*Bernardo Mercado* EL PRIMER PESO PESADO COLOMBIANO*

[Brutu]

I have been a poster on this boxing board for some years,
and I know from time to time,every now and then, people have been asking and requesting if the
Mercado vs Leon Spinks fight is available on tape(it was a preliminary on the closed-curcuit broadcast of Larry Holmes vs Muhammad Ali.)
and particularly the Mercado vs Tex Cobb fight which was reportedly shown on television as a preliminary
of the Larry Holmes vs Renaldo Snipes fight card on ABC TV in 1981.
No one here has ever came up with any video-tape of those 2 fights as far as I know,at least here anyway.
The Mercado vs Shavers fight used to be on youtube for a long time but it was removed for some reason a couple of years ago.

[Brutu]

This dealer claims to have the Leon Spinks vs Bernardo Mercado fight on a Leon Spinks career fights set DVD .
I have never ordered from this dealer,so I don't know how reliable the dealer is,so you may want to check it out somewhere.

[karla mercado]

Im not 100% on it but I think my pops has it on dvd* not sure ill talk to him aout it and i will get back*

[karla mercado]

hahaha my grampa looks funny in this pic* i love you GP*

[karla mercado]

[loaded_gloves]

What?! The Leon Spinks-Bernardo Mercado fight must be one of the easiest fights in the world to get hold of! It's widely available, I've had a mint copy for 10 years, Don King does the colour commentary (!)

Spinks, Shavers and an exhibition in 1990 with Larry Holmes are the only Mercado fights I've seen anywhere. The rare ones (were they even filmed?) are Mercado vs Mike Weaver, John Tate, Trevor Berbick, Randall Tex Cobb (this was filmed and will be in the Don King archives) and Henry Clark.

Karla, why did your dad not make a point of recording the fights or grabbing a copy of his fights whilst he was fighting? I've never understood why boxers didn't pursue tapes at the time of a fight that was filmed.

[Brutu]

What?! The Leon Spinks-Bernardo Mercado fight must be one of the easiest fights in the world to get hold of! It's widely available, I've had a mint copy for 10 years, Don King does the colour commentary (!)

Spinks, Shavers and an exhibition in 1990 with Larry Holmes are the only Mercado fights I've seen anywhere. The rare ones (were they even filmed?) are Mercado vs Mike Weaver, John Tate, Trevor Berbick, Randall Tex Cobb (this was filmed and will be in the Don King archives) and Henry Clark.

Karla, why did your dad not make a point of recording the fights or grabbing a copy of his fights whilst he was fighting? I've never understood why boxers didn't pursue tapes at the time of a fight that was filmed.

What? You have had a mint copy video-tape of Leon Spinks vs Bernardo Mercado for the last ten years?
Was or is there something that precludes you from downloading it on Youtube for us boxing fans?
Perhaps it may be an even better copy of the fight then the one Karla Mercado has.

[loaded_gloves]

I wouldn't even know how to transfer it from the VHS tape to YouTube. VHS to DVD I can manage, but DVD to YouTube, my head starts to hurt.

Bernardo/Karla must have a copy of the Spinks fight, any longtime trader/seller had the fight in nice quality.

Berbick and Cobb on the other hand, I have NEVER seen those fights anywhere!

Maybe Karla could ask her dad if the Berbick fight was filmed?

[karla mercado]

CHECK OUT THIS PICTURE NEVER BEFORE SEEN PICTURE OF MY POPS AND ALI!!! ;)

[karla mercado]

I wouldn't even know how to transfer it from the VHS tape to YouTube. VHS to DVD I can manage, but DVD to YouTube, my head starts to hurt.

Bernardo/Karla must have a copy of the Spinks fight, any longtime trader/seller had the fight in nice quality.

Berbick and Cobb on the other hand, I have NEVER seen those fights anywhere!

Maybe Karla could ask her dad if the Berbick fight was filmed?

IT WAS FILMED!!

[karla mercado]

http://www.facebook.com/kmercado1

[loaded_gloves]

Karla if Mercado/Berbick was filmed you must MUST get it on YouTube! It is considered a famous & long lost fight.

[karla mercado]

Karla if Mercado/Berbick was filmed you must MUST get it on YouTube! It is considered a famous & long lost fight.

thats a fight that i don't have just yet.... your not the only one who Wants to see it.... my poPs been pushing me to find it FOR YEARS.... but thier soooo much i could do... it would be awesome if someone out in this big world could bring it to life ALL HIS FIGHTS... ACCORDING TO my pops HE said thier was a news station in RINO THAT WOULD TAPE MOST FIGHTS OF HIS... GOSH BUT THAT WAS 20 SOMETHING YEARS AGO....THE WORLD WILL BE HEARING & WILL SOON BE SEEING MY POPS VERY VERY SOON SO IT WOULD BE NICE IF POEPLE WOULD START UPLOADING OLD PHOTOS OF YOURSELF WITH MY POPS..IF YOU MET HIM...I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR STORY.....WHAT YOU REMEMBER... LETS REMEMBER THE GOOD TIMES YOU SPENT WITH MY FATHER... I KNOW HIM...HE IS MY FATHER...DO YOU?

[Brutu]

Karla,

The oldest television station in Reno Nevada,is KOLO-TV,which dates back to 1953.
Here is their web site,

http://www.Kolotv.com



I don't know if they would have a video/film archives or not.But
I figure they would perhaps be more interested in answering you more then anyone else on this subject.
Perhaps they can give you some leads to follow anyway.

