MORE MERCHANT: Larry On JMM, Floyd, Oscar

By Michael Woods

He is not the sort who when he is not assigned to an event, chooses to steer clear of all things fistic. Larry Merchant didn’t work the Juan Manuel Marquez/Juan Diaz HBO Championship Boxing card in Texas on Saturday, but he did watch that thriller, and the entertaining co-feature as well. TSS reached out to one of the fight game’s top pound for pound analysts, poet laureate Larry Merchant, to get his take on what went down.

Merchant was impressed by JMM’s work against Diaz, and like all of us wondered early in the fight if the 35-year-old had gone graybeard overnight, and wouldn’t be able to keep up with the young buck Diaz, ten years his junior. read more