August 5th, 1990: Cooper vs Mercer
It may sound strange to some fight fans, but I’ve never been a huge fan of the heavyweights. No doubt the division has given us some great fights and great fighters, and I love Muhammad Ali as much as the next guy, but too often a heavyweight fight is a sloppy, slow-paced clinch-fest, and with few exceptions, recent heavyweight boxing has been downright embarrassing. No, I cut my teeth as a fight fan on featherweights and lightweights, legends like Julio Cesar Chavez, Pacquiao and Marquez, and after watching some of their blazing, fast-paced performances, your average heavyweight match is like a bowl of day-old oatmeal to me, flabby and stiff and totally unappetizing. But of course there are more than a few exceptions, and Cooper vs Mercer, the heavyweight shoot-out that went down on this day back in 1990, is definitely one of them.
I stumbled upon Cooper vs Mercer while flipping the channels around on a dreary Sunday afternoon, didn’t even know it was on, and when the fight was over I could scarcely believe what I had just witnessed. It was an unforgettable and brutal war of attrition, one of the big reasons I’m in love with boxing, and I’m here now to pay tribute to it. Cooper vs Mercer deserves your respect and admiration; it’s a heavyweight battle that can be ranked with the best big man slugfests of all-time.
But at the time not many expected it to be something special. This match-up was all about Ray “Merciless” Mercer establishing himself as a top contender. He was an Olympic gold medalist sporting an undefeated record, 15-0 with eleven knockouts, while Cooper was an erratic performer, inconsistent and unpredictable, the perfect stepping-stone for Mercer to move up and further establish himself as a legit threat for the top fighters, guys like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. At the time most saw this as an intriguing match-up, likely to provide plenty of action, but otherwise it was clear: this was Mercer’s fight to lose.
For those counting Cooper out, what was uppermost in their minds was his disgraceful outing against George Foreman the year before when after just two rounds of action, during which Cooper never appeared seriously hurt, “Smokin’ Bert” refused to answer the bell and surrendered. To compound the disgrace, he failed his post-fight drug tests as they revealed the presence of various banned substances including cocaine, and Cooper did himself no favors when he confessed that he had spent much of the time in the days leading up to the Foreman fight partying with prostitutes. He then accused George’s trainer, Archie Moore, of setting him up with a pair of identical twins who stayed by his side for three full days of wanton debauchery.
Only “Smokin’ Bert” could have thought such a story would inspire sympathy from the unhappy fans who paid good money to see him battle Foreman in Phoenix, but as we were all learning at the time, the man was a true character, part lovable rogue, part party animal, and part savage warrior, sort of a cross between Tony Galento and J.J. Evans. Indeed, Cooper’s penchant for living life to the fullest in the clubs and with the ladies had already cost him dearly. At one point, he was being managed and trained by nonother than former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, but when Smokin’ Joe realized his charge could not give up his party animal ways, he cut him loose.
So now it’s 1990, and against Mercer, thankfully, it would be the savage warrior side of Bert that came to the fore. No doubt he knew this was his big chance to redeem himself for his past defeats and misjudgments; a victory over Mercer on live, national TV would resurrect his career, make him a contender who had to be taken seriously by all, and maybe cause Joe Frazier to second guess himself. Meanwhile, Mercer could hardly be blamed if he was looking past Cooper, with distracting media reports about him being considered as an opponent for Tyson if he got past Bert, and indeed Ray seemed to be taking a win over Cooper almost for granted.
“I know for a fact he gets tired after three rounds,” declared the Olympian. “I know he’s a quitter. There’s nothing really impressive about him. I’m not taking anything away from him, but from a fighter’s point of view, I just look at him like I’m going to get in there and whup his ass.”
Mercer may have been looking for an early stoppage, but it was Cooper who came out smokin’ when the battle got underway at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City, forcing “Merciless” to give ground as he marched forward behind hooks and uppercuts, and opening up a nasty cut on Ray’s lip, before Mercer found the opening for a hard right hand that put Cooper down a minute into the fight. “Smokin’ Bert” beat the count and appeared unfazed as he continued to march forward and land some clean shots before round’s end.
