As you might expect, Larry Merchant, the well-preserved boxing interviewer and commentator for HBO, has responded to being called an unprofessional antagonizer by Dana White by attacking MMA, in much the same way as Jim Lampley has over the years. Why attack MMA and not Dana White directly? Certainly not because they feel threatened or pressured by the UFC's fast success, surely. In an interview with Boxing Scene's Chris Robinson, Merchant had a few remarks about MMA: http://www.boxingscene.com/larry-merchant-responds-dana-whites-verbal-jabs--44257 I appreciate boxing but the record obsession is something that irks me. If you look at the fights most pros have in their first few years, I'm talking up to 20-30 fights, they are almost exclusively against a variety of bums, tomato cans, and has-beens. MMA isn't deep enough right now to offer that slow build. You wind-up fighting seasoned veterans and good fighters usually within your first dozen fights if you are any good. Beating 25 cans and three good fighters before getting a title shot isn't, to me, as impressive as fighting four bums and four UFC-level guys before getting a shot. Also, one niggling issue--the UFC didn't make "streetfighting" a sport. It made fighting a sport. Boxing is to fighting as track is to escaping a hungry lion.
He said it himself: "I just don’t appreciate the finer points of MMA." He has no interest in immersing himself in the sport. No interest in learning about jui jitsu, Muy Thai, wrestling, etc. Hes differentiating one combat sport from a sport made up of different combat sports as though the former is more civilized. Hes an old MMA biggot and hes not shy about it. At least he admits that he doesn't care to learn about the intricacies of MMA that most MMA critics fail to even recognize exist. Its funny because these boxing purists act as though the sport exists for any reason besides that it is an acceptable, sport form of fighting. Not only that, they have a sense of elitism about the sport. The whole premise of MMA is to see which martial arts are truly the best and/or who can hone their skills in a variety of martial arts to be the best overall fighter. Being a "natural" or "pure" boxer is perhaps the least valuable base one can have in MMA. Its just too easily countered. Most of the champions and top fighters today started with wrestling or BJJ backgrounds and learned to box/muay thai/strike later.
