~Pavlik left, Taylor right and Larry makes three. 
Larry Merchant is still the best personality on HBO as far as the non-fiction goes, in my humble opinion. I know, if you read 'Say what?' regularly and don't like or know Larry, you may be rolling your eyes. Go ahead and roll them, I love to quote this man. Anyone who loves the sport of boxing as ''The Sweet Science'' and who has tried to explain the greatness of the sport to someone who calls it barbaric, was just slapping the crap out of their foreheads during the first Kelly Pavlik VS Jermaine Taylor middleweight championship fight. Why? Because Larry Merchant blurted out this line:
''This must be a pretty good fight Jim, I've already got five dots of blood on my shirt.''
...Jim Lampley waited a few seconds and then talked about something else, completely ignoring Larry's comment. Jim is funniest when he does that. Larry says something to which no one who's sane has a reply, then Jim changes the subject. Here's a completely fictional example just to give you an idea of how this normally happens:
Larry during a dull moment of a fight: ''This is like watching a Canadian dollar trying to wrestle a Japanese yen to the ground and not having any luck at it.''
Jim: ''... ...Wallace in the orange trunks with the black stripes tonight. ''
Sometimes I just wonder if Larry says some of this stuff just to see if it will make Lampley uncomfortable or at a loss for words. Other times I wonder if Larry isn't being quiet but rather someone has cut his microphone. It's hard to tell what's going on when the camera isn't pointed towards the commentators. You know, during many fights, I'd prefer it if the cameras were on Larry instead, sometimes I'm much more interested to see what he's doing than say, Cory Spinks.
PS: I'm completely unapologetic for my obsession with Larry Merchant and, so, you can go shove that down your shorts bucko. HBO, Don't get rid of Larry Merchant!
