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Ray Mercer was a sergeant in the U.S. Army and beat Tommy Morrison for a spot on the 1988 Olympic team. He then went on to knock out all five of his Olympic opponents on his way to the Heavyweight Gold medal in the 88 games in Seoul, Korea. Interestingly, he was assigned to share a room with Rid**** Bowe, the U.S. super-heavyweight representative, but during their stay together Mercer requested a roommate change. “We were laying in bed trying to go to sleep and Rid**** starts talking about losing and asked me if I ever thought about losing. I didn’t want to hear any of that so I got my stuff and got out of there.”
After winning Gold, Mercer signed with Top Rank and they put his career on the fast track because Ray wasn’t the typical prospect, he was 27 years old, which was old for an American Olympic prospect, especially for someone that had aspirations of being a long term world champ like Ray had.
So Mercer turned professional and knocked out a group of designated knock out victims in spectacular fashion. Then after raising his level of competition a bit, he looked mediocre in lackluster wins over Ossie Ocasio and Kimmuel Odom, but Ray was still a undefeated Heavyweight with a gold medal and knock out power and his popularity increased even more after engaging in a war with Bert Cooper on network television in the summer of 90. [details]
After winning Gold, Mercer signed with Top Rank and they put his career on the fast track because Ray wasn’t the typical prospect, he was 27 years old, which was old for an American Olympic prospect, especially for someone that had aspirations of being a long term world champ like Ray had.
So Mercer turned professional and knocked out a group of designated knock out victims in spectacular fashion. Then after raising his level of competition a bit, he looked mediocre in lackluster wins over Ossie Ocasio and Kimmuel Odom, but Ray was still a undefeated Heavyweight with a gold medal and knock out power and his popularity increased even more after engaging in a war with Bert Cooper on network television in the summer of 90. [details]