Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ray Mercer: It’s for Guts and Glory

21.06 - Atlantic City - In nine days Wladimir Klitschko and Ray Mercer will meet inside the ring at Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal in a contest for the WBO heavyweight championship. But already now the competitors are not far from each other. In fact they are living and training in the close neighborhood.

While Wladimir Klitschko is working out in the heart of Atlantic City at the ACPAL gym together with his brother Vitali, "Merciless" Ray Mercer is training up the road one exit away at the Pleasantville Recreation center.

“A boxing gym is a boxing gym. It's no different”, Wladimir said. “The main thing I like about this training [in Atlantic City] is that I'm training in the city where the fight is. No travel to the fight or anything like this.”

It will be the fourth defense of the WBO heavyweight title that Wladimir Klitschko, 38-1 (35 KOs), is holding since he took it from Chris Byrd who he thoroughly outclassed and punished inside the huge Cologne Arena in October of 2000. Byrd, currently again an IBF #1 contender, had his face busted up and was knocked down twice before losing a clear unanimous decision to Klitschko.

In his previous three defenses the 26-year-old Ukrainian stopped Derrick Jefferson in round 2 in March of 2001, knocked out Charles Shufford five months later in round 6 and beat former three time title challenger Frans Botha in round 8 in March of this year.

Saturday will be the second time Wladimir is defending the Klitschko family's WBO world title (his brother Vitali had been holding the title as well) in the US. While his title fight against Charles Shufford in August 2001 took place at the Mandalay Bay Hotel of Las Vegas, this time Klitschko will be fighting at the US East Coast. After Saturday night both Klitschko brothers combined will have fought inside the US six times.

”In Europe, we made a lot of money, but we hit a certain level”, Wladimir Klitschko explained. “Now we come here, stay here, fight here, speak English. The European market is a big market, but if you have one market, two markets, more, it's better.”

Whereas Vitali Klitschko began light training for his upcoming fight with Larry Donald in July in Germany, brother Wladimir is sparring with former Lennox Lewis title challenger Phil Jackson and French prospect Josue Blocus.

With the hard-boiled Ray Mercer is Klitschko facing his most dangerous challenger so far. A pro veteran since 1989 who has been involved in 35 contents, among others against former world champions Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, he will confront the 26-year-old champion with a high amount of experience and toughness.

“He's an Olympic champion. He has a lot of experience. He has a big punch. And nobody has knocked him out”, Wladimir Klitschko commented on his upcoming foe.

Klitschko was already scheduled to fight Mercer in December in New York. But the American suffered a cut during a tune up fight in Denmark forcing the Klitschko fight to be far postponed.

“Most important is a positive result”, Klitschko comments on the prospect of becoming the first one to beat Ray Mercer inside the distance. “Second, if I win by KO, nobody has questions. Then people will know who is the best man. A KO is the best thing, but I don't concentrate on a KO.”

Meanwhile, up in Pleasantville, N.J., his challenger Ray Mercer has been working on getting as "Merciless" as possible. While for Klitschko the fight shall enhance his reputation in the US, Mercer openly acknowledges that this is probably his "last shot".

“I know two things about Klitschko: He's Russian, and he's a gold medal winner”, Ray Mercer commented. “I'm a little bit older now, so this is probably the toughest fight of my career. He has a long jab and I have to get inside that. This is my last chance at the top.”

Mercer has been Spartan in his training, has already skipped the press conference in New York and has shied away from the media.

“I'm really hungry”, Mercer added patting his flat stomach. “He's gonna pay for making me hungry.”

When Mercer fights Klitschko at the Trump Taj Mahal next Saturday this will wake up old memories of the 41-year-old. It’s because at the same venue Mercer had become WBO heavyweight champion himself. More than 11 years ago he came from behind to knock out Italian Francesco Damiani, who was 27-0 then, capturing the crown of the World Boxing Organization.

Nine months later he delivered another stunning knockout although trailing on the scorecards. Fighting again in Atlantic City, Mercer stopped Tommy Morrison, then a prospect who was undefeated in 28 fights, in round 5. Many boxing fans know this as being one of the most brutal knockouts of all time.

In the following ten years Mercer never fought for a world title again. He scored 12 victories but also lost decisions to Larry Holmes, Jesse Ferguson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. His record going into the Klitschko fight is 30-4-1 with 22 knockouts.

Upon signing an old photo of himself for a fan, Ray noticed his haircut in the photo and how young he looked. Finding out the photo was taken in 1991 just after winning the WBO belt from Damiani, Mercer exclaimed: "Imagine that, I'm signing this now, when I'm fighting for my old belt I won eleven years ago in this picture….Man!"