27 Years Ago, Ray Mercer was `Army Strong’ in Rallying Past Tommy Morrison

Published

7 years ago

October 13, 2018

Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe lasted just 11 days at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C., until he was voluntarily granted his release and returned to civilian life. “Big Daddy” might have won two of his three classic battles with Evander Holyfield, but his approach to training camp was seldom military-grade and, besides, gentlemanly trainer Eddie Futch treated him with more patience and fewer cross words than did his expletive-spewing drill instructors.

Before he even took up boxing, future WBO heavyweight titlist Ray Mercer spent nine years in the U.S. Army. He was the recruiting-poster epitome of “Army strong,” toting an M-60 machine gun on his shoulder on 12-mile hikes without complaint, mentally and physically conditioned enough to tough it out on reforger exercises in the snowy woods of Germany, by survival courses in desert heat. In the ring and in the field, Mercer might have been fallible enough to lose, but nothing and no one was ever going to make him quit.

Roommates in the Olympic Village at the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, the less-talented but more positive-thinking Mercer was so put off by what he perceived to be Bowe’s nagging self-doubts about his medal chances that he sought and was granted different quarters so as to not to have his temporary living space infected by what he later termed the younger fighter’s “defeatist attitude.”

Did removing himself from Bowe’s presence help? Well, let the record show that Mercer took the gold medal in the heavyweight division by winning all four of his bouts inside the distance, the last of which was an emphatic, first-round knockout of South Korea’s Baik Hyun-Man. Bowe had to settle for a silver medal in the super heavyweight division, losing in the final on a second-round stoppage. By maybe he shouldn’t be faulted too much for that; his opponent, after all, was some guy named Lennox Lewis, who was representing Canada. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

By any measure, Bowe, now 51, had the more distinguished of the former Olympic teammates’ professional careers, good enough to merit his 2015 induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. And, as he demonstrated in his trilogy with Holyfield, he had enough heart and commitment as the occasion warranted to satisfy even the saltiest Marine DI. It’s just that Bowe never found himself in as many pugilistic firefights as did Mercer, now 57, who had to fall back on his Army training whenever the going inside the ropes required he dig deep inside himself to find whatever was required to keep going and, ultimately, win. He has yet to be inducted into the IBHOF, despite having had his last pro bout in 2008, which would have made him eligible for consideration in 2013. Since his name has never even appeared on the ballot, it’s very possible he will never get a call to the hall.

It was the good-soldier Mercer who achieved perhaps his most memorable victory as a pro on Oct. 18, 1991, when the WBO heavyweight champ overcame three-plus rounds of having his butt kicked by young phenom Tommy Morrison to score a fifth-round TKO in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. The final barrage, which came after an elapsed time of 28 seconds, saw Mercer pummel “The Duke” into unconsciousness along the ropes before referee Tony Perez could jump in.

“I’m kind of glad it went like it did,” Mercer said afterward. “You like to take your man out convincingly, just so people will know he was really out.”

For those who were not in the arena or did not see the entire USA Network telecast, just the brutal knockout sequence that made all the late-news sports segments (and it was most definitely a KO; the only reason it went into the books as a TKO is because Perez dispensed with the formality of a count), it must have appeared that Mercer won in a rout. But for much of what had transpired earlier, quite the opposite was true. Morrison, who went in with a 28-0 record that included 24 KOs, 15 of which were one-round quickies, came out from the opening bell as if he imagined Mercer would also fall victim to his early onslaught. Sylvester Stallone’s co-star (as ungrateful protégé Tommy Gunn) in 1992’s Rocky V landed flush with an assortment of loaded-up punches, most notably his signature left hook but also a ripping right uppercut that would have taken off the head of most opponents. But Mercer was not like anyone Morrison had ever fought to that point as a pro, as he would eventually demonstrate.

The two big hitters – Mercer went in 17-0, with 13 KOs – actually had squared off once before, at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials. The older, more physically mature Mercer won on points, leaving Morrison with a taste for revenge he figured he would satisfy if and when they ever crossed paths again.

“I took a very long walk back to my locker room and looked at myself in the mirror,” Morrison said in the lead-up to the rematch of sorts in Atlantic City. “What I saw looking back at me was a very disappointed 19-year-old with a big decision to make.

“By pursuing my Olympic dream, I passed up several football scholarships and the education that in no way could be paid for by my family. (A linebacker and tight end, he had received an offer from Emporia State in Kansas.) But I knew I had the determination and desire that has driven me forward to the day I become a world champion. Now, the opportunity I’ve longed for is here. I have a chance to legitimize myself as one of the top heavyweights in the world today. And one thing is certain: it’s not 1988 anymore.

“Look, I know Ray’s got one of the best chins in boxing, and certainly he’s got the biggest heart. People like that, it’s not a matter of knocking them down. You have to break their will, make them want to quit. Nobody’s ever done that to Ray before, but I’m going to do it.”

