (for about a day) telling anyone who would listen that he did roids with Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon. his 15 minutes of fame lasted about 15 minutes.

A few years back, I went to a local community center when a good friend from my childhood invited me to a local wrestling show.

It was so utterly horrible, and the people there were unspeakably unspeakable. And headlining it was the crazy dude that wrestled Mickey Rourke in the wrestler. I forget his name, but he has a beard and like staples his own nipples and shit during the show. And they went through the whole crowd and set things on fire.

My buddy and I laughed our asses off, but I was glad to get out of there when it was over. I was so ashamed being there I wore a hat and sat in the back and everything... Funny stuff.

Lmao. You cant make up those kind of stories.

The only event I went to was a Monday Night Raw in Louisville many, many years ago. I didnt want to go, but my buddy got two tickets because his parents thought he still idolized The Rock. The people in the crowd would make UFC fans look like scholars. Ive never seen so many out of shape, drunk, ignorant rednecks in all my life. And this is coming from someone who lives in southern Indiana.

The highlight of our night was talking to the local whores that The Godfather brought to the event, and we were literally the only people to cheer when Eddie Guerrero came out. We stood up and clapped as loud as we could, then quickly sat back down like the guy from Not Another Teen Movie when we realized we were the only ones cheering.

I got to eat and shoot the shit with The Acolytes at a local Steak n' Shake, but thats another story.

FYI, they record Sunday Night Heat before going live with Monday Night Raw.

 

[efloridacoupons]

larry merchant is awesome. he is always piss drunk doing the post fight interviews

i loved when he told mayweather he wished he was 50 years younger so he could kick his ass

That was my favorite Merchant moment.
Merchant was also the reason Tyson left HBO and started fighting on Showtime.

 

[Sanctum]

Yo, TS, you need to tell us more about this story. What exactly did Merchant say?

 

[bowened]

i knew you had to exist. for the life of me i could never figure out why he announces. there must be more than one of you, but i sure as hell never met anyone who liked listening to him. he makes fucking Bill Walton seem like a good announcer, IMHO. and that's difficult.

Walton was the man. The king of hyperbole.

 

[van1ty]

I could argue with this stuff forever.

MMA is about instant gratification? An an MMA fanatic/elistist I LOVED Okami/Belcher. That fight showcased a high degree of skill between two elite level fighters. At the same time, that fight was the antithesis of 'instant gratification', as are most technical ground battles. MMA detractors can't have it both ways. They can't say MMA's fans are all about "instant gratification" and in the same breath talk about how boring MMA is because of all the ground work. Maybe they can't stand the ground work because there isn't enough instant gratification for them?

As for MMA fighters getting title shots too quickly... does Merchant even follow boxing? Rigondeaux became a world champion at 9-0 this year (and was interim champion at 7-0). The fact that MMA fighters don't have padded 20-0 records before getting a real step up isn't a bad thing.

 

[ThunderStruck]

so people should instead tune into boxing where most fights end in decision?

Or true fight fans can just enjoy both sports at the same time.

Tyson loves mma. Bhop loves mma. DLH loves mma. Mayweather talks more about mma than boxing. Merchant is just a very old schooler and will never admit that mma is a legit sport no matter what.

 

[KounterPunch]

I don't think the MMA and boxing fanbases overlap as much as others assume. It's an altogether different product. I would theorize that more MMA fans are grown-up pro wrestling fans.

The diversity in movesets, the cohesive marketing, the monthly PPV's, the merchandising, and the favorite-fighter mentality are all very similar between MMA and pro wrestling.

Thou spaketh the truth , young master.

 

[KounterPunch]

As for MMA fighters getting title shots too quickly... does Merchant even follow boxing? Rigondeaux became a world champion at 9-0 this year (and was interim champion at 7-0)..

Ummm , I think he got the title shot because he has 3 Olympic gold medals alongside over 400 amateur fights and is generally regarded as one of the finest amateurs ever .
Not exactly easy to get those 3 gold medals.
MMA gave Kimbo Slice a spot on the biggest stage over some backyard YouTube videos so at the very least Rigondeaux deserved a shot , no ?

