Is Ray Mercer overrated? If so WHY?

To help you understand, I think a recent person whose career was similar to Ray Mercer's, in my opinion, was Joe Joyce.

But Mercer's career was Joyce's "squared."

Mercer won Olympic Gold for the US in 1988. If I'm not mistaken, Mercer was one of, if not the oldest gold medal winning boxer from the US ever, at that point.

Mercer turned pro at 28. That was OLD for the time. Mike Tyson, the champion, was like 23. Holyfield, the top contender, was younger, too, and already five years into his pro career. It was a relatively young heavyweight division.

So Mercer was fast tracked by his manager, Marc Roberts. Roberts was a young promoter who started Triple Threat Boxing promotions and signed Mercer, Charles Murray and Alfred Cole, who were all Olympians or Olympic alternates. Roberts took Mercer and Cole quickly to world title shots.

Basically, all of Mercer's pro fights in 1989, except for the Ocasio fight, which was on the Duran-Leaonard III undercard, were televised on ESPN when everyone watched boxing on ESPN. Mercer sometimes fought twice a month in his first year. Everyone watched him progress. After one year, he was already knocking on the door of the top 10.

In year two, his nationally televised fight in the US against Bert Cooper was a fight of the year candidate.

And in less than two years after turning pro Mercer headlined his first PPV when he fought Francesco Damiani, who won the silver medal in the 1984 Olympics, for the WBO belt, which Mercer won by KO.

Next up was Tommy Morrison, who was a huge boxing star in his own right, maybe bigger than Mercer, as Morrison just starred in Rocky V.

Still, Mercer scored one of the most brutal KOs in heavyweight history over Morrison.

However big Joe Joyce's win over Dubois was in the UK, Mercer's win over Morrison was far bigger than that at the time.

Mercer and Roberts were a close pair. Roberts had taken Triple Threat public, in an effort to recoup the money he'd invested in the three fighters. One of the guys who came on board was a Wall Street guy who, after Mercer knocked out Morrison, kind of took over the company and pushed Roberts to the background.

The Wall Street guy took over all the major decisions, the first being to have Mercer vacate the WBO belt rather than fight Michael Moorer, his top contender in 1992. (Mercer probably would've won that fight, at that point.) Instead, the Wall Street guy wanted Mercer to drop the belt and fight old Larry Holmes, who had mounted a comeback. I can't remember the Wall Street guy's name, but he's standing behind Mercer when he loses to Holmes (and everyone else), usually with a dumb grin on his face.

Pushing out Roberts tended to derail Mercer. He stated before the Holmes fight on USA, with Moorer in front of him, that he would've preferred to fight Moorer. He didn't want to vacate or fight old Holmes.

So, unlike Joyce, who started getting bounced around and stopped, Mercer just started suffering one embarrassing decision loss after another. First to Holmes, then to Jesse Ferguson. Then appeared to lose to Marion Wilson, but was gifted a draw.

Mercer was sort of forgotten for a while. He was supposed to fight Frank Bruno at Wembley in 1994, but the card was cancelled the day of the fight. He got a match with the comebacking Evander Holyfield and put up a solid effort. That got him the Lewis fight, which impressed many on a big HBO Night of the Heavyweights card. Then he decisioned Witherspoon.

But, by that point, there were just too many guys in front of him. He was supposed to fight Andrew Golota, but that fell through.

Mercer was a real force early on, but people who remember him from those early days do tend to overrate him overall because he came out of the gate so fast, was really a household name in the US rather quickly, casual boxing fans knew Ray Mercer and liked his fights, and went on a tear for about three years.

Circling back, Joe Joyce was older, but if you want an idea of how Mercer was viewed on the way up, it was kind of like that. But Mercer did it during a more exciting time in the sport at heavyweight, when more eyes were on the heavyweights than today.

And now that Joyce has lost to Zhang, Chisora and the like, if Joyce were to somehow come back and fight a couple of top heavyweights close (I don't think he will, but I'm just giving an example), the fans who touted him early on would probably jump back on the bandwagon and start propping him up again.

That's kind of what happened with Mercer when he came back and had good fights with Evander, Lewis, and Spoon.

 

With the full view of his career, it makes sense he'd struggle against Holmes. Mercer shined against KO-based fighters and fighters who like a war. His chin and toughness tailor him for that.

A man who doesn't fight like that, isn't going to fight that kind of fight? Mercer has to fall back on his skills. And he was good, but not great. Holmes got him with his "stand in the corner so I don't have to chase around this young guy" strategy. Both men standing at mid-range with feet planted? Old Holmes was still elite under those specific circumstances. Proved it when he was getting the best of Holyfield under the same circumstances.

 

I've never really thought of Mercer as overrated personally, but I think if people do think he's overrated, it's largely due to his close losses compared to his best wins. I couldn't find the write-up I did on it, but I thought Mercer beat Lewis, for what that's worth. I think Mercer had the world at his fingertips after beating Morrison, but then he immediately lost to an old Holmes, and decisively.

I mean I can start to change my own mind just based on my previous paragraph, lol .

A fun exercise is to look at a fighter's best five wins and when you get after Morrison, things get a little thin.

Morrison
Witherspoon
Cooper
Damiani
Darenell Wilson?

I don't know, interesting question by OP

 

Thanks for this post, very helpful for those who might not have your knowledge

 

He's often quite clearly behind Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis, and is treated equally with Ruddock, Moorer, Tua, and Sanders. He certainly had the potential for a better resume. I think he won in 1996 against Lewis, considered the best heavyweight of the time, but I think he lost to Whiterspoon, considered irrelevant at the time. Wins against Morrison and Damiani are good wins, regardless of Ray's poor start. Morrison was very strong at the time and, in my opinion, never recovered from the Mercer fight. Ferguson was an underrated young man, like Ross Purritty. It's a shame Mercer didn't get Golota in 1997. I think he would have had a third good white fighter under his belt. Just like I think he would have easily beaten Tyson in 2002 when they were supposed to meet... unfortunately injuries complicated his career

 

I’ve found that he’s one of many boxers who seem better in my imagination and memory than when I rewatch their fights decades later.

 

In hindsight its easy to see that but at the time I and many others thought Holmes was going to get killed

 

He doesn't strike me as either underrated or overrated.

 

Damiani was his best win.

 

The thing with Mercer is he didn't fear anyone. He didn't give a ****

 

Rocky V underperformed at the box office, grossing $120 million worldwide, making it the lowest-grossing film of the franchise.

 

In early 1992, most certainly.

Mercer was on a roll with the Damiani and Morrison wins. If he kept the WBO belt and defended against Moorer (which would mean Marc Roberts was still running his career) I think his professional boxing career would've gone much differently.

Successful defenses over two unbeaten, young, rising heavyweight bangers would've probably led Mercer to a four-belt unification with Evander later that year.

In early 1992, Moorer wasn't exactly lighting up the world himself. His knockout streak finally ended with Mike "The Giant" White going the distance with him. And Bigfoot Martin dropped Moorer on the seat of his pants.

Styles make fights. I think it would've been an excellent punchout. And I think Mercer had a much better chin. And Mercer had all the momentum going.

Mercer not fighting Moorer certainly changed heavyweight history, IMO.

People talk a lot about certain fighters losing a trainer or manager and how it impacts them severely. But they never bring up Mercer. Losing his manager, vacating his WBO belt, not fighting Moorer, and then turning in an uninspired performance against Holmes and LOSING was just a trainwreck that he never recovered from. Calamitous is the word.