{"id":46334,"date":"2013-05-19T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T19:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=46334"},"modified":"2013-05-17T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T13:58:32","slug":"boxers-ortiz-and-mercer-headed-to-canastota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=46334","title":{"rendered":"Boxers Ortiz and Mercer Headed to Canastota"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boxing Hall of Fame news\"Carlos<\/a>\"Ray<\/a><\/p>\n

(Canastota, NY \u2013 May 2013) The International Boxing Hall of Fame recently announced legendary lightweight and junior welterweight champion\u00a0Carlos Ortiz and Olympic gold medalist and former heavyweight champion\u00a0\u201cMerciless\u201d Ray Mercer\u00a0\u00a0will be among returning Hall of Famers attending festivities planned for the 24th Annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend\u00a0June 6 to 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos Ortiz was a classy fighter and a real standout talent of the 1960s,\u201d said Hall of Fame director Edward Brophy. \u201cIt\u2019s always exciting for fans to see Carlos in Canastota for the Hall of Fame Weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ortiz, who was born in Puerto Rico, turned pro in New York City in 1955. During a seventeen-year professional career he was world champion in two weight divisions, reigning as junior welterweight champion from 1959 to 1960 and lightweight champion from 1962 to 1965 and again from 1965 to 1968. Ortiz, who was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1991, posted a 61-7-1 (30 KOs) record that includes wins over Johnny Bizzarro, Kenny Lane and Hall of Famers Joe Brown, Duilio Loi, Ismael Laguna, Sugar Ramos and Flash Elorde.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the Olympics to the professional ranks, Ray Mercer gave boxing fans plenty of memorable moments,\u201d said Hall of Fame director Edward Brophy. \u201cHe\u2019s a real fan favorite and we\u2019re excited about him returning to Canastota for this year\u2019s festivities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercer\u00a0compiled an 85-6 amateur record and captured the 1988 Olympic heavyweight gold medal. He turned pro in 1989 and won the WBO title from Francesco Damiani in 1991 (KO 9). In his first defense he scored a dramatic 5th round TKO over Tommy \u201cThe Duke\u201d Morrison. Stripped of the title in 1992, he went on to score wins over Tim Witherspoon and Darroll Wilson among others. Mercer\u2019s pro record stands at 36-7-1 (26 KOs) and includes wins over Bert Cooper, Kimmuel Odum and Ossie Ocasio.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Hall of Fame\u2019s 24th Annual Induction Weekend, call 697-7095 or visit www.ibhof.com<\/a>,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boxing Hall of Fame news (Canastota, NY \u2013 May 2013) The International Boxing Hall of Fame recently announced legendary lightweight and junior welterweight champion\u00a0Carlos Ortiz and Olympic gold medalist and former heavyweight champion\u00a0\u201cMerciless\u201d Ray Mercer\u00a0\u00a0will be among returning Hall of Famers attending festivities planned for the 24th Annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend\u00a0June 6 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-c3k","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}