How do you think this one goes? You think Mercer survives the early storm and grinds out a decision or tko late? Personally I can kinda envision that happening.
Naaa Tyson TKO in four, Mercer can absorb tremendous amounts of punishment but I see him getting stopped after a bunch of un-answered punches with his back to the ropes
the problem with post prison tyson (as someone else pointed out on here) was that like tua he needed to reset at times after taking a jab. he couldnt dodge them like he could in his youth and it almost hit a reset button in his ****ing head. the problem with mercer is barring the lewis fight, i rarely saw him throw that AWESOME ramrod jab consistently. if it's the best mercer ever/better than we ever saw, he could keep tyson back and win on points the REAL mercer...lazy, inconsistent, and devolved into a gritty brawler. a sloppy slugfest, a one punch at a time tyson takes this by UD
Tyson knocks Mercer out, yes he gave a sloppy Lewis a decent fight that Lewis fought on the inside too much. What's Mercer going to do, fight Tyson on the inside? He'd get ripped to shreds. I don't fancy his flabby body holding up too well to Tyson's body punches
Tyson still showed better speed than the average heavyweight after prison He wasn't like he was before but still much faster than Mercer ... both on foot and with his hands ... I think he'd be able to side step him and attack the body and wear Mercer down.
A decent version of Tyson beats Mercer. But its hard to pick the 1996 version of Tyson, just how good was he post prison? i think the Holyfield fights stunted Tyson growth after prison, he needed more rounds IMO. Had Tyson not fought (and lost) to Holyfield, maybe slowly he would ironed out his faults, got more fights under his belt and got more rounds in. He would never have been the force he once was, but im sure he could have improved much more than what we saw in 95-96. Mercers not intelligent enough to beat Tyson. The question here is, how does Tysons stamina hold up? I think Mercer/Mcall would have been perfect tune ups for Holyfield, much more than Bruce ****ing Seldon
If Tyson`s team was serious about getting him back to where he was pre prison this is the fight they shouldve made. No Tyson wouldnt have knocked Mercer out but I think he outpoints him over 10 or 12 rounds. Mike Tyson didnt have the best gas tank post prison becasue he didnt fight anybody who could take him rounds until he face Evander. I see Mike Tyson dominating early and rocking Mercer and bulding an early lead. Mercer would come on in the middle rounds and make it close but I think Tyson edges it. This fight had it happened wouldve shed alot of ring rust for Tyson and probably got much of his confidence back. Close decision for Tyson.
Mike was always better than Mercer. I see Mike stopping Mercer in 9 on a cut, Something like that. Grueling fight.
