Despite Mercer’s MMA inexperience, he still poses a unique threat to Sylvia. While the heavy-handed Slice felt it was prudent to take Mercer off his feet, Sylvia is not known for taking fights to the ground and instead may attempt to trade punches with a professional boxer that was good enough to win a Gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
Sam Caplan of Five Ounces of Pain commenting on an exclusive fed to him by Monte Cox, the man who is trying to book the fight.
Ray Mercer doesn't pose a unique threat to any healthy professional MMA fighter. Mercer's well past his prime as an athlete and has never trained MMA or even kickboxing.
This is pathetic on so many levels. Poor Tim Sylvia, Monte Cox has really painted him into a corner. First he convinced Tim to ask to be released from the UFC where he had had two title runs. Then he was going to headline Adrenaline shows that didn't happen. Then he got paid $800,000 to get demolished by Fedor....
Well, Monte hasn't been all bad to Tim, but let's face facts, when you make $800,000 to get destroyed in 0:36, you've basically taken a big one time cash payment in lieu of a future in MMA.
With his anti-charismatic persona and his long string of cautious, tentative and tedious performances as UFC champ, has to be the formidable athlete with the least brand equity of anyone in MMA.
The guy is still a threat to (almost) anyone in the division but is hated by fans and commands outrageous paydays.
But Ray Mercer? Mercer was last seen being crushed by Kimbo Slice -- a man who is the living symbol of promotional puffery. This is pure desperation on Cox's part.
I guess this is the fight you book your fighter when you try and fail to book Ken Shamrock but let's not pretend it has any relevance as a matchup unless you're as eager for exclusives as Tim Sylvia is for a fight.
UPDATE: BE regular szucconi points us to this must read article from the time of the announcement of Sylvia's decision to leave the UFC for Adrenaline:
"I'll be real active, fighting six or seven times a year," Sylvia said. "Adrenaline is a new company that's just starting up, but they're allowing fighters to fight outside of their organization. That's huge... Take for instance my last fight. Granted, I loss, but I came out of there unhurt and unscathed. I could have fought a week or two later.
"Being 32 years old, I have four or five good years ahead of me. I plan to make the most of it."
I wonder if Tim is beginning to realize that mistakes were made.
