Tommy Morrison

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Tommy Morrison

Statistics
Real name	Tommy Morrison
Nickname(s)	The Duke The Machine Gun
Rated at	Heavyweight
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Nationality	American
Birth date	January 2, 1969 (1969-01-02) (age 40)
Birth place	Gravette, Arkansas
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	52
Wins	48
Wins by KO	42
Losses	3
Draws	1
No contests	0

Tommy David Morrison (born January 2, 1969) is an American heavyweight boxer, and the former World Boxing Organization champion. Dubbed "The Duke," he is a grandnephew of Hollywood star John Wayne, and in 1990 was co-star of the boxing movie Rocky V.

Contents 1 Amateur Boxing Career 2 Professional Boxing Career 3 Boxing Comeback 4 Mixed martial arts 5 Registered Official Amateur Boxing Coach & trainer 6 Tommy "The Duke" Morrison Children's Foundation 7 Legal battles 8 Family 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Amateur Boxing Career

Morrison was born in Gravette, Arkansas. From the ages of 13 to 19, Morrison entered every "toughman" contest he could, winning 49 fights out of 50 (all by knockouts). Beginning in December 1976, he fought as an amateur boxer, winning the Junior Olympics title in 1980. By 1988 his amateur fights totalled 242; he won 222 by knockout and lost only 20 times.

In 1988 Morrison won the Regional Heavyweight Title - Kansas City Golden Gloves and advanced to the National Golden Gloves in Omaha, Nebraska and lost a split decision to Derek Isaman. Two weeks later Morrison took part in the Western Olympic trials in Houston, Texas winning the Heavyweight Title and garnishing the "Most Outstanding Fighter" of the tournament. Two weeks after that at the Olympic Trials, held in Concord, California, Morrison lost a split decision to Ray Mercer, who would go on to win the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics. The record for Morrison's fights of all kinds is 343-24-1, with 315 wins by knockout.

[edit] Professional Boxing Career

Morrison started his professional boxing career on November 10, 1988, with a first-round knockout of William Muhammad in New York City. Three weeks later, he scored another first-round knockout of a fellow journeyman.

In 1989, Morrison had 19 wins, 15 by knockout. Among the fighters he defeated were Lorenzo Boyd, Dan Maloney, David Jaco and Lorenzo Canady, as well as Steve Zouski and Ken Lakusta.

Morrison's biggest breakthrough, however, came in 1989, when Sylvester Stallone was a spectator at one of his bouts and realized Morrison would be ideal for Rocky V. Stallone arranged for Morrison to have a script reading, and cast Morrison as Tommy Gunn in the movie. While Morrison did win two fights in 1990, it was when Rocky V was released in November of that year that he gained mainstream popularity.

In 1991, Morrison, already the recipient of much television exposure, won four fights against opponents James Quick Tillis and former world champion Pinklon Thomas. He was given an opportunity to face fellow undefeated fighter Ray Mercer, the WBO title holder in a Pay Per View card held on October 18, 1991. For four rounds, Morrison fought impressively, dominating Mercer with hard, sharply-thrown combinations. Unfortunately for Morrison, Mercer possessed one of the sturdiest chins of that era of the heavyweight division, and Morrison's best punches had little effect. By the end of round four, Morrison, whose previous fights had primarily ended in early-round knockouts, began to visibly tire. In round five, Mercer sensed Morrison's fatigue and opened up with some offensive punches of his own. He trapped Morrison on the ropes and landed a series of damaging unanswered blows. Morrison slowly slid down the ropes to the canvas, already unconscious as Mercer continued to punch him. The knockout is widely considered as one of the most brutal of all time.

Now on the comeback trail, Morrison had six wins in 1992, including one over Art Tucker, and one over future world title challenger Joe Hipp, who would later become the first Native American to challenge for the world heavyweight title. The Hipp fight, held June 27, 1992, was one of the most exciting of Morrison's career. Suffering from what was later discovered to be a broken hand and broken jaw, Morrison had to rally late in the fight to score a knockout in the ninth round. After two wins in 1993, including one over two-time former world title challenger Carl "The Truth" Williams, Morrison found himself fighting for the WBO title again, this time, on June 7, against heavyweight boxing legend George Foreman, who was himself making a comeback. As both men were famed for their punching power, an exciting battle was expected, but Morrison chose to avoid brawling with Foreman and spent the fight boxing from long range. Foreman marched forward relentlessly, but Morrison was so determined to avoid Foreman's power that he actually turned his back to retreat on several occasions. The crowd understandably had little patience with this tactic, and began to boo Morrison as the fight progressed. However, Morrison was able to hit and move effectively in this manner, and after a closely contested bout he won a unanimous 12-round decision and the WBO title.

His first defense was intended to be against Mike Williams, but when Williams withdrew on the night of the fight, Tim Tomashek stood in as a replacement. Although Tomashek had been prepared to fight as a backup plan, some news reports created the impression that he had just been pulled out of the crowd.^[1] The WBO later rescinded their sanctioning of this fight due to Tomashek's lack of experience.

