MAYWEATHER - ORTIZ - CORTEZ - MERCHANT! ( SPOILER)

[martinmrts]

'BUT why are you apologi...( he stop from saying but wht are you apologising and carries on with!) you seem apologetic!


ortiz seemed to be suggesting it was an accident, so he's being asked if that was the case, why apologise ?

[Carbo]

'BUT why are you apologi...( he stop from saying but wht are you apologising and carries on with!) you seem apologetic!


ortiz seemed to be suggesting it was an accident, so he's being asked if that was the case, why apologise ?

That's one interpretation. Another would be, "You're a prize fighter. You've just lost the biggest fight of your life in controversial circumstances. Why the fcuk are you spending this entire interview apologising?"

But with either interpretation, I don't quite get why it's a sign of bias, as LionKing1 says. I don't get it. I did go back and listen, and he says, Why are you ap.... That's all. That's why I didn't put it in my original transcript.

Either way, I have no idea why anyone thinks Mayweather was remotely justified in his outburst, which really was a disgrace.

[jamesmcdonnell]

What a load of shite this thread is. Boxers are becoming worse than politicians for not answering questions. Merchant did nothing wrong, what's he supposed to do, not ask that question and press for a proper answer? Look up 'journalist' on Wikipedia.

Jim to call a man 80 still at the top of his profession a drunk. Because you claim you once saw him look drunk 7 years ago in a toilet is idiotic. And libelous.

Mods what does it take for the retarded troll that is lion king to get banned? I come on here for the high quality debate. Not ranting, abusive fanboys.

I guess to an extent, Merchant seems abrasive because so many other interviewers are fawning sycophants. However, immediately after a prize fight is not really the time for cutting edge journalism is it? I mean what can we expect when someone is still pumped full of adrenalin and they are being thrown rather barbed questions.

I get the impression that Merchant doesn't care much for Mayweather, but he is supposed to be unbiased, and so should give him a fair crack of the whip. I thought he was a little unfair myself. Mayweather was butted, and fought within the rules to nail a man he was clearly angry with - and? What was he supposed to do, blow him a kiss? Unsporting!!! What, more unsporting that ramming your head into your opponent's face.

Ok, maybe Merchant isn't a drunk, I don't really care, I find him tedious is all, he rambles on too much, and his delivery is very slow. Sure, he's old, but that's not my fault, respect to the man, he's been doing his stuff a long time, doesn't mean I have to like him.

No doubt, Mayweather acts like a tool most of the time when a microphone is pointed at him, but then, what's new? I can't stand listening to his tripe myself, I prefer to watch him in action.

[Final round]

Merchant wanted to get to the crux of it and Mayweather wanted to wank God and all his fans for the $$$$$$

I don't blame Floyd for banjoing Ortiz though

[big lennox]

I can see why Floyd was annoyed for being blatantly head butted, and I think he was still angry when he throw those punches,so I can forgive him that reaction, but I really didn't like the way he spoke to Larry Merchant.I'm a big fan of Floyds -he really is one of the best boxers I have ever seen, but to shout at an 80 year old man like that is not good form.

t's hard not to compare Mayweather and Pacquaio personanility wise as well as fighting wise. I was watching Pacquaio interview Marquez the other day and he just seems such a nice bloke, who is pleasant and thoughtful to everyone.

For the record though, I can't see Pacquaio beating Mayweather on that kind of boxing form.I just think Mayweather will know too much for him.

[Ezzard]

People need to stop criticising Floyd. Why should he have to answer questions about his behaviour? Who gave a TV company the right to employ their own staff? And how dare people dislike a bloke who sparks his bird out?

Why does Floyd even have to fight? Why can't he just get paid to act like a pantomine villain and get a hand-selected panel to tell us how he's the greatest ever?

[smcb80]

just read that pbf got $40m for the fight, ortiz $2.5m. madness

[CiganoBoxer]

End of the day guys did Mayweather with his skill have retort to waiting for his lesser skilled opponent to drop his hands and land not one but two undefended punches while his opponents arms was down and was clearly looking at the ref to c...all time in ?
Not taking nothing away from Mayweather as he supremely gifted but lets say because of the way he KOed Ortiz that Ortiz got injured permanent or died ...would it of still been ok to of won that way or by those methods ?..how might of it had been receved then? Any different than if he had KOed Ortiz fair and square ?

[Ezzard]

End of the day guys did Mayweather with his skill have retort to waiting for his lesser skilled opponent to drop his hands and land not one but two undefended punches while his opponents arms was down and was clearly looking at the ref to c...all time in ?
Not taking nothing away from Mayweather as he supremely gifted but lets say because of the way he KOed Ortiz that Ortiz got injured permanent or died ...would it of still been ok to of won that way or by those methods ?..how might of it had been receved then? Any different than if he had KOed Ortiz fair and square ?

Somebody, somewhere would have said it was (a) Ortiz's fault and/or (b) found some small print Floyd's legal team ahd written into the contracts.

[ALI]

There is a clear difference between the two sets.


In the first merchant asks questions, in the second he makes statements....for instance

James, in the second one you highlighted, it's pretty clear that Merchant was asking him about the rest of the fight. I think the word at the end I couldn't make out was 'flaws', but I didn't want to include it because I couldn't be sure. He was saying you fought an aggressive, attacking fight. But Mayweather lost it. He only asked two questions about the ending, one of which was asking Floyd to watch the replay and describe it.

