CHALLENGE TO MIKE TYSON? : Olympic Boxer Ray Mercer May Be a Hot Pro Prospect, or Maybe Too Old to Fight Champion

Question: “Is there an Olympic boxer to take on Mike Tyson?”

Boxing observer’s smart-alecky response: “In what, tennis?”

Actually, when viewed from a historical perspective, the question isn’t totally absurd. Not totally.

After all, who in 1984, at the U.S. Olympic team boxing trials, would have looked at 17-year-old Mike Tyson and predicted that in 1988 he would earn something close to $50 million? No one, that’s who.

Remember, Tyson, as impressive as he looked, couldn’t make the Olympic team. And in 1988, Ray Mercer did. Which brings us, if you haven’t guessed, to Sgt. Ray Mercer.

Already, some call him Merciless Mercer. This guy fights like Tyson: Bang! Boom! Sock! He even has a gold tooth in front.

The 11 other members of the U.S. Olympic boxing team are familiar names in amateur boxing, athletes who have been winning in major tournaments for the last several years--from light-flyweight Michael Carbajal to super-heavyweight Riddick Bowe.

But Mercer is the new guy on the team. He burst upon the scene at the national amateur tournament in Colorado Springs last March.

Just as people were start ing to say, “Who is that guy?” he won a national championship. Then, in a U.S.-Cuba show in Atlantic City, he took world champion heavyweight Felix Savon to the wire, losing a 2-1 decision.

Then, in an upset, he beat favored Michael Bent twice in the Olympic team selection process to make the squad--at 27.

Suddenly, no one was saying, “Who is that guy?” anymore.

A year ago, though, Mercer was known only at European military tournaments. He was an Army sergeant, stationed at Baumholder, West Germany.

Mercer is a superbly conditioned athlete, and at a heavily muscled 196-197 pounds, he fits easily under the amateur heavyweight limit of 201. He’s an offensive powerhouse, overwhelming most opponents with superior strength, knockout power and an in-your-face attack. Sound familiar?

But can a 27-year-old amateur boxer be called a hot pro prospect? That’s most often the case, with U.S. Olympic team heavyweights. Of the last six Olympic teams, three of the heavyweights have either subsequently won the pro championship or have earned a title match.

It’s four of six when you include Tyrell Biggs. He was in a new weight class in 1984, super-heavyweight. But pro boxing people are split on Mercer’s pro possibilities. Almost everyone calls him a prospect, but many balk at his age.

As veteran pro trainer Lou Duva of New Jersey put it: “If this guy is such a great prospect, why is he still in the amateurs?”

That’s easy, Lou. He’s been in the Army. Mercer, son of a retired 20-year Army sergeant, has spent a good part of his life in Germany. He played football at an American high school in Hanover, West Germany, and has been in the Army eight years.

But, he’s due to get out in October.

“I hope the best for the kid, but he’s a raw product. . . . He’s nowhere near the development Tyson was at in ‘84,” Duva said.

Of course, we should consider the possibility that wily Lou might be sandbagging us on this one. If he loved Mercer, he wouldn’t say so, right? “Hey, look at all the gold-medal kids who turned pro in ‘84--look how long it’s taken them to develop,” he said. “You’re talking about four to six years of development as pros, and this guy is 27 to start with.”

Two other pro boxing people disagree. They say being 27 isn’t necessarily a handicap for a heavyweight.

“I like him a lot,” said Bob Spagnola of the Houston Boxing Assn. “The guy’s a wrecking machine.

“I thought Michael Bent was the best amateur heavyweight in the country and Mercer showed him no respect whatever. He took over control of those two bouts at the outset.

“I like his size (6-foot-1). A 200-pound heavyweight can be a world champion. He’s got a great body. From the calves up, he’s a monster. He’s a military guy, with disciplined work habits, and you’ve got to love that. With Mercer, you’re not getting some scary street guy, and that’s a plus.

(What Spagnola is saying here is that Mercer doesn’t go shopping at 4:30 a.m.)

“He’s more refined as an amateur than Tyson was. Tyson was a short teen-ager, jumping up in the air and knocking guys dead.”

Manny Steward of Detroit’s Kronk Gym stable likens Mercer to a smaller version of a young George Foreman, saying: “He needs work in a pro gym, but the basic tools, he’s got ‘em.

“His entire mental energy is all offense right now, but that doesn’t mean he can’t learn some defensive fundamentals. I think he’s a (pro) prospect. His age doesn’t bother me. Remember, Rocky Marciano was a late starter. He was still learning how to box at 27.”

Good work habits is a phrase used often by boxing people who have observed Mercer. Impeccable might be a better word than good. In the gym, Mercer looks like a guy trying to make a GQ cover. We may have here the world’s only boxer who trains in a tie.

It’s a narrow, black leather tie.

“When you look good, you do good,” is his only explanation.

Pat Nappi, three-time U.S. Olympic coach, views Mercer as one of the best heavyweight or super-heavyweight pro prospects to come out of the U.S. Olympic program.

“He’s got the tools to do well as a pro, but at 27, does he have enough time?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I do know that his best assets are the fact he works hard and he’s got great strength and he’s always in good physical condition. If he turns pro and winds up with good people training him, he could develop into something.”

Mercer developed rapidly in 1988, surprising not only himself but U.S. Army boxing coaches as well.

“Ray decided a year ago he was going to make the Olympic team and that no one was going to stop him,” said Hank Johnson, his coach at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

“It was just what he needed, a goal. He’s a completely different person now. Until this year, we’d never seen this intensity in him, the willingness to pay the price.”

Mercer, who didn’t take up boxing until 1983, when he was 22, says with some pride that he’s a creation of Army discipline.

“I’m infantry,” he likes to say, “That means hard-core Army. I’m a grunt. I charge fast thereto.”

Mercer says the subject of boxing first came up in 1983, right after he had embarked on a 30-day winter survival exercise. Turned out the boxing coach at Baumholder needed a heavyweight sparring partner. “Since I was sleeping in snow at the time, it sounded like a good deal to me,” Mercer says today.