Is Ray Mercer overrated? If so WHY?

Extremely limited but tough fighter, I think people overrate his win vs Morrison, the WBO wasn`t a rested title back then and both boxers were just rising contenders Morrison is overrated and was winning that fight easily before being caught, another fight that gets Mercer overrated is his close fight vs Lewis in a small ring, Steward had just taken over as trainer of Lewis so he hadn`t become the smoother fighter that would go on to bigger things and Lewis often struggled against brawlers like Briggs despite dealing with Tua very easily.

 

Ray Mercer's reputation is carried by his losing efforts against Holyfield and Lewis. When you look at the rest of his career he really isn't all that impressive. Damiani was boxing his face off before getting his nose broken. Ferguson beat the devil out of an out-of-shape Mercer and ran an in-shape one extremely close in their rematch. A 38 year old Witherspoon gave him hell, Holmes at 42 made him look like an amateur and he literally had a draw with Marion Wilson for some reason.

Mercer developed a decent jab late in his career, had fast hands and was a tough guy that could hit, but he had conditioning problems, very limited movement and couldn't really box at an elite level. But he could handle himself a brawl as shown against Lewis, Cooper and Holyfield.

 

Not elite but solid fighter, great chin, good puncher.

 

Ray also was pretty lazy, I remember an article on him back when he was fighting and he admitted himself that he sometimes didnt train as hard as he could have. I'm sure if he was training like back when he was in the Army and won the Gold medal he could have had a better career.

 

How do you think a Bowe-Mercer fight would pan out? Given Bowe's tendency to brawl, i think there is a good chance Mercer could win.

 

I would bet my retirement on Ray beating Bowe.

 

Beaten by Jesse Ferguson and Post-40 Holmes. Yeah, a bit overrated.

 

I don't think he is overrated, as this thread has shown, he had highs and lows and given the nature of this forum and it's interminable fantasy matchups, we are obliged to match the best versions of fighters against each other. Sometimes these are real, sometimes imagined, and Mercer's best could be a bus ride and a train journey from his worst. On his worst days, his hardly trained, unmotivated days, he was a mediocre heavyweight with a great chin. On his best day? He was a handful for most. A suprising jab, a susrprising workrate and consistently heavy, clubbing hands, oh, and did I mention his chin... I don't think his performances against Lewis, Holyfield and Morrison are overrated but then I admit some historical bias as Holyfield and Morrison are amongst my favourite fighters and I have early Lewis as a bit of a head to head handful, oh, and I'm a big Mercer fan. Guy didn't start boxing till he was older and I think what he accomplished with what he had was actually remarkable.

 

Bowe, Mercer didn't like combinations and Bowe did use his jab when he was pushed to.

 

Tough guy but could be lazy in fights.
Loved his wars with Smoking Bert and Lennox.

 

I don’t think he’s overrated, because most matchups are assuming both guys are at their very best, so consistency isn’t a factor there.

I’d say people are well aware of the fact that Mercer was inconsistent, which was Mercer’s main weakness by far.

 

I never thought he was overrated back then. In fact it was pretty embarrassing when he got schooled by Holmes. But I think the reason his name comes up a lot was because he was in some tough and bloody scraps. That and he had the kind of tools which would make him formidable in a lot of head to fantasy fights. Let’s face it, while the man was limited in skill and mobility, he had as hard of a chin as anybody with good power and a ton of heart.

 

Overrated. A couple competitive loses against great fighters is worse than a solid resume of wins over B fighters.