Holyfield’s former foe KO’d ex-UFC champion in nine seconds on MMA debut

Ray Mercer couldn’t have asked for a better professional MMA debut.

‘Merciless’ was an absolute beast in his prime and emerged from the talent-laden heavyweight boxing division of the 1990s with a world title.

Along the way, he went the distance with Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield before suffering a knockout defeat to ‘Dr Steelhammer’ Wladimir Klitschko late in his career.

His crowning moment came in January 1991 when he flattened Francesco Damiani for the WBO heavyweight title – a belt he would defend later that year by knocking Tommy Morrison out cold in front of a capacity crowd at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City.

Mercer hung up his gloves in 2008 with a record of 36-7-1 but returned to action one year later to make his professional MMA debut against former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in Birmingham, Alabama.

The boxing icon had competed in an exhibition MMA bout against popular street fighter Kimbo Slice in 2007, which he lost via guillotine choke, so he wasn’t expected to put up much of a fight against Sylvia.

However, the 48-year-old defied the odds by pulverising his seasoned foe with an overhand right in the opening nine seconds of their crossover clash to close out his illustrious career in style.

Recalling his destructive stoppage during a podcast with The Mayweather Channel, Mercer said: “I didn’t know anything about him, my manager hooked that fight up and we trained for about two or three months and I just watched him fight a couple of times.

“I knew he was a real tough dude, I watched him get his arm broken [against Frank Mir] and he wouldn’t tap out.

“When we went out to have the press conference we took him out to eat and I was getting drunk in front of him and everything.

“I smoked weed and we punked him out. He was walking around the hotel saying ‘What’s up old man?’

“And I told him, ‘I was old, I ain’t trained and that I’m doing it for the money.’

2

“That’s why he kicked me to see what I was going to do and that was it.”

At his peak, Sylvia was one of the best heavyweights in UFC history.

During an impressive career with MMA’s premier promotion stretching from 2002 to 2008, the American slugger defeated the likes of Jeff Monson and Andrei Arlovski (twice), while he also had two separate reigns as UFC heavyweight champion.

By the time he met Mercer though, Sylvia was a shadow of his former self.

‘The Maine-iac’ had stopped taking the sport seriously and had allowed his weight to balloon out of control.

He tipped the scales at 310.6 lbs for his fight with Mercer and paid the ultimate price.

Sylvia continued competing in pro-MMA for four more years after the devastating defeat, exchanging wins and losses with varying levels of opposition.

He stopped five-time World’s Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski in 2010 before closing out his career with a three-fight rut.

His final bow came in October 2013 when he was outclassed by Ruslan Magomedov over the distance in Moscow, Russia.

The 6ft 8in KO artist tried to make a comeback in 2015 but was not medically cleared and as a result, his fight with Juliano Coutinho was scrapped.

Sylvia weighed 371lbs at the time and his long-time manager Monte Cox claimed that a pre-fight MRI scan showed worrying signs of blunt force trauma.

In 2023, he caused concern by signing up for a slap fighting match.

Unfortunately, Sylvia took several clean shots during his debut in the sport before ultimately scoring a knockout win.

Sylvia won another slap fight by KO in June of 2024.

Boxing WhatsApp channel