Larry Merchant Quotations

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.

Neither guy wanted to yield. It was the third fight of their trilogy, and it was that important.

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,

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

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.

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.

Especially for younger generations - this was their Ray Robinson - I think it came as a great shock.

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.

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

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.

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

Too much youth, hunger, mission, and talent.

The Super Bowl is like Christmas shopping at Macy's for bookies.

No use gambling if you can't lose your head once in a while.

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

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

This fight figures to be crunk

Jameel McCline acts as if attacking Wladimir Klitschko is akin to attacking Russia during winter

Vitali Klitschko doesn't get enough credit for how intelligent he fights, because he knows when to throw at the target and when to throw through the target.

Fernando Vargas may have had a 6-pack in his stomach, but he didn't have a six-pack on his chin.

Betting stimulates the caring glands. That is where there is so much caring at the racetrack.

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.

Just because you BEAT Michael Jordan doesn't mean you BECOME Michael Jordan.

To say he has a glass chin is an insult to glass.

Nothing will kill boxing, and nothing can save it.

If I were 50 years younger, I would kick your ass

Was it your strategy to just take as much punishment as you could and then hope he would fall down?

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.