The esteemed Nigel Collins discusses HBO and the US media in general in this week’s issue of Boxing News.

In my opinion, HBO have suffered since Larry Merchant left. He was the team’s bulls*** detector, the voice of reason who set his colleagues straight when they laid it on too thick. Now there’s nobody to rein in the excesses. It’s not just HBO. It’s an industry-wide problem and it’s gotten to the point where most American TV pundits are little more than paid cheerleaders. The hyperbole that gushed from the mouths of Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman and Roy Jones during Timothy Bradley-Brandon Rios was embarrassingly over the top. Moreover, they seldom strayed from the preordained narrative, which focused on whether or not new trainer Teddy Atlas would make Bradley a better fighter…

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