Almost immediately, talks of a fight with WBC world champion Lennox Lewis began. Talk of a Morrison-Lewis fight, however, was dramatically brought to a halt when Morrison was upset in his next defense by the virtually unknown Michael Bentt. In a shocking turn of events, Morrison was knocked down three times and stopped in the first round in front of a live HBO Boxing audience. Morrisons chin was always questionable against power punchers.

Morrison recovered by winning three bouts in a row in 1994 but then subsequently drew in his last fight of the year, against the deceptively tough trialhorse Ross Puritty (years later, Puritty would score a shocking upset victory over hot prospect Wladimir Klitschko).

He won three fights in 1995' before meeting former contender Razor Ruddock for the IBC Heavyweight Championship. In a thrilling encounter, Morrison was dropped to his knees in the first round, but recovered to compete on even terms for five rounds. In the sixth round, Ruddock hurt Morrison with a quick combination, but just as it seemed Morrison was in trouble, he countered with a tremendous hook that put Ruddock on the canvas. Remarkably, Ruddock regained his feet, but Morrison then drove him to the ropes and showered him with an extended flurry of blows. Just as the bell was about to sound, the referee stepped in and declared Morrison the winner by TKO.

The much-anticipated fight with Lewis, who had also lost his world championship, finally took place following the Ruddock match. However, Morrison fought conservatively and was never in the fight as Lewis picked him off relentlessly from long range. Morrison was knocked down and stopped in six rounds.

A few days before his next fight, to be shown on Showtime, Morrison had a mandatory HIV test performed by the Nevada Athletic Commission.^[2] It was announced during Showtime's telecast of the boxing undercard that Morrison failed his physical. He was scheduled to fight Louisville Kentucky's Arthur "Stormy" Weathers in the 1st of 3 fights for a bid to the heavyweight title.

Later in 1996, Morrison announced that he wished to make a comeback with one more bout, the proceeds of which would benefit his newly created KnockOut Aids Foundation.^[2] Morrison won the non-sanctioned fight in a first-round knockout of Marcus Rhode in Tokyo.^[3] In 2009, Morrison was featured in the documentary House of Numbers shown at the Tallgrass Film Festival. The Documentary features several people that had received FALSE positive testing for HIV.

[edit] Boxing Comeback

In 2006, Morrison returned to prizefighting claiming he was given a false-positive HIV exam in Las Vegas. In 1996, Morrison was denied a license and placed on indefinite suspension by the Nevada board after testing HIV positive before a fight in Las Vegas.

After 10½ years away from the ring, Morrison, 38, was allowed to fight Feb. 22 in West Virginia, a state that doesn't require blood testing. But he recently ran into a roadblock again when the Arizona Republic reported in the June 8 edition that Morrison recently tested positive for HIV.

Former associate Randy Lang told the newspaper that he stopped working for Morrison after results of Morrison's HIV tests were publicly misrepresented.

Nevada officials are adamant that Morrison's positive HIV test results in 1996 are accurate and that he has the virus.

(Randy Lang is the subject of a Superior Court Investigation in Pheonix AZ 2009....- Randy Lang is also in a Reality Show in 2007 where he himself is delivering the blood test results to Morrison on LIVE TV and confirming the test results were negative)

"I hope he's HIV negative, I really do, but it doesn't seem likely," said Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada commission. "We'll wait and see what happens. He said he's been tested several times in recent years, but (we'll ask) what happened from 1996 and 2002, the years he won't talk about."

(The years between 1996-2002 were the darkest years Morrison had ever experienced. He had basically been told he was going to die in a few months. Although Morrison had NEVER to this day in -2009- seen the test results -nor ever been given a copy of them - NOR had Marc Ratner from the NV Commission NOR had Tony Holden -Morrison's Manager)

Margaret Goodman, chair of the Nevada commission's medical advisory board, was prompted to check on Morrison's status after learning about his comeback. She said she contacted John Hiatt at the diagnostics clinic where Morrison was tested in 1996.

"At my request, Dr. Hiatt reviewed the archived results yet again," Goodman said. "He says they (the positive results) are ironclad and unequivocal."

(it is impossible for Dr.Hiatt to have reviewed the archived results as Quest Labs statedin a recent email to Morrison in 2009, that test results are destroyed 7 years after they have been taken..so the results would have been destroyed in 2003...so Dr.Hiatt could not have reviewed them in 2007))

Morrison contends that he's been trying to get a copy of the original test results for the past 15 months.

"We've asked, but they can't come up with it," he said. "I don't think it ever existed."

Goodman said that's nonsense: "All Mr. Morrison has to do is contact the laboratory, and they would immediately release the results to him."

