Tommy Gun – The Rise and Fall of Tommy Morrison

What was leading to the fall of Tommy Morrison can happen to anybody who is not prepared for fame. Tommy Morrison was really at the top of heavyweight boxing. one he won WBO and once IBF title. Before his downfall, he was very close to fight with Mike Tyson. He has a professional boxing record of 48-3-1 (42 KOs). Tommy had the chance to play in the 5th Rocky movie, but apparently acting wasn’t his main thing.  He was dying at the age of 44. After being very famous he was experiencing that everybody is abandoning him.

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Tommy Morrison the early age

Morrison was raised in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Following his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps he started boxing at the age of 10. By being 113 he was competing with fake ID-s at contests where the minimum age was 21. Morrison was quite sportive. He was basically good at any sport that he tried, but his roots were tying him to boxing.

He was not only outstanding in sports but he was quite okay with his studies too and once graduating from high school he had the chance to start an academic career. Not surprisingly he was choosing to stick with professional boxing instead. Maybe if he chooses to go to university we can avoid the fall of Tommy Morrison, however, we would lose a boxing legend.

It didn’t take too long for ESPN to discover the typical American macho looking Tommy with his special power punches.  They gave him the opportunity to take part in Tuesday Night Fight, which was one of the best opportunities for a rising heavyweight boxing star at the time.

Morrison is going pro

His first fight in Friday night fight was against Shelby on 1989-08-22. He won with TKO in the second round. Frank Stallone was happened to watch the fight and he knew that his brother, Silvester Stallone is looking for someone to play Tommy Gun in the new Rocky movie. It didn’t take more than a week and they were already filming the fifth Rocky movie. While it was one of the first episodes of the series Tommy had good criticism due to the fact that he was never acting before. There was a chance for him to start an acting career. However, in an interview, he told once that first he is going to be the best heavyweight fighter and after he might focus on acting later.

Chasing the Iron man

These days Tommy was kind of following Tyson’s path. He knocked out the same faces as Tyson did a few years before him. At the time everybody was talking about a Morrison vs Tyson fight. They were both heavy punchers and both had a clean record without losing any fights. However, it was the time when Douglas was delivering the punch that ended Mike Tyson.

For his next fight, Tommy had the chance to go for the WBO Heavyweight title against Ray Mercer. While Morrison was ruling the fight for the first three rounds, after that he was seemingly tiring out.  He had the plan to take out Mercer in the first three rounds, however, Mercer was tougher than he taught.

The first loss of Tommy Morrison

This loss was a bit cracking Tommy and his problems with excessive drinking and alleged nymphomania were becoming more and more visible to his surroundings. His father is telling in an interview that he was called to the spot of some pubs during the night to collect his passed out kid. However, Tommy was still far from the best of his boxing career and the time when his abusive lifestyle catches up with him and leading to the fall of Tommy Morrison.

Morrison vs Foreman

This brings us to Jun 7, 1993, when Morrison had the chance for another title shot against George Foreman with the WBO title on the line. We are talking about an old Foreman here, but he sure had his 260 pounds to use and a lot of experience as well. It was a fight between experience and youth. While Morrison was the underdog of the fight, he managed to do his so far best performance of his career. He was dominating both rounds with his sharp counter-attack and combinations. As a result, he was regarded with a UD win and the WBO heavyweight title that night.

The following months Tommy’s lifestyle was starting to catch up with him. It didn’t take long until he lost his title against Michel Bent with a devastating first-round TKO. This is the time when Don King came into the picture. He was offering Tommy a great retirement package, with ten fights, $10 million and a final fight against Mike Tyson.

The fall of Tommy Morrison

This was the time when Tommy’s nymphomania was catching up with him. He possibly already knew something when he refused to give a blood sample to Nevada boxing authorities. According to certain sources he was claiming that he is afraid of needles. Others state that he was referring to some religious thoughts behind the decision.

All in all, they told him that if he is not going under the blood test he won’t be able to compete so he agreed on it finally. A few days later he got the news that has HIV. Naturally in boxing when blood can mix very easily in the ring having HIV was a no go.

Spreading the word

From 1994 Tommy was teaming up with Magic Johnson. They were going around in America together to raise awareness of HIV. Tommy had a leading HIV specialist at the time and everything went quite well for him. His medication was working and he was working out too to get his old form back. However, after meeting his latest wife he was somehow thinking that he no more has the HIV virus, furthermore, that he never ever had it in the first place. Skipping his medication led to a quick downfall and he was dead by the age of 44.

I am pretty sure that going through online sportsbook news in the UK, you can find stories way more cherishing. Or better yet, you can find some nice fights to bet on. Bet365, for example, offers great odds on heavyweight boxing fights.