A few years before they made for one of the most iconic and brutal knockouts of the 1990s, Ray Mercer had never even heard of his 19-year-old amateur opponent Tommy Morrison. Few outside of the Midwest had heard of Morrison by that point, though. He was a modest-sized heavyweight who’d lived in a series of small towns and called Elvis Presley his hero.

Morrison at least won the Kansas City Golden Gloves in 1988, which qualified him for the National Golden Gloves, where he lost to eventual winner Derek Isaman. Still, Mercer, the Armed Forces champion, didn’t know him when they fought at the Olympic boxing trials in early July 1988.

At 27, Mercer was better known and far more experienced than Morrison, who was the youngest of the eight heavyweights participating in the trials. Mercer was also stronger and tougher, and he hurt Morrison before coasting to a decision to secure his spot on the 1988 Olympic team, and later Olympic gold.

Both turned professional within a few months of one another, but by a year after their amateur clash, Mercer had five pro fights while Morrison quickly rattled off 13 wins. Before long, Morrison was scoring wins on television that caught the attention of Sylvester Stallone, and the action star needed a young, white heavyweight for “Rocky V.”

A starring role in Stallone’s movie changed Morrison’s life and catapulted him to stardom. Mercer’s career progression wasn’t far behind, it’s just that in the late 1980s and early '90s the idea a white heavyweight champion from the U.S. hadn’t yet been completely dismantled. Despite plenty of skeptics, Morrison was widely considered a top heavyweight prospect.

Mercer was unbeaten, though he stumbled at a few key moments in televised fights. On the undercard of the third fight between Ray Leonard and Roberto Durán, for instance, Mercer fought to an eyesore decision win over Ossie Ocasio in a bout where the action, or lack thereof, was repeatedly drowned out by boos from a sellout crowd. Against WBO heavyweight champion Francesco Damiani, Mercer teetered on the verge of losing for the first time as a pro when a vicious uppercut opened his nose like a faucet and ended the fight in the ninth. Mercer was down big on all cards.

Quick wins over former champions Pinklon Thomas and James Tillis, the latter of which was on the undercard of Mercer-Damiani, lined up Morrison for an opportunity to avenge an old amateur score and pick up the WBO title, then lightly regarded. The fight was to happen in August before Mercer and Morrison injured themselves in training, pushing it back to mid-October.

Mercer told reporters he expected to get a shot at undefeated prospect Riddick Bowe if he won. The odds were even, and taglines on the poster for the fight, dubbed “Test of Courage,” were illuminating: “Army brass takes on Hollywood flash. America’s gold medalist vs. America’s golden boy. Who’ll gut it out for the glory?” The fight was also to take place on HBO’s newer Pay-Per-View mechanism TVKO.

A clash of unbeaten and hard-punching heavyweights is timeless. “There’s boxing, and then there’s heavyweight boxing,” they used to say, and when the odds of a nasty knockout loss are increased, at least on paper, by the lack of a professional loss between two big men, people like it and watch.

More than 8,000 showed up to the Convention Center in Atlantic City, N.J., on Oct. 18, 1991, to see if that kid from the Rocky movie could beat a gold medalist with a granite chin and an anvil in his glove.

In 1988, Morrison said Mercer’s speed caught him off-guard. This time Morrison appeared to be slightly quicker and used upper body movement well in Round 1. A bit past the halfway point of the opening round, Morrison connected with a sizzling uppercut and left hook that stood up Mercer and forced him to clinch. Morrison also dug in with shots to the body throughout the round, and suddenly it appeared that he was in business.

Morrison missed with a handful of big punches in Round 2 as Mercer tried to establish his jab, which was one of the best of the 1990s, regardless of weight class. Mercer calmed down Morrison with some sneaky inside work but his mouth began bleeding and he snacked on another uppercut and a few more hooks for his trouble. And when he got to his corner, Mercer took another beating from his trainers, who pleaded with him to work the body and get his jab going.

It’s rare when a fighter can win rounds with a jab and nothing else, but that’s the kind of jab Mercer had. He just needed to actually use it and stay with it. Instead Morrison again caught him with a series of hooks and uppercuts that drove Mercer to the ropes in the third. The crowd stood and cheered and Mercer quietly taunted Morrison in the clinch as his mouth bled even more.

Mercer tried to use his legs and slow the pace down as Round 3 ended, and finally at the bell he landed a hard right hand. Whether it was enough to actually win the round was another matter.

Three successful rounds in a row gifted Morrison perhaps a bit too much confidence, and Round 4 featured more hard-charging from the young gun. Mercer forced Morrison to hold after landing a hard left hook in the second minute, and like some kind of switch, Morrison immediately looked tired and slower. Mercer walked Morrison into another right hand in the final 30 seconds and the mood changed.

Morrison walked to Mercer at the start of Round 5, but he clumsily maneuvered himself into a corner, where he was rocked by a series of right hands. Morrison froze in the corner and Mercer landed a left hook that dimmed the lights. A series of seven more punches caught Morrison as he became partially tangled in the ropes and was essentially defenseless, and the fight was stopped as he collapsed into the ropes.

The sequence lasted seconds, but for Morrison it may as well have been light years. “The Duke” was out, but the knockout did lasting damage.

“I don't ever want to see [the fight],” Morrison later said. “I was fresh meat laying on the ropes because the ref had his head in his ass. Not only do I not want to see the KO, I don't have to see it. Every time I step out the front door, people tell me about it.”

Mercer felt vindicated by the win. He might not have been much of an underdog, but he felt like one. With Mike Tyson pulling out of his fight with Evander Holyfield with a rib injury, the door was open for a new heavyweight star and another close decision win may not have been sufficient for Mercer to even approach the threshold.

“I’m kind of glad it went like it did,” Mercer said. “You take your man out convincingly, so people know he was really out.”

In the end, Mercer’s inconsistency got the better of him and he never quite matched the triumph of spoiling Morrison’s immediate future. He also dropped the WBO belt. On the other hand, Morrison happily won the same belt with a career-defining win over George Foreman in 1993, and he later emerged victorious in a shootout with Donovan "Razor" Ruddock, which wound up being his final significant win.

“Never even heard [Tommy Morrison’s] name until yesterday,” Mercer told reporters in 1988. “He was tough. The kid is going places.”