Why did Mike Tyson duck Ray Mercer?

[Cobra Curry]

I lived through the period and remember it well. There were multiple moving parts. Tyson was already long a superstar and in rebuild mode after Douglas. Holyfield held the crown and the expectation was that Tyson and he would clash. Meanwhile, there was a mild clamor for Bowe/Mercer which fizzled and gave way to Mercer/Morrison. While this was happening you had Ruddock decapitating 80's names like Dokes and Lewis steadily gaining experience defeating Mike Weaver. Larry Holmes seemed revived with his surprise win over Mercer, about the time Tyson gave us two high stakes wins over the streaking and dangerous Razor Ruddock. Back then nobody was crying about Tyson's path to redemption, nor was there any call for a Mercer bout. Enter Desiree Washington and Jesse Ferguson.

This is it right here.

[boliodogs]

That would've been a great fight but it's funny how Mercer fought Lennox and Holyfield back to back but somehow didn't fight Mike Tyson.

Also, Mike Tyson also somehow escaped fighting Moorer, Tommy Morrison, Tua and Bert Cooper. Shocking, isn't it?

So you are trashing Tyson for not fighting Mercer,Moorer,Cooper,Tau and Morrison. That's 5 guys he supposedly ducked FFS. How do you know he ducked Mercer? Maybe Mercer ducked him. Did any heavyweight fight all 5 of those guys? No. There is no heavyweight that fought all 5 of those guys. Lewis did not fight all 5 of them and neither did Holyfield and Mercer did not fight all of the other 4. So why single Tyson out? Tyson fought both Lewis and Holyfield who were better than Mercer and Tyson fought lots of other tough guys. Nobody can fight every damn contender that ever fought in their era. A boxer only has so many fights in a career and he can't fight everybody. I am no big Tyson fan but you are nit picking and trashing him in an unfair manner.

[QueensburyRules]

- -He didn't.

Post prison Tyson signed to use Mercer as a tune up for Lewis who sued.

Net result is Lewie sweetened the pot so he could fight an unprepared Tyson.

Boxing 101

[QueensburyRules]

Old Foreman would have crushed him. David Tua at that point could have knocked him out. Mercer could have taken him to deep waters and stopped him late. Ibeabuchi same story. Late 90s Vitali would have crushed him too.

It's true that Tyson fought in the strongest or second strongest HW era ever and barely fought the best, and the few he did face mostly beat him up. I don't rank Tyson as a top 10 ATG and many historians don't either.

- -U rank with the stench of you own stink...

[chirorickyp]

That would've been a great fight but it's funny how Mercer fought Lennox and Holyfield back to back but somehow didn't fight Mike Tyson.

Also, Mike Tyson also somehow escaped fighting Moorer, Tommy Morrison, Tua and Bert Cooper. Shocking, isn't it?

The next Great White hope blew his chance when he got KO'd. Bert Cooper was not ducked, and he would have been an easy style for Mike. Not sure about Mercer, but a guy that can that can eat any punch is all wrong for Tyson. Moorer was in the Holyfield Foreman fights. A 90's version of Tyson prior to 1996 vs Moorer would have been a great fight. The only possible duck was Mercer. Not from fear but more from selecting an opponent with just as much risk but for bigger money, and that was Evan Fields.

[BKM-]

So Tyson fans don't believe he ducked opponents in the 90s. Lets look a little deeper into his 90s record. He went 9-3.

He lost to Douglas and Holyfield. The only other good fighters(debatable btw) he faced were Ruddock, Bruno and in 2000 against Golota which was a NC. Only the latter 2 were after prison, when Don King clearly paved an easy road for Tyson even with the Holyfield fights which they only accepted because they thought Evander was way past it and an easy win.

Looking at all the scrubs he faced inbetween you're gonna say he couldn't have faced Tua, Ike, Bowe, Wlad & Vitali, Mercer, Byrd, Foreman, Moorer? Who were all good/great fighters, all held a title at some point and almost all of them were a bad stylistic matchup for him.

But Mike was instead content with taking out scrubs like Savarese, Francis, Nielsen, Norris, Botha etc. Good lord.

Tyson was the biggest name in boxing, everybody wanted to fight him plus this was after Douglas and Holyfield ruined his aura. It wasn't a coincidence. Tyson ducked dangerous opponents. He faced a bunch of scrubs(save Golota who was a known mental case) to get a title shot against the undisputed HW champion FFS.

It was already well known that Tyson ducked a young prime Holyfield and an old Foreman and later Lewis. Why not more? Because the 90s were filled with dangerous HW boxers and Tyson was insecure in and out of the ring.

[REDEEMER]

That would've been a great fight but it's funny how Mercer fought Lennox and Holyfield back to back but somehow didn't fight Mike Tyson.

Also, Mike Tyson also somehow escaped fighting Moorer, Tommy Morrison, Tua and Bert Cooper. Shocking, isn't it?

MIke was in prison as he still was when those guys were relevant and some undefeated .

Tommy Morrison lost the Bentt fight which killed the Tyson mega one .

Nothing shocking if you did research on when those guys had some fights ,Mike came back in 1995 and was fast tracked to Holyfield,why would he have fought some of those guys over a huge pay per view that was the biggest fight then ?

Mercer lost to Holmes in 1992 ,you can troll better then this can’t you ? Ha

[Earl-Hickey]

I guess Mike Tyson is the first boxer in history to peak at 20 and fall off a cliff at 22, no?

And people still think he's the baddest. LMAO. I won't be surprised if he gets sparked by Roy Jones in the pensioner bout despite all the fancy videos he keeps releasing. LMAO.

The idea that Tyson was this perfect fighting machine at 20 and then at 22 he was totally washed up and not half the man he was before is just ludicrous.

As is the idea no other man but Cus D'amato could train him.

[REDEEMER]

The idea that Tyson was this perfect fighting machine at 20 and then at 22 he was totally washed up and not half the man he was before is just ludicrous.

As is the idea no other man but Cus D'amato could train him.

Mike only listened to Cus so wrong on this one , you cannot be at your best if you aren’t listening, see Wilder .

Rooney also did a great job but Mike was a loose cannon and why he went downhill by the 90”s big time even with wins over Ruddock .

[Earl-Hickey]

Mike only listened to Cus so wrong on this one , you cannot be at your best if you aren’t listening, see Wilder .

Rooney also did a great job but Mike was a loose cannon and why he went downhill by the 90”s big time even with wins over Ruddock .

All I know is this Tyson Fury would pinch Mike Tyson cooont right in for him.