Does Mercer's unbelievable jab tear Jeffries face apart so badly the fight is stopped? Does Jeffries outlast Mercer? Thoughts?
Depends on the ruleset. Jeffries is unproven against a world class fighter the size of Mercer, but if he can take Mercer's best punch, then expect Ray's lack of stamina set in while Jeffries takes over enroute to a stoppage between round 15-20.
Mercer's unbeleivable jab? Is this the guy who after getting jabbed silly by an ancient Larry Holmes ,remarked "I must learn how to box"?
Neither of these men were defensive geniuses, nor did they participate in very many chess matches. Frankly if it comes down to a war of attrition I'm going with Mercer, as Jeffries had his nose broken on three occasions in his career, and rarely faced full sized heavyweights who could both take it and dish it out like Mercer.
Did you miss out on Mercer, one foot in the grave, out jabbing maybe the best Wladimir Klitscho we ever saw? Wladimir's face was actually torn up from it.
It was a good jab though, one of the better heavyweight jabs of the era. Mercer fought like a fool against Holmes.
Mercer didn't really utilize his jab much until 94 and on... which is a damn shame as he had an excellent one, despite his lack of height.
I don't want to depribe Holmes of credit for beating Mercer, but let me ask your honest opinion. Did Mercer truly look like himself for most of that fight to you? Personally, the only time he even remotely looked like the guy who blasted Morrison was in the first round, when he had Holmes staggered to the point of a near knockdown. After that, it almost looked like he was just lazily following Holmes around the ring, rarely utilizing a jab, and certainly giving no real effort to stalk him down. I had always wondered back then, if this fight was arranged in a way so that fans could see Holmes fight Holyfield...
The best Wlad would not enthrall me,Mercer's jab was effective,but hardly earth shattering imo,Wlad can't slip a punch, he just retreats when a guy feint' s him.
How many rounds ,and what era ? I think this is important as a few of jeffries wins would likely have been tko defeats, under today's auspices.
Just happen to rewatch Damiani-Mercer and I say what Jab? Jeffries was as big ,as heavy, as tough, hit as hard ,took as good a punch, was probably faster, fitter and most importantly had a winning mentality. Good fight, no contest.
At their best, both had iron jaws and solid punches. Problem for Ray is that at some point he would tire, but Jeffries would not. Jeff by decision.
He didn't also use said jab, as already mentioned. He didn't need it in his prime against Damiani. As he got older he started utilizing it.
