Right but Foreman had hit him flush over twenty times ... How many men could take those bombs from George and keep standing after two or three ?
Not many at all, if they were getting hit as often. My point was just that Chuvalo was lucky it was stopped, before he was dropped.
Mercer had an amazing CHIN!! One of the best heavyweight chins I have ever seen... A buddy and I used to marvel over how Ray would just come forward getting blasted and be unfazed, it just seemed to **** him off much more then hurt him.. Mercer fought some good punchers, I remember when he fought Bert Cooper who was on in this fight and in very good shape, Mercer had his jaw broken by Cooper it literally looked like he had a softball in his cheek.. And this was the same Cooper who hurt Holyfield bad and bounced Moorer off the canvas.. Bert could punch... In rounds one and three I know for sure Morrison threw his best shots right at Mercer and Ray just kept coming unfazed by them... Holmes not a big hitter but still bounced shot after shot off of Ray as did Ferguson and pretty much everyone Ray fought... Lennox and Witherspoon both hit him with there best shots and again Ray just kept on coming... I remember one sequence in the Lewis fight where Lewis just unloaded a beautiful combo with a cross and an uppercut and it did nothing, same thing in the Spoon fight he hit Mercer hard with his big right hand and again there was Ray..... Nuff said here, the Mercer chin was concrete....
Before he was killed .... start at the 8:05 mark ... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2KRcH1N-xY[/ame]
I'd say all 3 have top notch chins... among the best ever. Tua has taken hard shots from Lewis, Rahman x2, Ibeabuchi, Maskaev, Izon, and others. McCall has taken hard shots from Lewis x2, Seldon, Bruno, Douglas, and others. Mercer has taken hard shots from Lewis, Morrison, Cooper, Holyfield, Witherspoon, and others. They all have or had... tried and true granite chins.
I tend to think it was a pretty solid chin but I also believe that he was not KO proof. He could be stopped and his fight with Holyfield showed us that. Mercer's style he moves forward and he occasionally backpedals, not necessarily when hurt but it is part of how he fights. After he got dropped by Evander, he never really recovered and IMO appeared shaky for the rest of the fight. He was in the previous round stalking Evander yet after the KD he was being chased around the ring practically. I personally think he would have suffered a TKO loss had it been a 12 rounder. My observation.
Very good point ironchamp, i agree. :good Mercer would've been stopped on his feet by Holy's combinations in the 11th or 12th.
a good chin and almost great. He has a compact body which is better for taking punches than say Michael Moorer at heavyweight.
Mercer took a lot of clean shots by big punchers, Morrison Lewis etc. He had a dam good chin. It was amazing to see him go down from the shot Holyfield landed on him. Just goes to show you accuracy is as important as power, and Holyfield was a hell of an accurate puncher at times.
How Chuvalo remained upright after the first left hook Foreman landed is testament to how amazing his chin was imo. I remember reading that Arthur Mercante ranked that punch as the single most powerful he had seen in his entire career as a referee (until matched by Tommy Morrison's monster shot against Razor Ruddock). A brutal punch.
I had read Mercer went down from pain caused by a cracked rib but the tape shows Evander really did drop him ... and hurt him, not just a flash ... [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA_BWf3Gnbg[/ame] go to 3:00 mark