I’m not a boxing guy, so I haven’t followed Larry Merchant’s work on the sport through the years. So I’ll let someone else assess his legacy upon the news that the 81-year-old commentator will work his last fight for HBO Saturday night.

Yahoo boxing writer Kevin Iole says it has been quite a run in a column:

For 35 years as a ringside analyst for HBO Sports, Larry Merchant was the conscience of boxing, saying the things that needed to be said but that no one else would or could.

Later, Iole wrote:

In era on television when Howard Cosell would boast of telling it like it is, Merchant would do exactly that. Merchant never dodged an issue and spoke of boxing intelligently, with clarity and with great passion.

He concludes:

Kellerman will fill Merchant’s chair, but whether he can come close to filling Merchant’s shoes remains to be seen.

The network has wanted to get younger, and Merchant’s departure will help do that.

Getting younger, though, isn’t always getting better.

Merchant was a giant in the industry and his departure leaves an incredible void that the powers that be will be challenged to fill.

In a story at ESPN.com, Merchant said he isn’t retiring:

Merchant’s exit is part of the contract negotiation he went through two years ago.

“I agreed two years ago to a two-year extension to my contract with the condition that years after that I would be the ‘senior kibitzer,’ ” he said. “That I would parachute in from time to time when there’s big stuff happening. That’s my agreement, so this is not a retirement. I still am a work in progress.

“I’ve had this happen in the past when I left my column (for the Philadelphia Daily News and later the New York Post), when I left NBC. I am ever looking for another place to play in.”