How Would A Prime Foreman Vs Ray Mercer Fight Go?

Both of these observations tend to beg the question of why - if Mercer lacked mobility - did Lewis appear to struggle against him - and I would suggest that the reason is simply one of the basic tactics chosen by Lewis.

Lewis seemed quite content to meet Mercer head-on, in a straight line, with Mercer reciprocating. Neither of them showed the other much in the way of angles. It was more a matter of who could get the better of the toe-to-toe exchanges.

I can't envisage any version of Foreman taking this kind of approach to Mercer. Quite oppositely, I think he'd find outmaneuvering and manipulating Mercer a fairly routine exercise.

 

There was also a lot of talk about the small ring size too, and not just from Lewis.

 

That was the impression I got, that Lewis simply didn't bother trying to outmaneuver him. I think that was the only time Lewis has a bloody nose and lip, partly because he kept standing right in front of Mercer getting hit by his heavy jabs and trading. Pretty unnecessary. We even saw the limited Morrison boxing circles around Mercer before he gassed and got greedy trying to KO Mercer. Francisco Damiani made him look stupid for several rounds before he got caught.

Sometimes it's easy to say "oh boxer A fought the wrong fight", but in the case of Lewis we know that's true because A) boxers who had less talent and skill than Lewis were able to outmaneuver Mercer with ease and B) we saw Lewis outmaneuver guys like Tua, Tyson, etc without much trouble. If a fat old Holmes could do it, do we really think a prime Lewis was completely stumped and out of options? I suspect both guys were simply too proud to back off and change tactics and wanted to be macho and outslug the other guy. It was fairly uncharacteristic of Lewis.

 

Foreman wouldn’t be getting up on his toes and boxing. He’d come straight in and try to push if the ref and Mercer allowed it.

 

If Mercer gets a combo going which he likely would at some point, I could see Foreman feeling pressured enough to really strike as hard as he could and it'd become a brutal slugfest until somebody dropped. Chances are its going to be Mercer who hits the canvas as Foreman has better proven durability and well, he is universally agreed to be in the top handful of hardest hitting heavyweights in history whereas Mercer doesn't have that claim even though he is a hard hitter himself.

 

George Foreman has become the most overrated heavyweight champion in history. If only the best of career one and two could have been merged but it never happened. The first Foreman was deeply flawed. Ray Mercer was a physical brute w an insane chin, boxing skills, some speed , a good jab, power and stamina. Comparisons to Chuvalo are uneducated to fact. He could very possible take Foreman into the second half of a fight and light him up. He took bombs from a much bigger and faster Lewis. I think he’s a very possible upset winner.

 

Foreman absolutely does not have more proven durability than Mercer.

Mercer didn’t get stopped until he was way past it and Wlad unloaded on him for almost six rounds straight. Foreman didn’t legitimately finish and win a 12 rounder until Savarese.

 

There was that element of the 'scrapper' in Lewis, in my opinion. I'm immediately reminded of Lewis/Briggs; another high-risk approach taken in a bout which, to my mind, exhibited both the best and the worst of Lewis. So, the aspect of proud machismo is quite plausible.

To be fair to Mercer, however, it did seem to me that he had improved since his bout with Holmes and had worked on driving forward with the Jab, covering a fair bit of ground as he did so. (As an aside, I also believe the extra weight Mercer carried, going into the bout, was intentional).

Both Morrison and Tua didn't apply any kind of effective pressure on Lewis, as far as I can recall; whereas Mercer, to his credit, was going to make Lewis work for it, either way. Even so, I'd still suggest that Lewis had alternatives to the approach he ended up taking.

Also, as per @JohnThomas1 's comment re the size of the ring, Lewis is reported as stating that the ring had been reduced to "15-16 feet (square)" and, if this was the case, then it could be considered a contributing factor in his electing to go toe-to-toe.

 

Mercer tanks, mauls and maxes himself out on his way to a win. My prediction is he overwhelms Foreman eventually when George starts winding down after being a front runner. This is a bad fight for Foreman, very bad.

 

How do you know Foreman is stronger? Where does this certainty come from?

 

You say this in every single Foreman thread. Mercer wasn't that special. He wasn't an ATG and he wasn't even the 4th best fighter of his own era. Claiming Foreman beats him isn't overrating him.

 

Durability and stamina are two different things numbskull.

He certainly did have better durability seeing as he took bombs from Chuvalo, Frazier, Norton, Hoylfield, Cooper, Briggs, Morrison, Cooney, etc without even taking a knee. Mercer's list of noteworthy hitters is much shorter.

 

"Out of all the people, I would say George Foreman was the strongest. And behind him Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe. I could push anybody back, it wasn’t a problem. I couldn’t push George back. (Laughs.) You had to go around him."
The real deal.

 

all itrevelant , it’s styles. Mercer was actually thicker and extremely strong, mobile and took a insane punch. Mercer was an Olympic gold medal winner, could box, move and jab and when motivated could really fight. Foreman One was a big guy for the seventies and won by overpowering guys early or his lack of stamina and discipline caused him to unravel. I see no way he gets Mercer early and Ray , younger, better conditioned and bigger than a 35 year old Lyle could come out on top.

 

Foreman was a gold medalist, had an excellent jab, and could take an insane punch, and could really fight (and didn't need to be motivated he always gave his best effort unlike the day dreaming Mercer). You do realize all the qualities you're using to describe Mercer apply to Foreman as well, except he was an even better boxer? There isn't anything Mercer does better than Foreman and he would only have a small advantage in stamina, which wouldn't matter because Foreman blasted out Norton, Frazier, and Chuvalo who all had better stamina. The ref would stop it. Foreman hit harder, was faster, and was the better boxer with better defense.