Lewis/Mercer - Your Card

Scored it a clear 6-4 to Lennox from memory, didnt see any controversy, tough bruising battle though

 

:rofl do you happen to be a judge for Lennox-Holy 1? From memory it was a Lennox round but its been a while

 

The fight was up for grabs until the 7 or 8 th round. Mercer gassed and Lewis finished a little stronger. I saw the fight live and conditioning was definitely Mercers undoing.

It also showed that when Lewis could not impose his will or significant size advantage he started to struggle. There were several clear opportunities for a faster and less predictable fighter than Mercer to tag him hard.

Lewis showed some true grit in that fight but on the otherhand it was only Ray Mercer...............another could would should but somehow it never paned out.

 

I admit that I have problems with giving Mercer more than 2 rounds. Mercer landed the harder blows, but not nearly enough.

Woller

 

I've never bothered to score it officially, but to me the fight looked close - close enough that if someone had Mercer winning I would not argue much about it.

 

95-95

 

6-4 Lewis.

 

Whoa! You only gave Lewis two rounds? Including the 10th?
I've never seen that before, even from the guys that have called this one for Mercer in the past. First time for everything I guess, but that's like stumbling over a Holyfield-Bowe II scorecard of 118-110 Bowe.

I know my card off by heart, since this one's been a popular discussion point over the years:

1 Mercer
2 Lewis
3 Mercer
4 Lewis
5 Lewis
6 Mercer
7 Lewis
8 Lewis
9 Lewis
10 Mercer

Lewis 96-94 Mercer.

Mercer's jab was quality, landing stiff throughout the fight, but after the midway point he just couldn't follow up with much apart from it and seemed (as in the Holyfield fight) to tire.

Lewis's combinations and busier work got him the nod and deservedly so. As soon as Lewis realised he couldn't blast Ray out of there and stuck to his boxing, he did better. The smaller ring didn't help matters with that of course.

Ray complains bitterly about this and the Holyfield losses to this day, but hey, he got a gift draw against Marion Wilson and a slightly dubious decision over the comebacking Tim Witherspoon in his next fight and keeps very quiet about those.

 

6-4 for Lewis. One of the few fights where Lewis had puffy eyes at the end.

 

In fact, the only fight, if i remember correct. He rarely got cut or swelled up.

I have the same scorecard as Damond, 6-4 with pretty much the same rounds going to the respective fighters. It was about even going into the 7th, where Steward rightfully insisted that Lewis had to win the last rounds, and he won most of them, and with them, the fight.

I also recommend watching it without sound. The crowd went crazy as soon as Mercer threw a punch or two that was blocked, but you could hear a needle fall when Lewis landed a flush 3-punch combination. One of the few occasions where the judges weren't influenced by the crowd or nationalities and had the right winner in a close fight.

 

To be honest, I think it's a credit to the three American judges that, in the very heartland of American boxing, in front of a packed (majorly) American crowd, watching an American fighter putting in a fierce effort against a non-American, that they called it as straight down the line as they did.

It would've been very easy to get carried away with the roaring of the crowd and Mercer's old veteran move of shaking his fist in triumph at the end of several rounds...but instead they kept clear-headed. That's good stuff.

 

I haven't seen that fight since 1996, but I seem to remember thinking that it was basically a draw. My friends who were watching the fight with me felt that Mercer had won.

 

He looked very bad after the Bruno fight, but had sunglasses at the ready, which he put on more or less as soon as he won. It wasn't as bad as the Mercer fight, though.

I scored it 6-3-1 Lewis. Mercer had a lot of good moments, but lacked the round-to-round consistency to win more than several rounds.

 

Chris. I don't agree with the sound off when scoring a fight. It takes away the naturalness of the whole ocassion. The judges have to put up the crowd roaring when punches don't land, and they don't wear ear plugs. If you're concentrated enough you'll blank out the commentary.

Over here in the UK, SKY have different cameras for live football games. Player cam, different angles of the match, and also an option for non-commentary when viewing the game. These options can be accessed via your remote control. The non-commentary option be introduced for boxing as well IMO. I'm amazed that HBO haven't introduced this in the States. SKY should certainly do the same for boxing as they have for football. It just means you get the sound from microphones around ringside. Perfect for scoring a fight.