Dana White slams Merchant for Mayweather interview, calls him senile

By Boxing News - 09/22/2011 - Comments

Image: Dana White slams Merchant for Mayweather interview, calls him senileBy Dan Ambrose: UFC president Dana White isn’t pleased with the way the HBO analyst Larry Merchant conducted a post fight interview with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last Saturday night. White thinks Merchant was rude with his questioning and an embarrassment to HBO.

Speaking with mmafighting.com, White said “These guys get done fighting and he jumps in the ring and just starts saying off the wall, weird, rude **** to these guys. Who the hell would want to do an interview with him?..I actually thought it was very embarrassing for HBO. This guy is senile. He’s out of his mind. He’s up there berating Floyd, but Floyd can’t say anything back to you?”

I think Merchant was perfectly in the right to ask Mayweather what was going through his head when he decided to tee off on Ortiz when his arms were down by his sides after he had just finished hugging Mayweather.

After all, Ortiz was defenseless at the time and the crowd was booing like mad. Under those circumstances, how could Merchant not ask Mayweather that question? Would White want Merchant to toss softball questions to Mayweather so he could hit out of the part, and just ignore all what just happened?

It doesn’t make sense to me. I know White rules the UFC with an iron fist and has things pretty much his own way with UFC with guys like Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg asking the questions, but that’s why I like Merchant. He’s not afraid to call a fighter on something he did wrong in the right or something he messed up. The other HBO analysts aren’t nearly as controversial as Merchant, but that’s why Merchant is so good. We can’t have a bunch of cheerleaders working for HBO.



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