Ray Mercer

Ray Mercer
Data
Birth Name	Ray Mercer
Fight name	Merciless
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	April 4, 1961
place of birth	Jacksonville
style	Left delivery
size	1.85 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	44
Victories	36
Knockout victories	26th
Defeats	7th
draw	1

Ray "Merciless" Mercer (born April 4, 1961 in Jacksonville , Florida ) is a retired American boxer .

amateur

After Mercer had won two second places at tournaments in Copenhagen and Helsinki in 1986 and 1987 , he became the first and only American heavyweight champion in 1988 (-91 kg). He confirmed this championship title by winning the US Olympic Games. In the same year he lost in an international match against Félix Savón , Cuba . Mercer took part for the USA in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and won the gold medal in this weight class in the absence of Sávons due to the Olympic boycott . On the way to this title he won over Rudolf Gavenciak, Czech Republic (RSC 3rd), Luigi Gaudiano, Italy (KO 1), Arnold Vanderlyde , Netherlands (RSC 2nd) and Baik Hyunman , South Korea (KO 1st) . Mercer's record as an amateur was 64-6.

Professional career

In 1989 Mercer switched to the professional camp. In his seventeenth professional fight he boxed on January 11, 1991 against the Italian Francesco Damiani for the WBO world heavyweight championship title. Mercer was behind on points but still won the title by a knockout in the ninth round when he broke Damiani's nose with a left hook.

His first title defense took place on October 18, 1991 against Tommy Morrison . Here, too, he won, behind on points, with one of his KOs known for "brutality", it was his second victory in a row against previously undefeated well-known opponents.

Since the WBO, which was only founded in 1988, was not a recognized world association in the early 1990s, Mercer laid down the belt after this fight.

After that he suffered some unexpected defeats when he was badly trained. He boxed against the already 42-year-old old master Larry Holmes for the chance to challenge the then undisputed world champion Evander Holyfield , and surprisingly lost significantly on points. It was his first loss as a professional and the only significant win for Holmes since losing his title in 1985.

On February 6, 1993 Mercer boxed against the rather average Jesse Ferguson and here, too, he surprisingly had to record a point defeat. Ferguson then denied a title fight against Riddick Bowe and went without a hitch in the 2nd round KO.

After two build-up fights, Mercer faced Ferguson again in a rematch and was able to beat him this time, but only with a narrow split decision.

In 1995 and 1996 he had to accept more point defeats against the dethroned Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis , but showed himself in top form again in both fights. From today's point of view, the extremely narrow point defeat against Lewis, who was to dominate the weight class in the course of the following years and defeated practically all well-known boxers of the 90s, must even be regarded as a very notable achievement.

Then he went against another previous title holder, Tim Witherspoon , and defeated him on points. Witherspoon, who also showed fluctuating performance, was at this point in the top 10 in " Ring Magazine ", in whose ranking Mercer was now also listed. He was meanwhile a mandatory challenger of the WBC, but did not appear because of drug problems for the title and rematch with Lewis and then took longer breaks from boxing. In 1998 and 1999 he only fought one fight, in 2000 none at all.

In 2001 he started another serious comeback. After a series of six early victories against unknown opponents, he grabbed the WBO belt for the second time on June 29, 2002 when he, now 41, faced defending champion Wladimir Klitschko, who was 15 years his junior . He was clearly defeated by a technical knockout in the sixth round. It was the first knockout loss of his career.

He then fought a few more fights against mediocre opponents that he could beat. Most recently he lost to Shannon Briggs by knockout in round 7 in August 2005 .

In 2004 and 2005 he played a fight in the full contact league K-1 , in which the former professional boxer Francois Botha switched after his boxing career. Mercer lost both duels, 2004 against the Japanese Akio Mori "Musashi" on points and 2005 prematurely against Remy Bonjasky , when he turned off after a kick to the head and the fight was stopped after 22 seconds.

On June 26, 2007, there was another fight against Kimbo Slice , which he lost in the first round by TKO.

In September 2007, the 46-year-old returned to the boxing ring and defeated Mikael Lindlad by first-round knockout. In January 2008 he clearly lost on points against Derrick Rossy .

On June 13th, 2009, former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia and Mercer were supposed to face each other in a boxing match. For Tim Sylvia it would have been the first pure boxing match, but the organizers decided at short notice to convert the fight into an MMA fight. Although Mercer had only competed once in an unofficial MMA fight and lost it (against Kimbo Slice), he was able to win here after only 9 seconds by being knocked out.

Web links

• Ray Mercer in the BoxRec database
• K-1 profile

predecessor	Office	successor
Francesco Damiani	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) January 11, 1991 - December 24, 1991	Michael Moorer