Does Ray Mercer get his respect?

I would have liked to have seen Damiani vs. Holmes instead of Holmes vs. Mercer. I think Damiani would have been a tougher fight.

 

Jesse Ferguson, as well proving to have an edge over Ray Mercer head-to-head, also gave old Larry Holmes a tougher fight than Ray Mercer did.

 

Haha Wlads little smile and Wepner just looks like he has no idea what the **** is happening , which fight is this form >?

 

Mercer gets more than enough respect.

A brilliant chin and very respectable power is enough to get you very highly rated in any era of the Heavyweights.

After he lost his '0', Mercer cornered the market in putting together brave defeats and shockingly inept performances over journeyman.

As an unbeaten fighter, Mercer made the most of his two assets as shown against 'The Duke', but that still meant almost blowing a fight with Damiani and having to struggle to beat Smokin' Bert. It also meant he was totally befuddled by a Holmes in his early 40s, without win over a world class fighter for seven years.

 

This basically.

He will be immortalised by his slugfest with Cooper, how he came back to destroy the Duke and how close he came to dethroning Lewis.

 

Yeah I think he did. Damiani had top class all round skills. Deceptively good boxer.

 

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loved this when this happened...mma couldnt have looked any worse

 

But then you'd have to post James Toney getting embarrased by Randy Couture the following year.
Or even Ray Mercer getting choked out by a glorified street fighter.

 

Thanks to JohnnyNawiedzony who uploaded these fights to youtube

This is the allegedly 'out-of-shape unfocussed' Mercer losing to Ferguson :

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This is the in-shape motivated Mercer out for revenge (personally I can't see much difference, he still struggles with Jesse, imo) :

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This is a decidely out-of-shape Mercer v Wilson :

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All three are good entertaining fights. :good
Mercer certainly deserves respect. He was a tough tough guy.
As were Wilson and Ferguson, who actually probably get far less respect than they deserve.

 

If Mercer would have has a better work ethic he would have one the top 5 heavys of his era. Unfortunately Ray was lazy and unmotivated.

His fights with Cooper, Morrison, Lewis and Holyfield were awesome.

His fights with Holmes and Ferguson (whom he did not match up with well) were pathetic.

He shamed himself and the sport of boxing when he quit 24 seconds into a fight with a K-2 fighter and then by losing to Kimbo Slice.

He redeemed himself with the 9 second KO of the MMA dumbass, Tim Sylvia.

Ray was a tough guy, with some success but could have been so much more.

 

As an all-round fighter- even by heavy standards where chin and power can mean more when allied to a bland one-two, or simple hooking style- he was dire.

 

Bump. Love watching Mercer fights, that is one tough dude.

 

Just rewatched a couple of Mercer’s fights that I hadn’t seen for a while. He sure was entertaining as heck.

 

One of my favourite HWs. Total nutter in the ring feared no one ! When right he was a danger to any HW in history .could be flat when not in the mood. I would of liked to see a post prison Tyson fight. Would Mike bottle it ??

 

Amazing that Bruno totally destroyed him . I was expecting a longer fight