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Ray Mercer
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"Merciless" Ray Mercer (born April 4, 1961 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American professional boxer and former WBO World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist who resides in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
er was the 1988 United States Amateur Champion at Heavyweight while in the US Army and compiled an Amateur record of 64-6. He won Gold in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul as a heavyweight. In 1989, Mercer fought Barry Flowers (USAF) which contributed to a K.O.
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Encyclopedia
"Merciless" Ray Mercer (born April 4, 1961 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American professional boxer and former WBO World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist who resides in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Boxing career
Amateur
Mercer was the 1988 United States Amateur Champion at Heavyweight while in the US Army and compiled an Amateur record of 64-6. He won Gold in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul as a heavyweight. In 1989, Mercer fought Barry Flowers (USAF) which contributed to a K.O. win in the 7th round.
Olympic results
Professional
Mercer's professional career started in 1989, with a TKO of Jesse Hughes. Mercer moved up the ranks quickly and became the WBO World Heavyweight Champion in 1991 after knocking out the previously unbeaten Francesco Damiani in Atlantic City. Later that same year, Mercer has his most infamous fight with his brutal knockout win over Tommy Morrison to retain the title.
He then suffered defeats to Larry Holmes (1992), Jesse Ferguson (1993), Evander Holyfield (1995) and Lennox Lewis (1996) before taking time out of boxing in 1997 due to problems with hepatitis B. His loss to Ferguson prevented him from challenging then-champion Riddick Bowe, and was marred by allegations that Mercer tried to bribe Ferguson to throw the fight. An investigation of the alleged bribe proved inconclusive, although Ferguson did maintain that Mercer offered him the bribe during the fight.
Resuming his boxing career in 1998, he strung together a number of early round knockouts over journeymen such as Leo Loiacono, Jeff Pegues, Don Steele and Bryan Scott before losing to WBO Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2002. Mercer also recorded a loss to Shannon Briggs on August 26, 2005 - Briggs went on to become the WBO World Heavyweight Champion the following year.
Kickboxing career
Continuing to seek a fighting career, Mercer opted to travel to Japan and challenged Musashi in the kickboxing combat sport K-1 on June 6, 2004. He was knocked down in the first round and went on to lose via unanimous decision. On March 19, 2005, he had one more K-1 bout against Remy Bonjasky, to whom he lost via KO after being caught with a single high kick in the beginning of the first round.That was Bonjaskys only kick in the fight, and he didnt punch even once. As Mercer put it, "I got the shit kicked out of me".
Mixed martial arts career
After a series of scheduled boxing matchups fell through (including a proposed bout against former champion Hasim Rahman), Mercer decided to try mixed martial arts (MMA) and approached Felix Martinez, co-founder of Cage Fury Fighting Championships, about working with the promotion. On March 21, 2007, Cage Fury announced that Mercer had signed to face underground street fighter and Internet legend Kimbo Slice at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall on June 23, 2007 as part of Cage Fury Fighting Championship 5. The bout was a sanctioned exhibition under the New Jersey Unified MMA rules.
Kimbo Slice won the fight in the first round with a guillotine choke submission.
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