Ray Mercer vs Tommy Morrison

All three judges had the challenger three rounds ahead when he came out for the fifth. Less than half a minute later, Tommy Morrison was helpless against the ropes, and Ray Mercer had retained his World Boxing Organisation heavyweight title. The sudden finish at Atlantic City’s Convention Center on October 18, 1991, followed three rounds in which Morrison’s speed and punching had given the champion considerable trouble.

A crowd of more than 8,000 saw the first professional meeting between two unbeaten heavyweights who already knew each other from the 1988 United States Olympic trials. Mercer had beaten Morrison over three rounds there and gone on to win the gold medal in Seoul. He entered this contest with a record of 17 wins, including 12 knockouts, having taken the WBO title from Francesco Damiani in January. Morrison had won all 28 of his professional fights, 24 inside the distance, and had lately stopped the experienced Pinklon Thomas and James Tillis in the first round. His part in the film Rocky V had brought him attention beyond boxing. The contest had originally been arranged for August, then postponed after Morrison suffered a cut over his right eye in training.

Morrison made the quicker start. In the first round, he moved his upper body as he came forward and caught Mercer with a right uppercut followed by a left hook. Mercer’s head went back, and he held on. Morrison also landed to the body, while the champion struggled to bring his jab into use or check the challenger’s advance. Mercer had endured hard punches in earlier fights, but Morrison’s combination of pace and weight of punch gave him little opportunity to set his feet.

The challenger continued to attack in the second. His hooks to the body and uppercuts to the head kept Mercer occupied, and blood appeared around the champion’s mouth. Mercer jabbed and retreated for much of the round, doing some work at close quarters but failing to discourage Morrison. Several of the challenger’s larger swings missed. Even so, Mercer was having to respond to Morrison’s choice of pace and distance.

Morrison again had the better of the third. He put together hooks and uppercuts that drove Mercer towards the ropes and drew a strong response from the crowd. Mercer’s lip was cut, and his efforts to move away and slow the exchanges showed how little room he had found for sustained offence. Near the bell he landed a hard right hand. It was a useful blow, but all three judges gave Morrison the round, as they had the first two.

The fourth brought the first clear change. Mercer began meeting Morrison as he came in and landed a left hook that made the challenger hold. He followed with punches to the head and body, including a right hand late in the round that backed Morrison up. The younger man was still willing to press, but his punches had slowed, and he was breathing heavily during a clinch. For the first time, Mercer could strike before Morrison completed his attack. Judges Eugenia Williams, Ric Bays and Stuart Winston each gave Mercer the fourth, leaving Morrison ahead 39–37 on every card.

Morrison advanced once more at the opening of the fifth but moved into a corner. Mercer struck him with right hands and then a left as the challenger ceased to answer. Morrison sagged into the ropes, partly caught there while Mercer continued punching. Referee Tony Perez stepped in after 28 seconds of the round. There had been no earlier knockdown; Morrison fell to his hands and knees after the stoppage and remained down for several minutes before leaving the ring under his own power.

The victory raised Mercer’s record to 18–0 and marked Morrison’s first professional defeat. The scores at the end of the fourth establish how much ground the champion had to make up. They also show how quickly the contest changed once Mercer began landing as Morrison came forward: one round of improved work gave him an opening, and the first exchange of the next ended the fight.

I put Mercer and Morrison up there with the great heavyweight slugfests. Morrison came in unbeaten, with the Rocky V fame and a left hook people paid to see. Mercer had Olympic gold and the WBO belt, but Morrison had every reason to fancy the job: Mercer had needed a late knockout to beat Francesco Damiani.

For three rounds, Tommy was quicker, getting under Mercer’s punches and landing uppercuts and hooks. He was winning clearly, but he spent plenty doing it. In the fourth, Mercer started catching him as he came forward. Tommy’s feet slowed, he held after taking a left hook, and the space he’d been finding disappeared.

That fifth-round finish is still all over YouTube, and it’s brutal to watch. Mercer trapped him and kept punching after Morrison could no longer defend himself. Perez should have stepped in sooner. Give Tommy his due for the start, but Mercer took his best shots, stayed there, and found the opening.