Merchant Banking, The Ring & Everlast

Hello Larry: Rumors of Larry Merchant's departure from HBO may have been premature: "As we optimistically iron out a new agreement with Larry Merchant, Larry has agreed to work Saturday's HBO Pay-Per-View telecast from Madison Square Garden." -- statement released by HBO today, attributed to HBO Sports executive producer Rick Bernstein.

In The Ring: This week the August issue (man, Summer went by so fast) of The Ring hits newsstands, filled with intriguing stuff. William Dettloff offers five reasons why Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright will be worth paying $49.95 to watch on pay-per-view. Are the reasons worth $10 each? You'll need to decide for yourself -- and I won't give away the whole list -- but two reasons he thinks the fight has potential are that neither Hopkins nor Winky has enough knockout power to make the other guy be overly cautious. That's one reason for each guy's lack of power.

Also in the issue: a Mayweather-De La Hoya postmortem by Nigel Collins, a reality check on John Duddy by Don Stradley, and a fantasy imagining classic rematches that never happened, if they happened ten years after the original, as the Maske-Hill return bout did.

Not in the issue: any of the usual advertisements from Everlast. Here's hoping the two premier brands in boxing are back together soon. The equipment and apparel company was in the process of being aquired last week. But this week, like Billy Donovan, the company seems ready to back out of the deal.

In other news: Bernard Fernandez looks at sour grapes and other unsavory substances, in the wake of Antonio Tarver's suggestion he might have been drugged during his loss to Bernard Hopkins, in the Philly Daily News. Santos Perez follows up on Sultan Ibragimov's weekend win, in the Miami Herald.