Tommy Morrison

[Sleepwalker]

Once the smoke cleared and the attention dissipated after Magic's announcement, a lot of athletes went back to their mongering ways and unprotected. Why do you think so many of them have kids by multiple women?

Tommy was just unlucky and got into some tainted meat.

[SugarBoxing]

Tommy started as a hype job, but he did not stay "hype job". He was legit.

The HIV stuff is a mistery, if I were him I would also never admit I have one ) What for?
He fought for his life, started believing in Christ, but something did not work out.

[Spicoli]

He was a bit of a dick when he first came up but grew to like him. He was exciting. He got sucked into the hype up and push job after the movie, Mr. Rowdy boy 'Murica, with top speed and power and equally fun defensive lapses. Loved his fights with Hipp, Ray, Williams, Puritty and Ruddock. That was raw courage instinct. Thought he was smart with George, boxed well. In hindsight and rewatch Mercer just took him to school.

[Hulk]

He was a bit of a dick when he first came up but grew to like him. He was exciting. He got sucked into the hype up and push job after the movie, Mr. Rowdy boy 'Murica, with top speed and power and equally fun defensive lapses. Loved his fights with Hipp, Ray, Williams, Puritty and Ruddock. That was raw courage instinct. Thought he was smart with George, boxed well. In hindsight and rewatch Mercer just took him to school.

Spot on assessment.

[Gandalf]

Morrison became a very good fighter and it was a shame his career ended the way it did. I've never quite managed to understand what happened to his mind. If you have a deadly virus, then you might as well accept it and get treated rather than slowly kill yourself with denial.

[El Kabong]

Tommy Morrison was a rugged brawler early on, big time power, but fighting out of nowhere, I mean how many greats come from Oklahoma (he was born in Arkansas raised in OK) His early career was really plugging along quite well, but 'Rocky V' really got the spotlight on him and he was an outstanding 28-0-0 by the time he fought Ray Mercer. Some of those 28 were bums, but some were veteran boxers who are the norm for an up and comer to fight and he really did work his way up well.

Morrison's camp always said "Nobody knew Ray (Mercer) could take that kind of punishment" and I believe it, he was 17-0-0 going into that fight and I think the strongest puncher he faced before Tommy fought him was Bert Cooper who had pop but was a small heavyweight. Also Tommy and Ray had a good close fight in the amateurs at the Olympic trials which Tommy lost by SD....so I believe they thought they were just going to steam roll Ray, but Ray wasn't having any of it.

Tommy was a great fighter to watch because he gave you the drama with his power, with his defensive lapses, with his heart being bigger than his brain for the most part. Had Tommy been more of a boxer/puncher he'd probably have had more success as a boxer but far less fan support. Morrison was the heavyweight Arturo Gatti...he'd start out with the intentions of boxing and then go all brawler (except against Foreman who scared him straight).

The HIV result was a bad one. Tommy was only 26/27 years old when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1996 so he had a number of years left in him and then after boxing he may have gone back to acting. I certainly could see Tommy Morrison getting in on 'The Expendables' franchise had he never gotten HIV/AIDS. I believe Morrison was lining up to fight Michael Moorer at the time of his positive test and he was on a path to fight Mike Tyson and/or Riddick Bowe (if you were to listen to Tommy). All 3 of which would have been excellent fights as well as fights that Tommy could have won in all honesty, but at the very least he would have gone out on his shield which again the fans loved him for. Think about how Tommy would have done vs other contenders of his era, if he could take out Rudduck then why not Golota? What about Briggs? What about Tua? What about how he would have faired vs Holyfield? He could have had many many more big money fights and exciting fights.

[El Kabong]

So to add to the "what do/did you think of Tommy Morrison?" question...


How do you feel Tommy Morrison would have done against these fighters had he never gotten HIV, so POST 1996:
Ray Mercer II
Michael Moorer
Mike Tyson
Riddick Bowe
Andrew Golota
Evander Holyfield
David Tua
John Ruiz
Hasim Rahman
Michael Grant
Oliver McCall

And feel free to add more if you think of any