Lewis/Mercer - Your Card

Harold Lederman for HBO had it 95-95 too.

But I totally disagree with him scoring round 4 for Mercer, that's where we differ. Mercer landed some great shots no doubt, but Lewis landed more and finished the round still landing.

 

I dont know, I thought Ray Mercer was at his best in the Evander Holyfield fight in 1995. That was the best Mercer I ever saw, and in 1996 against Lewis and Witherspoon he was close to that standard too. Although I thought he was at least 10 pounds overweight against Lewis and that probably cost him.

Mercer had an awful spell from '92 to '94, but from viewing so many of his fights I've come to the conclusion he came back new and improved in '95 against Holyfield. He was in decent shape and had actually learned to box very well indeed. The TV commentators saw it straight away too, and both Mercer and Holyfield acknowledged that Ray had raised his game.
Even back in '91 when Mercer was still in good training habits he doesn't show the boxing skills he brought to the Holyfield or Lewis fights. The Mercer who fought Damiani and Morrison wasn't as good as he was briefly in '95 and '96.
that's my opinion anyway.

I do believe Mercer cost himself the Lewis fight by coming in too heavy. He was close to 240 pounds if I remember rightly, and was out of breath far too quickly in that fight.

 

Mercer had a good jab, probably his best punch. But the fight does highlight that Lewis had problems dealing with a good jab.

 

Never seen it but have heard on quite a few occassions that Mercer won.

Every fighter has close fights, even a young Robinson lost a fight, Ali had a close one with Jones, Leonard had Duran, Duran had Dejesus.

Everybody loses or has debatable fights, Lewis had a good career as a whole & rightfully ranks above Mercer regardless of who won the H2H.

****, I cant believe I just spoke up for Lennox, Im gonna log out now, Ive been on this thing too long.

atsch

 

Interestingly, Lewis has actually credited this fight with changing his jab guard. Can't remember exactly what he said it was but something like defending with a vertical glove rather than horizontal, or other way round, something like that...have to see if I can find the interview piece.

 

That'd make interesting reading mate.

 

I'm sure I know where I saw it, it's only a sentance or two but I'll go dig it up tonight and post it.

 

"I was definitely getting hit with the jab more than in any other fight," he said. "It was weird because I didn't except it, but then Mercer had a really good jab. I saw it against Witherspoon in his next fight and it's not an easy jab to protect yourself against. Any boxer would have problems with it but I learned a huge amount from that, and if we ever fought again he would never hit me with that jab because Manny taught me to place my right hand in a different position - across my chin rather than on the side, so his jab wouldn't get through."

I took the Mercer fight because he's a pressure fighter and so is Tyson and he showed me a lot of pressure and caught me with some great shots, and he showed he has a really good jab and a great chin, but I thought I did enough to win."