After his loss to Michael Moorer in April of 1994, Evander was forced to retire because of his supposed heart ailment. It was not until early in 1995 that it was determined that his heart problems had been caused by too much morphine having been administered to him after the Moorer fight. When he realized his heart was normal after all, Evander immediately made plans for a return to the ring
He chose the tough Ray Mercer for his comeback fight on May 20, 1995 at Atlantic City’s Convention Hall. I myself was in Vegas for that weekend, and watched the action on the big screens tvs in the Sportsbook at Caesar’s Palace. I was rooting hard for Evander, and despite the fact that the odds had dropped in his favor from 7-1 to 4-1, I knew he would win.
Mercer got himself into premium condition, and gave Evander all he could handle for the first half of the fight. Evander wasn’t doing enough, and when he had a huge cut opened over his right eye in the sixth round, I was getting nervous. But like a real champion, the ‘Real Deal’ put Mercer down for the first time in his career in the eighth round with a series of punches. He also to continue to batter Mercer in the ninth and tenth rounds, and closed strongly enough to seal a unanimous decision victory.
This win set up the trilogy with Bowe in the fall, and infused new life back into the heavyweight division. Bowe had won both his fights in 1995, over Herbie Hide in March, and with an impressive knockout of Jorge Luis Gonzalez in June. The two seemed to me made for each other, and it was certainly something I looked forward to that November.
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