Detailed accounts of Bernardo Mercado's bouts vs John Tate & Mike Weaver?

[sweetviolenturge]

Apparently, no footage of either fight exists. And, unfortunately, neither was written up to any great extent in the boxing magazines of the day. I've combed through my collection of The Ring & Boxing Illustrated of the day & neither carried detailed accounts of the fights. So, I've always been curious about them.
It's odd that no footage of the bout vs John Tate exists as it was the main event at MSG between two unbeaten heavyweights. Mercado was 20-0 at the time & I believe, already rated highly by the WBC. While Tate was 12-0 & a bronze medalist member of the vaunted '76 US Olympic team. One would have thought that it would have been filmed. Unfortunately, however, no footage of it has ever surfaced to my knowledge.
As for the Weaver fight, Mercado's people obviously intended for it to be a way in which for the Columbian to regroup & get back to his winning ways at the expense of a then-15-8 journeyman opponent. To there shock though, that journeyman was much tougher & more skilled than his record would indicate. And, Weaver rose to the occasion & took Mercado out in round 5. But, again, other than the result, not much is known about the details of the fight.
So, if anyone out there has more detailed accounts of these fights, then please share. I'd be most grateful & you'd be helping me answer decades-long questions that I've had about these bouts.

[HomicideHenry]

Had the cruiserweight division really been "in vogue" at the time I think Mercado could have been a helluva champion at that weight. It didn't come around until 1978 and had such a stigma to it at the time as being the division where "subpar" light heavyweight and heavyweight boxers went, that it didn't really get much credibility until Holyfield.

By the time that division came to be Mercado was already a professional for three years and rubbed elbows with George Foreman and others. When he made his comeback in the 80s ('86-'89) he was well passed it, but he'd of probably been better off going to cruiserweight at that time because the division was now wide open with Holyfield leaving to the heavyweights and Dwight Qawi followed suit.

All that was left behind at cruiserweight was guys like Glen McCrory who was 25-5 as a pro and went the 12 round distance with 8-2 Patrick Lumumba for the vacant title. Mercado would have had a strong chance, imho, at becoming a world champion had he of done that.