On June 23rd, one time WBO Heavyweight Champion Ray Mercer will drive myriad nails into the coffin of his remaining boxing career, when he takes on celebrated street fighter Kevin Ferguson in a 3 round MMA rules exhibition bout. Trump Entertainment Resorts is presenting this PPV “contest” in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall as the main event of Cage Fury Fighting Championship 5, and the match (dubbed “Two Worlds – One Cage”) is sanctioned under New Jersey’s unified MMA rules.
According to the kimbo-fights.com website, matchmaker Gary Marino states that “I’m very, very excited.” Marino added, “I’ve been working on trying to get Kimbo a fight for the last year. He’s a great draw, and he’s got a huge following for his fights. Ray Mercer was at the Cage Fury Fighting Championship 3 show and speculated that he’d like to try MMA, and he called me a couple weeks ago asking me to get him a fight. It’s perfect for both guys, for their style and who they are. Kimbo’s a big banger and so is Mercer.”
Interestingly, neither combatant has actually participated in an authentic MMA rules fight, which should clue you in on the type of entertainment fans will be witnessing. I also suppose that that’s why Mercer – Kimbo is an exhibition, and one of many reasons why it’s asinine, preposterous, and as dignified as a Mountain Rivera wrestling match. Of course, Mountain didn’t receive the $50,000 both Kimbo and Mercer will earn for this ludicrous bit of business, with $25,000 more going to the winner, and another $10,000 being awarded for a knockout.
In addition to Mercer’s afore-mentioned ring success, the man known as “Merciless” is a former U.S. Amateur Champion and 1988 Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medalist, whose professional resume also includes a brutal 5th round KO victory over Tommy Morrison, and distance losses against Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis, the last via controversial majority decision.
In his prime, the now 46 year old ex-Army Sergeant was known for his granite chin, knockout power and indomitable will to win; in the last decade or so, the aging Mercer has been fighting sporadically, defeating journeyman opposition, but coming up short whenever he’s stepped up in class. Mercer’s most recent effort was a well fought 7th round KO loss to Shannon Briggs, before “The Cannon” earned his currently held WBO Heavyweight Title in a life and death struggle against Sergei Liakhovich.
Mercer has also of late been dabbling in the combat sport known as K-1, losing a fairly one sided June, 2004 unanimous decision to Musashi, and getting stopped in a March, 2005 bout against Remy Bonjasky, who had the frighteningly stunned ex-marine all but out on his feet, 22 seconds into their bout. K-1 is a combat sport that combines stand up techniques from among varied disciplines such as Karate, Tae kwon do, Kickboxing and Kung Fu, and Mercer looked out of his depth in both of his matches. However, Mercer claims to be preparing for an all out, no rules brawl against Kimbo with MMA experts in the New Jersey area, reporting that his training regimen includes both grappling and submission holds.
In an interview with touchgloves.com, Mercer contends that he accepted the Kimbo fight because it “…gives me something to do really,” adding that “It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. I want to be known as a crazy boxer who is a tough guy who will do almost anything. Basically, I’m taking the fight because I think I can win.” Mercer admittedly doesn’t care about what critics have said regarding his age, since he is a “late bloomer” who still feels young. Regardless, Mercer seemingly holds no illusions about his chances in the forthcoming match, predicting a 1st round knockout, but adding that either “he goes or I do.”
Despite Mercer’s assertion that he’s still an active prize fighter, one must truly speculate whether he agreed to the Kimbo fight merely to satiate his unrequited love of combat, or because he needs the money, since the likelihood of Mercer’s achieving any real measure of success as a legitimate MMA competitor appears infinitesimal at best, and because in his own words “there wasn’t too much going on in the boxing world.” Mercer still claims that he will fight virtually anyone, at any time, but of course, that’s a two way street that no one in boxing has deigned to cross since August, 2005.
Thirty one year old Kimbo Slice (real name Kevin Ferguson) is an underground fighter of no small repute, who purportedly once worked as a bodyguard for among others, MILF Hunter Productions. The filmed record of Kimbo’s 7 bouts against such fistic notables as “Rasta (Dreads),” “Afro Puff” and “The Bouncer” can be located using the search engine of your choosing, with another 10 or so backyard battles having not yet made it to the internet. Kimbo’s one career defeat (and his sole fight against what could be called legitimate opposition) came in 2003 against Sean Gannon, who during the next two years compiled a glossy 1-1 record in his abbreviated MMA foray.
Kimbo began his street fighting career as a result of what he terms “a personal beef between the guy and myself”, and parlayed this altercation into a series of matches that have elevated him to the status of an urban Mike Tyson. Kimbo’s is primarily a straight ahead boxing style, wherein he clubs his visibly terrified foes into submission; Slice has on occasion gone to ground during bouts, so to speak, but it’s usually to haul battered opponents to their feet in order that he may exact further punishment against them. When asked about facing Ray Mercer and a potential future MMA career, Kimbo recently told toughgloves.com, Kimbo that “I love fighting. I will do whatever I have to do as far as training, and getting myself to that level so that I could continue and look at it as a career. This will not be my only fight.”
With the Kimbo bout, Mercer becomes arguably the most high profile boxer to try his hand at mixed martial arts, and the latest in a distinguished line of pugilists who have faced off against competitors from avocations other than their own. In June, 1976, Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali fought Japanese Wrestling superstar Antonio Inoki, and Andre the Giant took on Chuck Wepner. In the former match, Inoki inexplicably lay on his back in ring center for 15 rounds kicking at Ali’s lower extremities, and no winner was adjudged, though Ali did suffer some ruptured blood vessels. The other bout ended by count out in round 3, when Andre grew tired of Wepner’s antics and threw him bodily out of the ring. Of course, one can argue that the Ali and Wepner contests were hardly legitimate in comparison to Mercer – Kimbo…can’t they?
I do not presume to tell another man how to earn his living, since it really isn’t my business. However, I am hard pressed to imagine that a former Olympic and professional Heavyweight Champion is unable to make bank in a way that presents less risk to his health, well being and self-respect than the course which Ray Mercer has chosen to undertake on June 23rd, 2007.
There’s no forgetting the sight of a semi-conscious Mercer getting booed after turning his back on Remy Bonjasky, following a single kick to the side of Mercer’s head. Obviously, Kevin Ferguson is no world class fighter, as was Bonjasky, but the idea of the valiant warrior who stood tall against 3 legendary heavyweight titlists rolling around on the mat taking head shots from the man who conquered “Watkins (Big D)” is appalling to me; but again, this if course is Ray’s call, and I wish him well. Suffice it to say however, that my $29.99 will be spent elsewhere.
As for the pending festivities themselves; the bottom line is that June 23rd will in no way answer the long debated question as to whether the street fighter can vanquish the prizefighter. If both men stay on their feet, Kimbo essentially has no chance; none of his fights lasts more than 4-5 minutes, after which time he is often a spent shell. If Mercer can back Kimbo off even a whit using a stiff jab and drop in his right, the muscular Floridian will have no defense but his chin, and as everyone knows, a fighter’s punch is the last thing to go. If Mercer is thrown or driven to his back, then we will see whether the former champion’s so-called “wrestling background” and recent MMA training can help Ray extricate himself from that sort of trouble, or whether Kimbo can close the deal. I care not at all respecting either outcome.
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