Here's video of 3rd and 8th round of the fight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuHTeN1FXiE Seems that Damiani just quit when things were getting a bit tough (McCall landed good straight right hand). Check at 3:35 - 3:40 and watch. Mercer KO was strange, too.
Mercer broke his nose earlier in the bout and you can see Damiani's trunks were soaked with blood. That last right hand landed right on that broken nose and must have hurt like hell. Never a good thing when a fighter quits but he was not going to win that fight. Getting hit squarely on a broken nose is brutal.
Funny enough, Damiani had actually looked like a fairly decent fighter at one point in his career, around the time of his win over Tyrell Biggs (link below): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYJgMxWuduM There was even some talk of him fighting Tyson after that fight. He never really rebounded from his weird KO loss to Mercer, and he was visibly aging and flabby by the time of the McCall fight, which turned out to be his last fight. His prior fight against Greg Page was basically his last hurrah.
Damiani was a very good heavyweight. Outside of beating Lewis, I think this is Oliver Mccalls best win actually. Mercer broke Damianis nose bad. It was never the same. In the McCall fight Damiani was fighting like a guy short of breath. The blood on his shorts points to him having problems with the nose throughout that fight. It's not a quit job. Lots of times when fighters "break" their nose it's just a nose bleed. or an already broken nose that needs cauterized. But sometimes the nose just collapses under one punch and that is a rare and an awful injury. Often a glancing blow on the tip coming out of a clinch is all it takes but it's an instant knockout. You can't breath and ten seconds won't be enough. You can be hit harder and knocked down but nobody is stopping you breath like that.
Yes, he dominanted Biggs and won every round. Damiani was very good fighter, he was beating Mercer and led 7-1, 6-1-1 and 6-2 on all cards before that KO in 9th round. Seems like he lost motivation after his 1st loss.
I'm also a Damiani fan, and I rate him highly. I wish he'd mixed it up with more 'name' heavyweights. A big, skilled, gritty heavy who was always ready to mix it up. Mercer really pulled one out of a hat to beat him ... and what a punch it was. Folks may be right that it affected Damiani's later career. I believe he was severely out of shape for the McCall fight, he described himself as being at 60%. A pity, because instead of a last payday he could have had a GOOD win on his resume. More disgraceful than the quitting was the fact that he didn't do himself and his skills justice and train properly for that fight.
His age and increasing weight certainly didn't help matters either. He was already in his 30s even when he fought Mercer IIRC. Incidentally, Damiani was also the first choice to replace Tyson as Holyfield's challenger in the early 90s - but Damiani pulled out with an injury and was replaced by Bert Cooper.
Damiani had the skill, but not the heart and grit to compete at the top level of the sport... He had talent for sure though, no denying that.
Damiani was a good fighter didn't look very good body wise bit chubby but was dead handy could fight and box pity he didn't have more big fights in the states very underrated guy if he was around today could make a impact.
Good post He didn't look very good in the Page fight. Page was way past being a contender, and Damiani just edged him by a few points.
Well, that makes two disgraceful, "roll over and die" fights on Damiani's record. Why are we even talking about the putz?
I don't think it was all that disgraceful. Damiani was taking a bad beating in there. He was swelling significantly with blood running from the nose that had never really fully recovered from the Mercer fight. It always looks bad when a fighter quits but there are some instances when it may be the right thing to do.
I think he had heart enough. He took good shots against Mercer and was beating him better than Holmes, Lewis and Holyfeild could until picking up that injury. A shut out. He also beat T. Stevenson in the 82' world Amateur championships and later got robbed out of Gold in the Olympics. His body probably peaked as an amateur, he stayed Amateur too long and the pros didn't work out for him. It happens. You can't question the man's heart.
