Old foreman vs Mercer

Mercer wasn't good enough to beat old Larry Holmes , how would he beat old Foreman who was much better in the 90's than Homles was?

One trait all the guys who beat Foreman had was movement. Holyfiled used agile lateral movement and Morrsion used a stick n move game off the backfoot.
You can argue Stewart ran him close , but after Foreman nearly knocked him dead in the second Stewart fought entirely off the backfoot.

These guys knew that walking into Foreman was suicide. Mercer doesn't know how to fight any other way.

It would look like the Frazier fights all over again. Its completely the wrong fight for Mercer. His style is feeding right into all of Foremans strengths.
This is simple boxing arithmetic here. Mercer would get blown out.

 

I generally do agree with your analysis.However I do think Old Foreman and Old Holmes were pretty even in terms of ability.

 

Holmes was better than Foreman. Plus it's a styles thing.

 

I don't think foreman fancied fighting Ray.He could win using his booming jab and big rights as ray wasn't fast or hard to Hit possibly by late stoppage but Mercer was very tough and could hit hard a very dangerous proposition for any HW .Big risk for small reward.

 

Good assessment.

Mercer went toe to toe with Lennox Lewis and came thisclose to pulling it off. And that was in 1996, a strong candidate for one of Lennox's prime years.

Interesting fight that could go either way but I'm definitely leaning towards Mercer at his best.

 

Mercer sucked. There i said it.

Old foreman had alex stewart, axel schulz, cooney, cooper, moore, and briggs via robbery. He also was competitive with a prime holyfield.

Mercers achievements begins and ends with a 36 year old spoon (a disputed decision in which he landed less punches) and a competitive bout with lewis. Thats it. Foreman was freakin middle aged and achieved far more and beat better opppnents overall. Stop ducking this point and focusing on briggs.

 

Mercer blew hot and cold.

He certainly didn't suck against Holyfield and Lewis.
Mercer showed he could win a war against Bert Cooper.
He showed he could come from waaaay behind to KO undefeated rated contender Francesco Damiani with one shot to the snot box.
He scored a highlight reel KO of undefeated Tommy Morrison, someone who put Foreman into retirement.
He overlooked Old Holmes and struggled in both bouts with Ferguson.

The style that troubled him were boxers, not old free swinging clubbers.

Then of course his 3 bouts in a row against Holyfield, Lewis and Witherspoon. All 3 bouts were extremely close and he performed better against Holyfield than Foreman did.

Then he ruptured a disc in his back or something close to that during his training for Andrew Golota. That would've been an incredible battle considering Golota was coming off his 2 DQ losses to Bowe.

So no, Mercer's achievements didn't begin and end with Witherspoon. I was a teenager at the time and around the fight game to witness his live undertakings, but by the looks of you're uninformed posts, I bet you weren't.

 

By the looks of it you have no valid rebuttals to my post.

He won a war with cooper, going all 12. Good for him, rusty old man foreman squashed cooper with ease.

Morrison literally ran from a fat 45 year old man, completely changing his style. Yet he was willing to go toe to toe with the dangerous ruddock and mercer. Coincidence?

Briggs knocked mercer out but was manhandled and schooled by a 50 year old foreman. Coincidence?

Foreman landed nearly the exact same number of jabs as a prime holyfield. He waa fat, old amd rusty and holy hit him with everything but the kitchen sink and couldnt stop him. He remained competitive, blocking shots with his cross arm defense, hurting holy a few times. Holy even said foreman was the hardest puncher he faced! Mercer on the other hand was dropped by holfield and lost a clear UD. How the hell did he do "better" than foreman in that fight?

Would you like to discuss how mercer lost a UD to a feather fisted jesse ferguson with an incredible 18-9-0 record?

So what we can gather from this os that foreman:

-Foreman is bigger, taller, stronger

-has the better more powerful jab

-better defense

-better chin and stamina

-hits harder

-great amateur pedigree and over 20 years of professional experience.

-never lost to a tomato can with 9 losses

-better ring iq and timing, better finisher

-did better against common opponents

-never lost a slug fest. Look at his wars with Lyle, cooney, stewart, etc. Everyone changed their style when they fought foreman. All mercer knew how to do was slug.

-NOBODY mercer beat was better than a prime moore, let alone his previous wins over norton, frazier, etc.

Literally all Mercer has over Foreman is youth, which gets nullified by the fact foreman ironically had better stamina and chin. HOW is he going to win???

 

I don't think you understand what a rebuttal is. "Mercer's achievements didn't begin and end with Witherspoon"...that's my rebuttal to your most absurd statement on Ray's career.

That's all that needed to be said, really.

Peace

 

So in other words you concede everything else i said and just wanted to prove I was wrong about Mercers career? Ok then.

 

Is that what you got out of this? What a smug ***** you are.

Go to bed.

 

He beat Morrison as well, as was already pointed out. And if you're going to include Stewart and Schulz as achievements then you can add Damiani, Cooper (funny how you didn't mention him for Mercer) a competitive bout with Holyfield and Lewis via robbery.

Your post is quite a pile of biased garbage really.

 

If you do not mive against Old Goerge that spells trouble. Mercer does move.
He did well against Lewis and Holyfield but styles make fights

 

I did mention cooper in another post clown. He went 12 with him while old fat ass foreman demolished cooper.

Holyfield won a UNANIMOUS decision ahead on all 3 scorecards and dropped mercer. Foreman landed the same number of jabs as holyfield and was very competitive. Hokyfield said foreman was the hardest puncher he fought.

Youre the one whose posting garbage.

 

Holyfield won a UNANIMOUS decision against Foreman as well, and it wasn't nearly so close. Are you some breed of imbecile?