Oscar Bonavena vs Tommy Morrison - who would win and why?

BIG DEE HERE= Bonavena would KO Morrison by taking everything he throws
and wearing Morrison down. It would be another fight like his fight with Ray Mercer. Bonavena was an expert at fighting off the ropes and would use it
well against the stupid Morrison who for the most part fought with his head up his ass. The exception to that rule was and is the George Foreman fight which he fought brilliantly. YES IT WAS SHOCKING THAT HE USED HIS BRAIN INSTEAD OF TRYING TO KO GEORGE FOREMAN.

 

Bonevena

 

Bonavena would have stopped him.

 

Bonavena would've stopped Morrison, probably inside the distance. Tommy definitely could hurt Monzon in this matchup but I think Ringo overall is too much for Morrison to handle. Morrison might have a chance at winning a decision against Bonavena if he boxes smartly and counters with his left hook. Either way, Bonavena doesn't get knocked out by Morrison and probably wins unaminously or stops him late.

 

Bonavena stops Morrison in the sixth round, he doesn't have the skills to catch Oscar off-guard like Ali and Ellis.Tommy wins a couple rounds tops.

 

Its hard to pick Morrison over a man who did as well against Joe Frazier as Bonavena did. He could take a punch, deliever a good punch, go the 15 round distance and fought awkward as hell... Don't see Tommy having much of a chance here, unless perhaps he tried to box in similar fashion to the way he did against George Foreman... But I don't see this happening.. The only reason he temporarily altered his style for the Foreman fight was because he knew George was too big, hit too hard and had the right defense for stopping his attack... Morrison is not likely to approach Bonavena with that kind of caution, which would ultimately prove to be his downfall.

 

While Morison could b stopped , Bonavena was floored by lesser punchers than Morison .
Bonavena was given 2 opportunities 2 last 15 and was badly stopped in 1 of them . Did Ali hit harder than Morison ? I don't think so .
Did Jimmy Ellis or Zora Folley hit harder than Morison ? I don't think so .
Bonavena is extremely overrated here .
Bonavena never met a puncher like d massively roided Tommy Morison and his chin was far from how this forum perceives it . Even his stamina is overrated .
Sometimes a lazy / economic style is perceived as good stamina .
If Tommy Morison could outlast Ross Puritty's , Donovan Ruddock's & Carl Williams' punches then Bonavena would not have been anything over his capabilities . Yes , he was stopped @ 1 by Micahel Bentt but then he stopped @ 1 James Tillis , Pinklon Thomas & David Jaco .
Oscar's only advantage here is stamina .
I favor Bonavena 2 win , but if fought 5 times expect Morison 2 stop Bonavena at least 1ce . Bonavena was a lousy finisher , my evience if d Frazier #1 fight . Not 2 mention he was badly beaten by post prime Zora Folley FFS . His finishing skills didn't even get 2 get tested there :yep .
D Bonavena that I saw was not significantly more energetic than shot fat George .

 

Bonavena was stopped only once in 68 pro fights.. That one time was in the last round of a 15 round bout, in which he had been taking a sustained beating the whole night, and was decked 3 times largely due to exhaustion more so than actual power.. Oscar survived Joe Frazier twice plus Ron Lyle and Floyd Patterson.... Morrison was KO'd in one round by a novice with 10 pro fights during his prime..

Why would any respectable contender being favored to beat Tommy Morrison be grounds for being labeled as "overrated?"

How so?

Morrison was decked by both of those men who were well past their best, and one of whom was not especially known for being a big puncher.

Having the claim to beating Dave Jaco means about as much as the average person owning a cell phone today... Thomas was shot to pieces and Tillis was beaten by everyone and his brother..

A significant advantage against Tommy Morrison who lacked in stamina, chin AND defense.

A fair statement.

I did not see the Folley fight, but you do of course realize that Bonavena had all but 8 pro fights at the time? Your criticism about Bonavena being a poor finisher may have some merit. Just not sure that the Frazier fights are the best examples, given that we're talking about a man who rose 5 times against George Foreman before finally being stopped.

Morrision's victory over Foreman had more to do with Tommy opting to use the ring and box - something that he never did before, nor ever did again.... I don't see him employing this strategy against Bonavena..

