At 41 years old most boxers are thinking of what to do in their retirement, their careers behind them and the future to look forward to, though not only is Antonio Tarver making a come back after a long stint out of the ring but so too it seems, is Tommy “The Duke” Morrison. Though his opponent is still to be announced, Morrison will be making his first ring appearance since February 2008 when he walked over Matt Weishaar (3-0-2) in the 3rd round. In fact Morrison has fought only twice since November 1996 and for a combined 5 round, against fighters with a combined record of 7-2-2.
Of course Morrison was once one of the hottest tickets in boxing, an explosive, hard punching KO machine, who was not only an American but a white American fighter, who had managed to win the WBO heavyweight by beating George Foreman in 1993. He had made himself a house hold name some time earlier by featuring in Rocky V as Tommy “The Machine” Gunn and yet by 1996 his life, not only his career seemed to be in jeopardy as he had been thought to have been suffering from HIV. Although Tommy has always said the test was a false positive, he was out of the ring from his 1995 loss to Lennox Lewis until making an appearance the following year in Japan, then stayed away from the sport until 2007. He was unable to fight in America due to the commissions not allowing him a license, then in 2007 he managed to start his return to the ring by facing someone willing to fight him. The opponent quickly gave up.
Although Gunn had been a big name in his prime, he was known to be chinny, his stoppage loss to Ray Mercer in 1991 was a potent stoppage which many boxing fans still feel is one of the most sickening combinations landed, whilst Michael Bentt managed to drop Morrison 3 times inside a round in 1993 whilst Lewis needed 6 rounds to inflict the 3rd and final defeat of Morrisons career (which stretches way back to 1988). Now however Morrison is more of a controversial figure than a big name, it’s hard to think he was once linked to a $10,000,000 purse for a fight with Mike Tyson (before the loss to Bentt) and now is fighting no names in cards that seem to be more likely not to happen than to actually happen.
If Morrison (48-3-1 with 42 big wins by KO) can add to his record by beating who ever ends up in the opposite corner (if the Octber 29th card actually goes ahead, I have my suspicions that it won’t) expect the remaining fans of his to campaign for him to get a title fight, though in all honestly he’ll never get it. Morrison, like many boxers who continue long after they should, should alread of hung them up for good, sadly expect this sad tale to continue on with Morrison fighting tomato cans when he feels like collecting a payday.
