Tommy Morrison vs. Lennox Lewis in 1993, As Originally Scheduled

I am reading the Tommy Morrison book by Carlos Acevedo, and there is quite a bit on how Morrison was supposed to fight Lewis immediately after beating Foreman, but put the 7.5 million purse at risk, because he felt he needed two tune-up fights, before he fought Lewis.

Acevedo points out, correctly, that 1993 may have been the best chance for Morrison to ever have a chance to beat Lewis, especially considering he lost to Oliver McCall. I'm not - nor was Acevedo - suggesting he would have won, just that the chances were probably never greater. Morrison would of course go on to lose to 10 fight novice, Michael Bentt in one round, kissing the 7.5 million dollar payday away, which would have gone a long way in Jay, Oklahoma.

At certain points of Tommy's career he lacked confidence and his team lacked confidence, and sometimes both of those things happened at the same time. I know his team was PISSED he turned down 7.5 to fight for 10 times less that and then of course losing.

 

Morrison might have been stopped earlier.

Either way, he was doomed.

 

Tommy had indeed a decent chance in 93. He ain't favorite of course, but he would probably have done better than in 95.
Hell, if he would have managed to land a big left hook, odds are he's winning it.

 

Morrison stands no chance.

 

I'm not seeing it. Lennox was more vulnerable to right hands. Not to say Tommy's hook wasn't hard enough to hurt Lewis, just that he would have to go to war with him to land it and he doesn't have the whiskers for that.

 

Tommy's hook is hard enough to take out any HW that's ever laced them gloves on.
The only issue is whether he could land it or not.

 

Tommy was tough, he had heart, hit like hell. But result is the same imo. Lennox takes him seriously and still stops him before 8.

 

Even on a perfect day for Morrison its about 70/30 for young Lennox. Although he wasn't the complete and well rounded, experienced fighter at this time, made some mistakes and had some knockout losses, he just wasn't vulnerable to left hooks.

 

Morrison may indeed have benefitted from fighting Lewis a bit earlier. That said, Lewis was a fairly horrible stylistic match for him.

 

Both guys had major hiccups about this time, Tommy with Bentt and Lenny with McCall, so who knows what sort of X factors would be involved. All things being equal, Lewis breaks him down and stops him.

 

I had no idea that there was a book on Morrison! That’s awesome, thank you for sharing, I’ll have to keep an eye out for this one.

 

Despite Lewis not being quite as polished yet I still think he stops Morrison. Would it have been a better or worse fight ? We’ll never know

 

Morrison gives a much better performance he might get stopped even sooner than he actually did but his energy level in 95 was gone. Virus? It was last fight before he tested positive. He was very sluggish in 95.

 

Lewis wasn't as polished during the time in question...but he hit harder with his right hand and was more aggressive at the time than Mercer. Morrison just wasn't much of a fighter, let's face it. He wasn't Championship material. His greatest win, against Foreman, didn't make either of them look good, much less great. He had no chance in hell against even a before- prime Lewis, much less a peak Bowe or Holyfield. I'm not sure he could have beaten Holmes at that time, either. Just my opinion, no offense to fans.

 

He's one of the few fighter s I've not read a book on tbh.