Tommy Morrison

Tommy Morrison
Tommy Morrison 2011
Data
Birth Name	Tommy David Morrison
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	2nd January 1969
place of birth	Gravette
Date of death	September 1, 2013
Place of death	Omaha
style	Left delivery
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	52
Victories	48
Knockout victories	42
Defeats	3
draw	1

Tommy Morrison (born January 2, 1969 in Gravette , Arkansas , † September 1, 2013 in Omaha , Nebraska ) was an American boxer . He was briefly World Heavyweight Champion of the WBO in 1993 . Morrison was a great-nephew of John Wayne and called himself "The Duke" like him in the ring.

Amateur career

Morrison began as a 13-year-old to fight with adults in so-called "Toughman" competitions (balance 49-1). But he also had a long amateur career in boxing with more than 200 fights, according to his own information 222-20. In 1988 he won the Kansas Golden Gloves in the heavyweight division.

In qualifying for the 1988 Olympic Games, he was defeated by the later gold medalist Ray Mercer .

Professional career

Morrison turned pro in November 1988. As a charismatic white man with a spectacular left hook, also from a famous family, he enjoyed great popularity. He was able to defeat his first 28 opponents, including Pinklon Thomas , almost all of them by knockout . Then he faced WBO title holder Ray Mercer in 1991 . He initially ruled Mercer at will, but was then defeated in the fifth round by one of the most famous KOs of the 1990s. While Mercer was beating him, he was only knocked out by the ropes before he finally collapsed. He was criticized by many journalists for lacking zeal for training, and was said to have a glass chin .

KO victories against Joe Hipp and Carl Williams (against whom he was also on the ground) brought Morrison back to the front; in June 1993 he faced George Foreman for the vacant WBO world title and clearly defeated him on points. But already in his second title defense he was sensationally knocked out against Michael Bentt in the first round. Even against the then completely unknown Ross Puritty he could only box in a draw; here too he was down twice. Against Donovan Ruddock he could win by knockout in the sixth round. In October 1995 he faced Lennox Lewis , who had lost his WBC world title the year before . He had no chance and was knocked out on lap six.

In February 1996, Morrison was diagnosed with the HI virus . Morrison then ended his career for the time being, but returned again in November 1996 for a fight in the ring and defeated Marcus Rhode by knockout in the first round. However, he later claimed that he was not HIV positive because the last test results in 2006 were all negative. He attributed the misdiagnosis to steroids, and all of his four children tested negative. He then got in touch with boxing promoter Peter McKinn, who supported him in his quest for a comeback.

Morrison eventually received a boxing license in Arizona on the condition that a member of the local boxing commission could watch him train and a blood sample would be drawn for an HIV test. An independent laboratory tested Morrison HIV negative on January 16, 2007, but this did not necessarily mean that he had lost the virus. Due to the medication, the viral load could have dropped below the detection limit, but the virus would still be present and would lead to an HIV-positive test result again if the medication was stopped. An appointment for a four-round fight on January 19, 2007 had to be canceled because he injured his hand while sparring. On February 22, 2007 he made his comeback against John Castle after more than ten years and three months of abstinence from the ring and defeated him by knockout in the second round.

His second comeback fight on February 9, 2008 in Mexico was also won by Morrison by knockout in round 3 (opponent was Matt Weisshar with a record of 3 wins in 5 fights).

Personal

In 1989, Sylvester Stallone watched and cast him for Rocky V as Tommy "Machine" Gunn . In this role he played a talented young boxer who was trained by Rocky and who eventually became his opponent.

Morrison suffered from Miller-Fisher syndrome , a variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome . As a result, he died on September 1, 2013 in a hospital in Omaha ( Nebraska ).

Web links

• Tommy Morrison in the BoxRec database
• Tommy Morrison in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary ( Memento from September 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Michael Moorer	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) June 7, 1993 - October 29, 1993	Michael Bentt