Ps - quoting an exception like Rigondeaux doesn't mean the rule.

 

[Reign009]

What the hell happened to scepticism? The TS tells a story and posts some random ass google pic of Larry Merchant you guys take the bait.

This is nothing more than a lame attempt to get some big Boxing VS MMA discussion going. You've been officially exposed.

 

[TheComebackKid]

Well, a conversation with Larry Merchant regarding MMA is definitely thread worthy and very interesting. Now, if you could only tell us how that conversation went then I might give a shit. What did he say? What did you say? What was his theory? How does he feel about boxing? Who is his favorite fighters or boxers? Thats the kind of shit I would like to know.

Otherwise you're basically just telling us you met Larry Merchant to which I respond...cool.

 

[xelad1]

Cool theory, bet he didn't come up with it. Also his boxing "commentary" consists of incoherent rambling and terrible analysis. I'm glad he finally retired, listening to him was just becoming painful. Though Max Kellerman is god awful too.

 

[JayElectra]

I could argue with this stuff forever.

MMA is about instant gratification? An an MMA fanatic/elistist I LOVED Okami/Belcher. That fight showcased a high degree of skill between two elite level fighters. At the same time, that fight was the antithesis of 'instant gratification', as are most technical ground battles. MMA detractors can't have it both ways. They can't say MMA's fans are all about "instant gratification" and in the same breath talk about how boring MMA is because of all the ground work. Maybe they can't stand the ground work because there isn't enough instant gratification for them?

As for MMA fighters getting title shots too quickly... does Merchant even follow boxing? Rigondeaux became a world champion at 9-0 this year (and was interim champion at 7-0). The fact that MMA fighters don't have padded 20-0 records before getting a real step up isn't a bad thing.

Rigondeaux is a mile away from the norm. Maybe the greatest amateur of all time who was already 29 when he was finally able to defect from Cuba. Donaire is ducking The Jackal, right now.

 

[JayElectra]

MMA is taking over boxing because I think we're all chasing that high of a crazy flying spinning toe kick or the flying heel hook Lauzon almost pulled off.

Also, the fact that when a fighter is dropped, he doesn't get 8 seconds to try and get up, he has to truly show what his heart and soul can do sometimes like JDS did a few days ago. I think we all want to see what the human heart is capable of, and it is an astonishing thing to see when fights like that happen.

Ya, the boxing 10 count allows the heartless to thrive.

 

[JudontknowMMA]

I like a good sub win as much as a ko if not more. I actually don't like blood in mma fights and want to get rid if downed elbows to grow the sport.

 

[Soul Slasher**]

As someone that grew up watching boxing, it makes me mad when a boxing announcer speaks uninformed about mma.

MMA has brought more attention to jj and kickboxing, boxing could have got more from emphasizing they are both fighting sports, rather than the insecure bashing of mma.

Proud to say I was never a wrestling fan.

The insecurity lies here too when downing Boxing. You have idiots who still thinks Boxing is not applicable in MMA which is beyond girly denial. It's pathetic.

 

[Blackbelch**]

I want to believe you but I also love to call bs on threads.

It's a cool story. I was into it.

 

[Stargazer Rex]

I don't like that guy.

 

[oscerthegrouch]

i was going leave this alone ,but you got me thinking about old Larry. man from Tyson days thr Hollyfield etc i never could wait long enough to understand larry or what he was saying. i must have a bad Attention span.

 

[dontreallycare]

OK Jim!

 

[Natman2939]

i wonder why age is such a factor in "getting" the UFC

people loved the idea of fighting 40 years ago....just watch bruce lee movies

mma is popular because it's the more pure form of combat sports the mainstream world has ever seen. Even as a small child, I was frustrated watching boxing cause I wished they'd throw kicks

and karate matches were horrible cause whenever someone landed something they stopped the action and gave a point to someone.

So when i saw like.. griffin/bonnar and see these two guys going at it back and forth, punching kicking kneeing takedowns... it was unlike anything I've ever seen.