I’m planning on watching some of his fights over the weekend. What are your thoughts of him as a fighter?
I got to watch them close up confuse, bemuse and frustrate a novice (as a pro) Lennox Lewis for eight rounds. Cute was the word. He maybe shared a round, but was never in trouble and I suspect Lewis missed more punches in that fight, than he did in any other. He looked a bit more attacking earlier in his career, but just too small to be a Heavy and no one cared about Cruisers so there was limited money to be made.
From watching his film ...he seems like more a spoiler than anything...Along the lines of a Bernard Hopkins or a Sammy Angott ...do you agree?
Undersized as a heavyweight, moved down to the cruiserweight division won a belt and had much more success there.
Like all decent small Heavies of the early 80s, he did not move down per se, just picked up a belt while waiting for the phone to ring to get some, pun intended, heavyweight money... For at least the first 15 years the Cruiserweight division was for overweight Light Heavies, not really small Heavies.
Yes, a much better term, a spoiler. If you do get the chance to watch it, I remember thinking you could see how one judge did give Jaws the fight against Mercer, but that you knew Mercer could not lose, because after the Olympic run, he looked money!
Double O had his own funky rhythm and seemed to mesmerize some opponents. Beat Jimmy Young coming off disputed loss to Norton twice, Michael Dokes got a gift draw against him first time. If you tried to wait on him and figure him out, good luck. If you took it to him you could take the play away and make him look bad.
Did well for himself despite lack of size. Had a nice mix of lucky breaks and unlucky ones. Deserves more respect than he gets.
When he beat Jimmy Young that put him in contender status, but once Larry Holmes carved him up he alternated between being a heavyweight gate-keeper and a cruiserweight contender. I seem to remember hearing he had difficulty boiling down to the cruiserweight limit. Maybe if the division limit was 200 lbs. back then like it is now his run there would have been even more successful.
Very good fighter. As others have noted just wasn't big enough to be a good heavyweight, and it was painfully proven by his fight, with Holmes. Holmes usually fought cautiously behind his jab. When he fought Ocasio he was unusually aggressive. I'm sure Holmes knew Ocasio was no real threat. Holmes floored Ocasio with one of the hardest jabs ever.