Frazier tko between rounds 7-10. Mercer cannot handle that workrate and Ray is not going to like that body punishment 1 iota. He sure does have a concrete chin but he sure does not absorb body punishment to anywhere near that degree. Savage beating and Mercer would probably hang tough so he'd end up being a ruined fighter after the match was over.
Frazier beats Mercer from pillar to post. Joe is way busier, way better, period. Mercer's granite chin prolongs the beating, but, I am not sure he definitely makes the final bell. Over 15 rounds I definitely see Ray wilting under the pressure.
doubt Frazier stops Mercer. Ray was durable and tough. See his fights with Lewis, Morrison, Holyfield and Cooper. I think he goes the distance with Joe winning the vast majority of the rounds but taking some hard shots here and there.
if mercer fought a war with bert cooper what makes you think that he would be a test for joe frazier?
None of those four had the intensity and pace of Joe Frazier though. Holyfield was closest, but already past his prime, and Mercer was under all sorts of pressure in that fight at times. He was down at one point. I think Frazier by late TKO is quite likely.
No... Read the last sentence of my post I think he goes the distance with Joe winning the vast majority of the rounds but taking some hard shots here and there.
Its a possibility that Ray might get stopped. But pressure or no pressure the man was tough and took a lot of hard shots from a lot of big punchers. He wasn't stopped until he was 40+ and the men who did it were giants who dwarfed him. The other thing that no one seems to have considered is that Mercer had the power to potentially hurt Frazier too.. that's not say that I think he'd "beat" him, but an accumulation of hard shots could take the edge off some of that "pressure" your talking about.
