I’ve always liked Larry Merchant as much as I like my grandfather with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s been six years, and our entire family has learned to passively live with his diminishing memory. At this point, we don’t pay much attention to what he says anymore because he doesn’t realize what he’s actually saying. Regardless, he’s still capable of saying some pretty entertaining things when triggered by a passing skateboarder or the neighbor’s barking dog, and the immature 10-year-old kid inside of me finds it mildly entertaining. Sometimes he barks back at the dog until the police are called; other times when his neighbor steps out, the barking goes on for hours or until one of them falls asleep. The doctor specifically asked that nobody interfere with his behavior, just to make sure he’s taking his tranquilizer meds. Looking at the situation as a relative is sad, but as long as he’s healthy, whatever keeps his blood pressure down is fine by me.
On that note, giving him a microphone and allowing him to commentate fights on live television would probably be as good an idea as letting Larry Merchant continue to do his job.
Dana White called Larry Merchant “senile” in a recent interview following Floyd Mayweather Jr’s controversial win over Victor Ortiz. It seems appropriate that Larry merchant display the remaining lead in his pencil by firing back at Dana White & the sport of MMA.
“Anyone who can make a multimillion dollar business out of street fighting has to be respected.” Merchant opened up during our recent conversation. “My opinion is that anyone is allowed to put up a tent, put on a show, and invite people to come. And obviously he’s had a lot of success. Good for him.
“I don’t watch it. I don’t get a so-called sport in which you can have a 6-2 record and be called a world champion. I just don’t appreciate the finer points of MMA.”
Whether or not HBO ever fires Larry Merchant, or they decide to keep him around just for the ratings stemming from the verbal abuse aimed in his direction, one certainty is that even if he were fifty years younger, he still couldn’t kick my grandfather’s ass. [Source]