(Morrison has tried since 2007 to obtain results and did contact the laboratory AND the NV Commission for test result copies -but neither could produce them)

From December 2006 to January 2007, Morrison had tested negative for HIV on four occasions.^[4] In early 2007, the head of the Arizona State Boxing Commission personally watched Morrison take a blood test at a lab in Phoenix, and received the official results demonstrating that Morrison was HIV negative.<ref name="HIVDelay"/> As a result of that negative test, Morrison was licensed on February 20, 2007 by the West Virginia Athletic Commission and faced John Castle of Indianapolis in a four-round bout on February 22, 2007 at Mountaineer Race Track in Chester.^[5] Castle (4-2, 2 KOs) had been knocked out in his last two fights.^[6] After landing few punches, and being scored behind at the end of the first round, Morrison swooped in with his trademark left hook to knock out Castle in the middle of Round 2.^[7]

In June 2007, it was reported by Randy Lang - that Morrison had recently tested positive for HIV,url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/2007-06-21-Morrison_N.htm | title=Morrison fights claims of recent positive HIV test | publisher=USA Today | date= June 22, 2007| first= | last= | accessdate =2009-07-01}}</ref> Morrison denied the claims, but former associate Randy Lang -who is now (in 2009) subject of a complaint in Superior Court-Phoenix AZ - told the newspaper that he stopped working for Morrison after results of Morrison's HIV tests were publicly misrepresented.^[8] In addition, the chair of the Nevada commission's medical advisory board reviewed Morrison's status after learning about his comeback and concluded the positive results "are ironclad and unequivocal."^[8] Morrison, nor his manager, nor his promoter, nor a representative of the NV Commission ever saw these results and were never in Morrison's "file" at the NV Commission. The Nevada test results have never been found despite the many requests made by Morrison and his manager up to and including 2009. In 2008, Morrison was tested again and the test came out negative for HIV. Morrison was cleared to fight in Leon, Mexico on the February 9, 2008 undercard of JC Chavez Jr.'s 35th pro win. Tommy boxed Matt Weishaar and won via a third round TKO.

On January 31, 2009, Morrison faced Corey "Whiz Kid" Williams for the Wyoming Heavyweight Championship at the Albany Fair Grounds in Laramie, WY. Morrison defeated his opponent in the 1st round by TKO.

Morrison said in November 2009 that his next boxing fight would be in March of 2010, and that he had a three-fight deal to fight in New Zealand, presumably to fight champion John Hopoate. Morrison also said that he will rely heavily on the revenue from the fights to go towards his children's foundation.

[edit] Mixed martial arts

Morrison made his (MMA) debut against 340-pound John Stover. Due to the fight taking place outside of the jurisdiction of the Arizona State Athletic Commission, the rules were modified. Instead of the standard three 5-minute rounds, the match was scheduled for three 3-minute rounds and all ground fighting was prohibited. Thirty minutes before the fight took place, the rules were further changed to prohibit any kind of kicks, knee strikes or elbow strikes, effectively turning the MMA match into a boxing match with 4-ounce MMA gloves.^[9] Morrison was victorious, breaking Stover's nose and winning by TKO at the 2:06 mark of the 1st round.

[edit] Registered Official Amateur Boxing Coach & trainer

In 2009 Morrison became a Registered Official Amateur Boxing Coach and is training some up and coming amateurs that can be viewed on his website as well as working with a select few MMA fighters teaching them the art of using their hands.

[edit] Tommy "The Duke" Morrison Children's Foundation

In early 2009, Morrison announced plans for the Tommy "The Duke" Morrison Children's Foundation, a summer camp for all children including terminally ill children, and children with life-threatening diseases. The future site of the camp is located at the existing Grandma's Farm in Maize, Kansas owned and operated by Cindy and Gary Siebler- Morrison's adopted aunt and uncle. The camp will feature water sports from local ponds, farming, and boxing. Morrison hopes the camp will be open in Spring of 2010.

[edit] Legal battles

In 1999 Morrison was driving home in a brand new 1999 Corvette and was pulled over by the police in Arkansas. The car was searched and the police found cocaine and a gun. Even though Morrison held a concealed weapon license for a hand gun Morrison spent the next 14 months in prison on drug and weapon charges.^[10]

From December 19, 1999 to 6.46am February 6, 2001 (as Morrison quotes "It was 14 months..8 days..6hours..46 minutes.. and I was prisoner #610788 in Texacana...God put me in a place where I could not run from Him. This is when my life began to change - for the better" )

Morrison received a hot check for the fight against Cory Williams in January 2009 and is currently trying to recover these funds.

[edit] Family

Morrison is the father of 4 sons: Trey, McKenzie, Justin and Tristin Duke. In 2009 McKenzie began his boxing training with his father.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tommy Morrison
• - Official Website
• Tommy Morrison Fight-by-Fight Career Record
• Professional boxing record for Tommy Morrison from Boxrec

Preceded by Michael Moorer Vacated

WBO World Heavyweight Championship 7 Jun 1993–29 Oct 1993

Succeeded by Michael Bentt