is it true shavers hit mercado so hard his glove split open? if so and he could hit that damm hard, how does he lose the fight by tko?
I always thought that it was during the Tex Cobb fight that the glove splitting happened. Anyway, I think people make a bit too much of the whole glove splitting thing. The fact is, gloves split all the time. If a glove has even so much as a microscopic defect prior to a fight, or if it happens to catch the edge of a sharp mouth peice, a glove can split open. I don't necessarily think that its a testament to Earnie Shaver's power.
I always thought that it was during the Tex Cobb fight that the glove splitting happened. Anyway, I think people make a bit too much of the whole glove splitting thing. The fact is, gloves split all the time. If a glove has even so much as a microscopic defect prior to a fight, or if it happens to catch the edge of a sharp mouth peice, a glove can split open. I don't necessarily think that its a testament to Earnie Shaver's power.
Yeah gloves split, leather tears..a story that amazes me is how Sonny liston hit his sparring partners so hard the stitching would come out of the headgear
I've never seen the fight myself, but someone over at boxrec once gave an account of it, and you can take from that what you will. Apparently, the glove-splitting incident was a key moment in the fight. Shavers was apparently well ahead at that point and had been giving Mercado a thrashing, but the incident caused a delay. When the fight resumed, Mercado had recovered from his earlier punishment and came back to stop Shavers (whose stamina let him down, as it often did).
I seen clips of Sonny hitting his sparring partners and headgear popping at the seams.. Foneda Cox once got smacked by the hook of Listons jab and the headguard flew away from his whole head, damn i **** my pants, i thought his ****in head had come off...
Bernardo Marcado seems to be one of those "forgotten contenders". If he'd got a shot against Weaver and/or Holmes, it's likely he'd be a very respected boxer.
jesus lol..didnt know they had it filmed..ill have to try finding it..I also heard he use to send the speedbags across the room
Mercado was knocked out in five rounds by Weaver. He was also stopped by John Tate in two rounds, and by Leon Spinks in nine rounds. Mercado was more of a flash-in-the-pan than anything else. His only serious win was over Shavers, and that victory was due more to Shavers's being washed-up than to Mercado's skill. People here have said that Mercado took a great punch, but I'm not so sure. Back in the late '70s and very early '80s, I remember experts saying that Mercado's power was overrated, too. Bernardo was a good fighter, but he was more of a fringe contender than anything else.
The fight between Mercado and Spinks was an absolute war. Both fighters showed tremendous heart and I was suprised on how Spinks was eating Mercado's best right hands, almost ignoring the pain.
That Spinks was able to absorb Mercado's best right hands raises questions about Mercado's power. Spinks was a smallish heavyweight who tended to be blown away by even moderately hard-hitting heavyweights. Originally Mercado was marketed as being a genuinely powerful puncher. I remember the boxing magazines in the late '70s eventually questioning Mercado's punching ability. Mercado could hit...but his power probably wasn't in the same league of contemporaries such as Norton, Lyle, Coetzee, Cooney and Page.
Yep. He was brought in to be a "comeback" opponent for Shavers, but he broke from the script, which briefly made him a top rated contender. Then he was matched with Spinks in an eliminator for a title shot, and it was Mercado's turn to be upset when Spinks beat him down. After that, he faded away.
