Laurensio Segundo Mercado (born 5 January 1967) is a retired male
boxer Boxer most commonly refers to:
*Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing
*Boxer (dog), a breed of dog
Boxer or boxers may also refer to:
Animal kingdom
*Boxer crab
* Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans
* Boxer snipe eel, ...
from
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...
.
Mercado represented Ecuador at the
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...
, losing on points in the
boxing competition to
Martin Kitel
Martin Kitel (born 24 April 1966) is a Swedish boxer. He competed in the men's light middleweight event at the 1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as ...
of
Sweden. He turned professional after the games and, fighting as a
middleweight, built up a record of 18-2.
On 17 December 1994, Mercado was matched against future
undisputed middleweight champion
Bernard Hopkins
Bernard Hopkins Jr. (born January 15, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight cla ...
for the vacant
IBF
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
middleweight title in
Quito, Ecuador
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...
. Attempting to become his country's first ever world boxing champion, Mercado knocked Hopkins down twice, but the fight was scored a controversial
split draw
A split draw is an outcome in several full-contact combat sports, including boxing, mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred t ...
.
They met again four months later, and this time Hopkins won via a seventh round
technical knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
.
Mercado moved up to the
super-middleweight
Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing
In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ...
division after losing to Hopkins, and challenged
WBA super-middleweight champion
Frankie Liles
Frank ("Frankie") Liles (born February 14, 1965) is an American former professional boxer who held the Lineal and WBA super-middleweight titles.
Amateur career
Liles won a bronze medal at the 1987 Pan American Games. Liles had a stellar am ...
; Mercado was stopped in five rounds. Mercado continued boxing, but failed to win another fight and retired in 2003 with a final record of 19-10-2.
References
External links
sports-reference*
1967 births
Living people
Middleweight boxers
Super-middleweight boxers
Boxers at the 1987 Pan American Games
Pan American Games competitors for Ecuador
Boxers at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Olympic boxers of Ecuador
Ecuadorian male boxers
20th-century Ecuadorian people
{{Ecuador-boxing-bio-stub