 

stopped only once but dropped more than half a dozen .
D thing is that d time he was stopped was quite legit as far as I currently know , unlike Sosa vs. Jones , McCall vs Lewis #2 , Rahman vs Tua etc .
He got his ass handed 2 him by a man who very rarely actually did it 2 other ppl . He made Ali look like Foreman in that round , which is a big shame considering Ali couldn't floor Doug Jones (no disrespect 2 Jones but he was a lightheavy) and was beaten by Henry Cooper until he was saved by Dundee's acts and rescued by cuts caused by his loaded/torn/both glove .
And that novice Michael Bentt had quite n impressive & decorated amateur record , didn't he ? not exactly a novice . 4 some reason Herbie Hide chose 2 retreat from that novice . But I know d response , Herbie Hide would not have been deserving enough 2b a notch on Floyd Patterson's belt :yep .
Morisson's opposition was better than Bonavena :
Lewis > Ali , Puritty > Lyle , and while he didn't have any1 2 equate Frazier
he did have Old shot Foreman whom does compare with shot Folley .
And then he did have Ray Mercer , Carl Williams , Pinklon Thomas , James Tillis 2 compare with Ellis , Patterson , Chuvalo . Patterson & Chuvalo were not 2 young themselves when they fought Bonavena .
Morison's opposition was just on par with Bonavena's .
Bonavena's might have been a bit more quality although Folley & a few others that I didn't even bother 2 mention were not exactly d encyclopedic examples of quality , but then Morison's opponents were bigger & stronger which compensates 4 their slight relative lack of quality .

It was really not this thread that made me come 2 this conclusion , it was especially d Bonavena vs Foreman @ 1970 thread , and d common mentions
of Bonavena's "granite" chin (so far from being true) and d popular worship of d era of chubby bloated lightheavies and light cruisers as "D golden age" .

U claimed yourself that his stoppage 2 Ali was exhaustion related .
I can also point 2 his pathetic finishing ability and say that he knew his limited stamina and tried 2 conserve it .

Folley ? a big puncher ? Only vs superbly chinny opponents and Bonavena .
Now what does this imply on Bonavena ? him having a slick still ball defense ? or maybe a still ball chin ?
While I don't think Folley was an extremely light hitter 4 his era , even d ring magazine (!!) didn't bother 2 list him in its top 100 punchers if im not mistaken .

Thomas might have been shot 2 pieces but he was n above d average durable fighter (shown vs Tyson & Holyfield , Bowe , Coetzee , Weaver ) and Morison who stopped him @ 1 was d only 1 2 get rid of him in less than 6 .
Quite d same regarding Tillis . Although he was less durable than Thomas , which doesn't say much .
After watching Witherspoon vs Bruno I need 2c him vs Tillis b4 i recognize it as legit stoppage .
Who came close 2 what Morison did vs Tillis ?

But d only advantage . If anything , Morison was d technically better fighter of d 2 and his chin was about as good as Bonavena's .
Again , if u put Bonavena with Morison's opposition he would have fared worse than against his own .

Fair statements as well but it's not like Bonavena tried 2 finish Frazier .
If he was more aggressive , Frazier would have gone down yet again against him . It's not like Frazier got up like nothing happened from these KDs , he was really dizzy .

Which shows u that Morison was at least as versatile as Bonavena .
D way he fought Lewis was not far from how he fought Foreman it's just that Lewis wasn't Foreman so some things he didn't even get d opportunity 2 try against him .
Unlike Bonavena Morison was intelligent and knew when 2 charge @ when 2 box . Bonavena didn't have Morison's brain among other things .

 

:deal Thread.

 

Bonavena halts morrison

 

Sorry, but I am not taking the time to respond to your post line for line..Not only is it coming from a most obscure perspective, but there are statements in it that are outright wrong factually... For example, you listed Quarry as being one of the men who Bonavena fought when in fact, they never met.. You then mentioned Herbie Hide as "retreating" from Michael Bentt, when in actuality, he hospitalized the guy.. You use the Zora Folley loss to discredit Bonavena while failing to acknowledge that Oscar had only 8 fights for that meeting.. You make Morrison dispatching of a shopworn Tillis sound like its something that had never before been heard of, ( incidentally, Tim Witherspoon stopped Tillis in one round 5 years earlier. ) Sorry to be an ass, but this whole post of yours is nonsense. It reads as though it were fueled by a simple boxrec search, then laced with a dose of pure bias...

 

correct about quarry , i meant that era as a whole , edited and fixed it .
Now it just supports my claims about Bonavena's opposition even more .
Well , he didn't fight : Norton , Stander , Foreman , Doug Jones , Liston , Jimmy Young , Shavers either . Not even poor Joe Bugner . And then others like Al Jones , Jose Luis Garcia and then even more . U raised a whole new topic 4 discussion here with this well placed correction of yours .
So most of that "golden age" just passed him by & he remained untested .
Who can blame him for those after his performances against Ali , Ellis & Folley ?


Herbie Hide started with retreating from Michael Bentt regardless of d final consequence of their fight . Sorry but I remember enough from their fight 2 repeat my claim here .

Folley was still shot when he beat Bonavena . Bonavena was young against him which is n advantage .

D way Morison dispatched (of) Tillis & Thomas was unique . Fact .