[karla mercado]

Karla,

The oldest television station in Reno Nevada,is KOLO-TV,which dates back to 1953.
Here is their web site,I figured they would answer you more then anyone else on this subject.
Perhaps they can give you some leads anyway.

http://www.Kolotv.com

Thank you.. i will most deff look into that**

[Brutu]

Here is a link to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)TV and Radio archives.
From what I understand so far they only have a fraction of their material on-line ,so if they have any boxing matches still in the
archives,
it may not show up in the search there right now ,but maybe if you ask them perhaps someone will go look.

http://archives.cbc.ca/

[Brutu]

I am still trying to figure out which ones of your Dad's fights were the first to have been Nationally televised?
I think it may have been possibly 1977.
Mercado knocked out Roger Russell in the first round, in a preliminary to the live nationally televised from Madison Square Garden,
Muhammad Ali vs Earnie Shavers fight on ABC-TV September.29. 1977.
However Dont know if Mercado's fight was televised before the main bout?

Bernardo Mercado also fought a preliminary(6 round win over Horace Robinson) on
the Ken Norton vs Duane Bobick fight from Madison Square Garden
earlier in May.11. 1977.
The Norton-Bobick fight was also televised live nationally on ABC-TV.
Few people have the entire broadcast as shown that night,
as video-recorders and especially video-tape
were really expensive still and rare in the average American households in 1977.
Usually only the main events were recorded by boxing fans who had one then.

[Brutu]

I think the first nationally televised Bernardo Mercado fight,
may well have been
Bernardo Mercado vs Fili Moala of Tonga(TKO round eight)
which was one of the 2 preliminary fights to the main event
Leon Spinks vs Alfio Righetti bout
which aired live on the CBS Friday Night Fights November.18.1977.

Someone here already mentioned earlier that the first time they remember seeing Bernardo Mercado fight, was the second
Mercado vs Horace"Big City"Robinson II,
on the old CBS Friday Night Fights,which aired live from Las Vegas NV February.24.1978.
(Roy"Tiger"Williams vs Walter Moore was also on that fight card)

[karla mercado]

I think the first nationally televised Bernardo Mercado fight,
may well have been
Bernardo Mercado vs Fili Moala of Tonga(TKO round eight)
which was one of the 2 preliminary fights to the main event
Leon Spinks vs Alfio Righetti bout
which aired live on the CBS Friday Night Fights November.18.1977.

Someone here already mentioned earlier that the first time they remember seeing Bernardo Mercado fight, was the second
Mercado vs Horace"Big City"Robinson II,
on the old CBS Friday Night Fights,which aired live from Las Vegas NV February.24.1978.
(Roy"Tiger"Williams vs Walter Moore was also on that fight card)

you seem to know alot about my fathers boxing history... i like that... i need more of you in the world... what would you say that you have of his..old fights..any pictures i haven't seen.

[karla mercado]

eche pero esta jente no abla errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrda****

[orbtastic]

eche pero esta jente no abla errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrda****

Probably because (no disrespect intended) your Father was a relatively obscure 70s fighter and not too many people have seen him fight. His biggest fight doesn't appear to exist on tape, which is a shame.

[Caractacus]

thought bump this up too.

[crusader]

Karla seemed...interesting

[sweetviolenturge]

I think the first nationally televised Bernardo Mercado fight,
may well have been
Bernardo Mercado vs Fili Moala of Tonga(TKO round eight)
which was one of the 2 preliminary fights to the main event
Leon Spinks vs Alfio Righetti bout
which aired live on the CBS Friday Night Fights November.18.1977.

Someone here already mentioned earlier that the first time they remember seeing Bernardo Mercado fight, was the second
Mercado vs Horace"Big City"Robinson II,
on the old CBS Friday Night Fights,which aired live from Las Vegas NV February.24.1978.
(Roy"Tiger"Williams vs Walter Moore was also on that fight card)

I began watching boxing when I was 14 in 1976 with the Muhammad Ali vs Jean Pierre Coopman telecast being the first. I was so serious about my endeavor that I logged & scored every fight that I watched in a notebook ( a practice that I continued until sometime in the late '80s ) so I went back & checked & found that Mercado's second bout with "Big City" Robinson was, indeed, the first time that I saw him fight. His bout vs Fila Moala wasn't televised. Although, they may have shown some highlights from it. When the network would do that I didn't log it because it wasn't a full fight. The next time that Bernardo was on national TV was the Shavers fight.
Then came the closed circuit telecast of his fight with Spinks & that, sadly, was the final time that Mercado was featured on television. Although there were some highlights shown of his fight with "Tex" Cobb.

[Caractacus]

yeah, but did you watch only The major TV networks back in the 1970's ABC,CBS,NBC) ?
Back then there were regional television networks that showed Boxing shows and broadcast only in that part of the country.
Before everything went digital in the early 2000's,We had a satellite dish
and we were able to watch boxing telecasts from California (Fight Night at the Forum)
regional boxing shows from places like Colorado, and Florida (The Sunshine Sports Network)
BTW I think the Cobb vrs Mercado fight was shown,I seem to remember the staredown most of all for some reason,
ABC use to have three-hour primetime boxing shows back then(on weekdays),did you live on the West Coast ?
maybe they just didnt show the first hour of the broadcast there.