In the second Mercer briefly worked to establish his jab but Cooper would not cooperate as he closed the distance and attacked with both fists. The geography of the battle was all at close quarters, both fighters throwing and catching hard shots, upstairs and down, both so intent on inflicting punishment that referee Tony Perez could have officiated from ringside as neither could be bothered to clinch even though they were battling, literally, head-to-head.
Little separated the two warriors, but if anyone was willing to distract themselves long enough from just enjoying the back-and-forth carnage to try and score the fight, it was clear any edge belonged to Mercer, who was the one coming forward and getting off first more consistently, while throwing the more eye-catching shots. At the end of round three he shook Cooper with a flush right hand lead followed by a left, and at the end of the fourth he unleashed a non-stop barrage, some fifteen unanswered power shots, but Bert took the blows and just smiled in response.
Cooper had a better round in the fifth, which was pretty much three minutes of non-stop, toe-to-toe slugging, but there was no doubt Mercer was in the lead with the knockdown back in the opener. The momentum in Mercer’s favour was reinforced in round six when a cut opened over Bert’s left eye, but this time it was Cooper, not Mercer, landing some brutal shots just before round’s end that stopped Mercer in his tracks.
Signs of fatigue were evident in the seventh as the pace slowed ever so slightly, but it was Smokin’ Bert who took advantage and opened up with some truly vicious punches, his efforts inspiring the fans to start a chant of “Coo-per! Coo-per!” before Mercer, his left cheek now starting to puff up, suddenly turned the tables and unleashed a series of high caliber shots that forced his rival to retreat. At the end of the round Cooper landed a wicked right hand, but “Merciless” came back with a hard one-two. Even now, I can recall watching this moment live and realizing I was witnessing something truly special: these were warriors, both giving it their all, both paying the price, and this was that rare heavyweight fight with the kind of fast pace and sustained action usually reserved for featherweights and lightweights.
And so it went. Near the mid-way point of round eight the fighters took turns snapping each other’s heads back with vicious blows, Cooper smiling amidst the mayhem, Ray looking to smother and gain a breather. In the ninth the Olympian got his jab going, the better to keep Bert at a distance, but before long it was back to toe-to-toe slugging, Mercer, always coming forward, having the clear edge, despite the fact the left side of his face now looked like some kind of uncooked French pastry, his cheek swollen and misshapen.
Less than a minute into round ten both fighters opened up and Mercer’s advantage in sheer power became evident as Cooper’s legs buckled and Ray chased him to the ropes, swinging for the fences with wide open haymakers, gunning for the knockout. But it was not to be and a fatigued Mercer went back to grappling and clinching as a smiling Cooper picked his shots, snapping Ray’s head back with a sharp uppercut.
To have any chance of winning a decision Bert needed to dramatically alter the momentum of the fight and in the eleventh he tried, picking up the pace, bouncing on his feet and letting his hands go, but Mercer would not cooperate and he shook Cooper with some heavy left hooks, before both fighters landed hurtful shots at the end of the round. By this point it was down to the simple facts of Mercer being the slightly bigger and stronger man; nothing else separated them.
Cooper’s corner did all they could to hype their man up for a big final round; he needed a knockout to win, but it was Mercer who closed strong: setting the pace, getting off first, backing Cooper up, and landing clean shots. Near round’s end he raised his right fist in triumph; he had survived to the final bell in the toughest fight of his career thus far, and in one of the best fights in recent division history. There was little doubt as to who deserved the verdict and it was soon announced to be a unanimous decision victory for Ray “Merciless” Mercer.
Years later, the victor of this brutal war reflected on one of the greatest wins of his career: “I had to spend two days in the hospital [after that fight]. They had to put me on fluids. I tell you, I didn’t want no rematch. I don’t think Bert did either. That one fight, it was enough. We went through hell and I just thank the lord that I won. That one was something else. It was twelve rounds of sheer hell.”
For the heavyweight division, Cooper vs Mercer was the Fight of the Year for 1990, though naturally it was somewhat overshadowed by Mike Tyson’s upset defeat to James “Buster” Douglas, and of course it could not compete with the monumental fireworks of Julio Cesar Chavez’s controversial victory over Meldrick Taylor. But speaking only for myself, this was an unforgettable display of amazing courage and dramatic action that made me a die-hard fan of pugilism. It’s a fight I will never forget. –Carlos Ramirez H.
