Sunday Punch: Ray Mercer starches Tommy Morrison

Watch how Ray Mercer handed Tommy Morrison his first defeat in brutal fashion.

MMA fans probably know Ray Mercer for his shocking KO of former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, complete with army crawl to bop. Well during his boxing days, Ray Mercer he was known as a big puncher with a granite chin. Let’s show you an example of just that!

Mercer was the undefeated WBO heavyweight champion at the time he took on the much-hyped and also unbeaten Tommy Morrison on October 18th, 1991 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Morrison got off to a great start against a sluggish looking Mercer, but those first three rounds gave way to Mercer rallying in the 4th round as Morrison started to fade.

Then round five happened and I’ll be damned if those 10+ punches that Mercer landed in his finishing combo wasn’t some of the most violent shit humanly possible. Morrison was gone.

Watch the KO at the top of the page.

In his next fight, Mercer vacated his belt to take on Larry Holmes instead of mandatory challenger Michael Moorer. He lost by decision and also never held a title again, losing by KO to Wladimir Klitschko in 2002. His boxing record was 36-7-1 (26 KOs), 1-0 in MMA, and 0-2 in kickboxing. Yeah, he fought Remy Bojansky too!

Morrison rebounded from this loss by beating George Foreman, but threw away an $8 million payday against Lennox Lewis when he lost a tune-up fight to Michael Bentt by first-round KO. He did eventually fight Lewis in 1995 and was wiped out in six rounds. He retired with a record of 48-3-1 (42 KOs) and his life and health spiraled out of control. Morrison’s mother had said that he was in the final stages of AIDS in 2013, while Morrison’s wife did not believe that was the case. On September 2nd of that same year, Morrison died at 44 years old of multiple organ failure stemming from septic shock.