Ray Mercer boxer

Raymond Anthony Mercer (born April 4, 1961) is a retired American professional boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist who competed from 1989 to 2009. Best known for his boxing career, Mercer won a heavyweight gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics as an amateur, and later held the WBO heavyweight title from 1991 to 1992 as a professional. Boxrec ranks him as the world's No.9 heavyweight of 1990. As a mixed martial artist, he scored a notable first-round knockout win over former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in 2009.Mercer, being a son of a retired Army NCO Raymond Mercer Sr., grew up as a military brat in Fort Benning, Georgia, and later in Hanau, West Germany. He later recalled:As a kid I was a little hardheaded. I had a tough time in school until my father, Raymond, he was a mechanic in the military, got me straight. When he was in the field, whether at Fort Benning, Georgia, or in Germany, I'd take advantage of my mother and act up. My father tried to get me to play some kind of sports. I was negative. Team sports wasn't in my blood. I'd come home and play Go-Karts or shoot BB guns or ride choppers. With my father, I was fishing by the age of nine and hunting by fourteen. We'd go for deer, rabbit and squirrel at Fort Benning. My father had a good life in the military. I figured I'd do the same. I wanted to go back to Germany. I liked it over there.Mercer played linebacker at high school in Hanau, didn't plan to go for a college education. After graduating from Richmond County Military Academy in Augusta, Georgia, he coasted for a year before enlisting in the Army.Mercer served with the USAREUR, V Corps, infantry, he was stationed with Company D, 1st Battalion, 39th Infantry, in Baumholder, West Germany. His latest military rank was sergeant.Mercer started boxing at the age of 23 while serving in the U.S. Army in West Germany. Mercer said he had never even put on a pair of gloves until after he enlisted, "The Army taught me everything I know about boxing," explained Mercer. While he had street fights as a youth, it wasn't until he was offered a chance to avoid a 30-day field exercise by serving as a sparring partner for the post's heavyweight champion, which in winter of 1984, with the wind-chill factor driving temperatures below zero, was quite an opportunity, that he found a sanctioned way to use his aggression. The beginnings were tough, "I came back from that first day of sparring with a bleeding nose and my lips swollen. For two months I got pounded. But then it became a challenge. I'm not a quitter. I figured the other guy learned the moves, so could I." He learned quickly enough, winning military titles and a United States Amateur Boxing Federation title. He became 1985 U.S. Army and inter-service heavyweight champion, along with Wesley Watson, who was inter-service superheavyweight champion (Mercer later beat Watson in professionals). But in 1985, when Army Coach Hank Johnson sought to recruit Mercer for a stateside training camp for the 1988 Olympics, Mercer turned down the offer. "I was in my prime at partying. The training was not a sacrifice I wanted to make. I told Hank, you won't see me until the Olympics", he said. He first boxed in organized competition in 1983 at Schweinfurt, West Germany. He won a battalion box-off and then won the brigade championship. "After that, I won the VII Corps novice and open championships and was runner-up at U.S. Army, Europe," Mercer said. When he was reassigned to Baumholder, he won three USAREUR crowns while carrying the banner for V Corps (he won the USAREUR Championship less than a year after his first amateur fight.) As he served with USAREUR, for that reason in 1986—1987 Mercer had several international bouts in Germany, he also competed internationally at Western Europe open tournaments. In summer of 1988 he again won the inter-service heavyweight championship. His next step was to apply for the all-Army boxing trial camp and win a spot on the Army team. "Right now, I want to be the 'woodwork' man. I'm 26 years old and relatively unknown. My plans are to stay healthy, and I need to do well in international competition prior to the Olympics to build confidence."