Mercer, who went off a slight 6-5 underdog, listened to Morrison’s tale of festering resentment and shrugged. So what if the kid said he was determined and had desire. He’d never been in the Army, or the Marines for that matter. Pride in your branch of service is important to veterans, and it had rankled Mercer, the Olympic gold medalist, that a story in USA Today had referred to him as an “ex-Marine.”

“I’m not going back to the locker room and look at myself in the mirror,” the seemingly implacable Mercer said in comparing his state of mind and readiness to that of Morrison. “I look in the mirror before something bad happens. That way, I prevent it from happening. I wish Tommy all the luck in the world, but it’s not going to happen for him. He’s going to be right back in the locker room, looking at himself in the mirror again.”

Did Mercer, so capable of soaking up punishment and shaking it off as if punches were raindrops, intentionally expose himself to Morrison’s penchant for going hard and fast with the idea that the popular and possibly overconfident kid, who had never before gone more than six rounds, would burn himself out in a scheduled 12-round bout? Possibly, but not likely; in Mercer’s two previous bouts he had claimed the minor NABF title on a wide 12-round decision over Bert Cooper despite finishing with a grotesquely swollen jaw, and then won the WBO title on a bolt-of-lightning, ninth-round knockout of Italy’s Francesco Damiani, who was so far ahead on points as to be almost uncatchable had the fight gone to the scorecards.

Morrison easily won the first three rounds and was well on his way to winning the fourth when he seemed to tire in the last minute of that round, opening the door for a revived Mercer to launch a counterattack that foreshadowed the brutal ending. As the final seconds of the fourth ticked off, Akbar Muhammad, a Mercer adviser who was seated in the press section, leaped up and excitedly yelled, “Morrison is finished! He’s punched himself out!”

It was a spot-on assessment. Gasping as he came out for round five, Morrison quickly found himself with his back to the ropes, slickly maneuvered there by a spin move from Mercer, who unleashed a rapid-fire, 16-punch volley.

There would be moments later on in his career that Mercer would not be quite so proud of, most notably the $100,000 bribe he allegedly offered Jesse Ferguson during clinches of their Feb. 6, 1993, bout at Madison Square Garden to intentionally lose. The underdog Ferguson declined repeated enticements to go into the tank (apparently verified by enhanced HBO audiotapes) in a fight which the underdog was in the process of winning, and did. The upset loss put the snafu on a proposed shot for Mercer at his onetime Olympic teammate, WBA/IBF champ Bowe, which instead went to Ferguson. This time, however, Mercer – who would have been paid $2.5 million for the Bowe fight — had no one to blame but himself for the missed opportunity; he came in at a then-career-high 238 pounds, or 13 more than weighed for his fight with Morrison 15½ months earlier. Although charges brought against Mercer were eventually dropped (he faced up to seven years in prison had the case gone forward and he was convicted), his once-sterling reputation took a hit from which it might never have fully recovered.

But Mercer was still “Merciless” Ray the night he again played the familiar role of unconquerable soldier against Morrison, doing unto Morrison for real what Sly Stallone had done to the Tommy Gunn character in the closing scenes of Rocky V. To some, Mercer’s escape from the brink was a surprise; to one veteran observer it was anything but.

“I love Mercer’s chances,” Angelo Dundee, the legendary trainer of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard who had no ties to either fighter, had surmised beforehand. “To me, he’s a devastating inside puncher. I noticed that in the amateurs. His footwork is not that fluid, but when he gets inside, he can really percolate. Outside, he looks ungainly. But inside, it’s goodbye, Jack. I honestly believe he’s going to do a number on Morrison.”

Mercer appreciated the positive remarks from Dundee, but he did take exception to one thing. “Angelo Dundee is one of the greatest trainers around,” Mercer said. “It makes me feel good that he feels that way about me. That’s the way I feel about myself, except that I don’t think I’m that ungainly.”

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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

Published

2 days ago

April 20, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.

The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.

In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.

The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:

New York Times

New York News

New York World

New York Sun

New York Journal

New York Post

New York Mirror

New York Telegram

New York Graphic

New York Herald Tribune

Brooklyn Eagle

Brooklyn Times

Brooklyn Standard Union

Brooklyn Citizen

Bronx Home News

This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.

Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.

The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.

Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)

Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.

Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.

There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.

In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.

There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.

The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.

Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.

The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.

The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.

Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.

A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.

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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

Published

2 days ago

April 20, 2025

David A. Avila

Gabriela-Fundora-KOs-Marilyn-Badillo-and-Perez-Upsets-Conwell-in-Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.

Will it be her last flyweight defense?

Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.

Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.

The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.

Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.

Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.

“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”

The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.

In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.

Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.

Perez Beats Conwell.

Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.

It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.

Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.

Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.

It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.

Other Bouts

Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.

It was very close.

Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.

Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.

One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.

Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.

Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.

Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.

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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

Published

3 days ago

April 19, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.

Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.

Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.

The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.

Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.

Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11^th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.

That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.

Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.

Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.

In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.

Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30^th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.

Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.

The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.

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