I'm a big fan of Mercer, I love some of his early fights that are on youtube. Merciless was a good moniker because he has some nasty looking knockouts on his highlight reel beyond the Morrison demolition. Its a shame he came so close, so often to a major title fight. The Holmes & Ferguson fights were very dissapointing. Against Holy he had him cut & on the brink of defeat only for Holy to break his rib & then knock him down shortly after. The Lewis fight was a great effort & the fight with Spoon was brutal, 2 old warhorses slugging it out for 12 rounds. The Tim Sylvia MMA fight was a sweet end to a very entertaining career.
People make excuses for him losing to Jesse Ferguson, but I've seen a tape of the rematch they had later on that year (in which Mercer was in a lot better shape and had every reason to be motivated), and I thought he was a bit lucky to get the "W" there on a split decision. Truth is, Ferguson was a very cagey Philadelphia boxer with a lot of sparring experience, and reasonable durability, and Mercer just wasn't good enough to make Jesse look bad. Mercer was kind of lucky against Damiani, if the punch he had thrown had landed flush I doubt it would have had much impact. It was a fluke in the way it kind of 'missed' Damiani and skimmed the tip of his big roman nose. I don't usually believe in 'lucky punches', but if there ever was one ... Mercer was a good tough fighter though, no doubt about that. Not much of a boxer, but very durable.
He always reminded me of a much stockier Lionel Richie. Ability to take punches all night long. Ba dum tss!
I still don't understand why that punch ended the fight like it did. I mean obviously it would have hurt like the Dickens, but the way Damiani just lay there as if he was unconscious was odd. Maybe the pain paralysed him or something, though that's hard to believe.
Yeah he was never in a dull fight thats for sure haha he has a massive neck short and so thick i think only Tyson and Tua might edge him they're all real close lol
He doesnt get as much respect as he should to be honest. I am not a fan of rating fighters based on impressive losses, but this is a guy who took both Lewis and Holyfield to the brink of disaster, back when they were the two fighters of the era to beat, in one of the toughest eras of all time. At the same time David Tua is regarded as a head to head prodigy by many, while he fell so far short against the best of the era, and the tier beneath them. Perhaps this is the guy that we should be matching against Joe Louis in fantasy
Mercer gets his repect from just about everyone here in Classic...myself included. You can't rate him any higher than what he really was though.
Would you say that Damiani boxed Mercer better than Holmes did (at least up till Damiani got his nose busted)? Damiani had some skills!
Holmes fought like a man possessed that night lol he had one last great performance in him. I think mercer was just so surprised at holmes spirited effort. I think he kept waiting for holmes to let up but he didnt the whole 12 rounds.
Holmes had lost his legs but was able to neutralise Mercer who gassed very quickly. Ray was in much better shape vs Damiani but was outboxed from range & outworked on the inside. Damiani definately landed a lot more damaging blows than Holmes did & on a more active Mercer. Damiani was a good boxer, steady & well organised he had a very good amatuer career. I saw him at a WSB match in November & had a little chat, he's a really nice guy. This content is protected