Meantime, you're being extremely harsh saying there's a big difference between the two. There are statements in the Ortiz one, too, such as, "you had him on the ropes and butted him."

At the end of the day, Merchant wasn't doing anything that justified Floyd going off at the deep end.

Well merchant could hardly avoid mentioning the butt could he, the difference is he didn't say 'that was clearly a deliberate butt.'

With Mayweather, he seemed to be gunning for him, off the bat, by stating he thought he took advantage of Ortiz apologising.

It's a subtle difference, but there is definitely a bias in evidence in the interview technique.

Get it in perspective, your clear dislike of Merchant is obscuring your view of the facts. Its nonsense digging as deep as you are, as Carbo points out above, Merchant did nothing to warrant that sort of rant from Mayweather.

I'm no big fan of Merchant, he has his moments but can often be dire. He does however set about asking the questions that the fans want asking, even if he does get it wrong sometimes.

What really set Mayweather off was Merchant interrupting his nonsensicle reply to a question he wanted to avoid. The brat then threw his toys out of the pram and went on the attack, believing he had been wrongly antagonised. He was clearly lacking in professionalism and its confuzzling to me that so many see it differently. Its all there on tape, i'd say clear your mind of what you think happens, then watch what really happens.

Merchants response to Mayweather was legendary, i loved it, but admittedly, also heavily lacking in professionalism.

[Finn]

Carbo.

Did MERCHANT push Ortiz re: the headbutt? Yes or no?

Answers on a postcard addresses to

Mr J Saxon
The Dungeon.

Merchant: You describe what happened at the end of the fight. Was it your fault for not protecting yourself at all times?
Ortiz: No-no-no. Absolutely not. I was called to break by the referee, so I obeyed exactly as I was told. I looked at the ref, I looked up, and boom I was out. So, um, you know: it happens.
Merchant: First let's show earlier in the round, when you had him on the ropes, and you butted him. Was that some reflex action, or...
Ortiz: I was going back, I was going back and he pushed me a little bit so I went back and [inaudible] caught him a little bit. It looked like I was doing it intentional. You know it happens. But I even apologised to him. I'm very sorry for that, I'm not a dirty fighter.
Merchant: So you're saying you were just trying to jump on him and your head collided?
Ortiz: He came forward really fast. I wasn't expecting that, and my head was in face, so I was, like, 'oh! whoops!' So, as far as I'm concerned, you know, I'm sorry for that, but...
Merchant: [Interrupting] Why are you... you seem apologetic. You got together, what did you say to eachother?
Ortiz: I said, 'Floyd, I didn't mean to do that, bro. My bad, man, and... er... my bad, let's do this [inaudible].
Merchant: Do you think that [the knockout, which they are now watching] was unfair or... because you had a plan to get deep into the fight, or is it 'your bad'?
Ortiz: You know, you can look at it two ways. At the end of the day, I came out here to show the fans a good time, and, ahm, as far as I'm concerned, they did have a good time, except for, you know, a little miscommunication there by the ref. But, hey, it happens, you know. I'm not perfect; noone is, and neither is the ref, so I don't want to blame him for it. It's a learning experience.
Merchant: Thank you very much, Victor. Jim.

See how that works? Merchant asks, was it your fault for not protecting yourself, Ortiz answers. Merchant asks questions, Ortiz answers them.

Compare them to this:

Merchant: You hear the crowd [audible and loud booing]. At least a good part of it is in an uproar because they felt that you took shots at him unfairly after you went together in the ring, made up for the head butt, and then you poked him. What's your story?
Floyd: First of all, I want to thank God for this victory, because without God this wouldn't be possible. [Booing gets louder] I wanna thank my team. Um, I got hit with a dirty shot and, um, it's protect yourself at all times, um, I hit him with a left hook right hand and that ended the bout.
Merchant: So you're saying that although it appeared that he wasn't protecting himself, and thought that was part of the ceremony that you were going through of apology, and that you unfairly took advantage of it, what do you say to those who say that, 'what'dya do there? you were winning the fight and in charge.'
Floyd: I just wanna say thanks to all those who bought pay per view and came out here to Las Vegas, and...
Merchant: [interrupting] Wait, wait... we know you're a promoter, but now let's talk to you as a prize fighter. Let's take a look at what happened at the end of the fight, and you describe it...
Floyd: [Interrupting] OK, let's look at it... we touched, we touched gloves, we back to fighting, hook, right hand and that's all she wrote.
Merchant: So, for you, it was just an automatic response, 'let's get on with the fight'?
Floyd: it's protect yourself at all times. He done something dirty. We not here to cry or complain about what he did dirty and what I did. I was victorious, so if he wanna rematch, he can get a rematch.
Merchant: You were in charge of the fight, you were aggressive and taking advantage of what you saw as...
Floyd: You don't know what I do because..... [FROM HERE IS WHERE IT ALL KICKS OFF]

So, I really don't see what Merchant did wrong except ask some rambling, poorly constructed questions to Floyd. Really. How did he keep niggling him until he blew up?

I don't get what Merchant did so very wrong.

To me that just showed that floyd answered the question straight away. He just didnt answer it as directly - he's saying he got hit by a dirty shot, its protect yourself at all times, he didnt so he laid him out.