Tommy "The Duke" Morrison; how good a boxer was he really?

might be a resaon they didn't last 5 rds?

 

Wanted to say Rudduck was completely shot at that point compared to who he was after Tyson got a hold of him.

As far as the Mercer thing....yeah, that was horrible .The ref should've been fired after gross incompetence to allow a near unconscious Morrison to take a beating. Even the crowd was yelling at the ref to stop the fight before he somehow got the hint.

 

Because he was a hard puncher.

Give me some examples of Tyson throwing 5-punch combos for the entirety of a fight that didn’t end early.

 

Perhaps. But Ruddock looked fine after Tyson until he ran into Lewis. Was he still a KO hungry boxer who was over reliant on that Smash punch? Yes

He was 31 years old when he fought Morrison. I tend to think he's inactivity (only 1 fight in the previous 3 years) and him not really training between fights are what really hampered him here.

 

Tyson-Ribalta. Tyson ripped combos throughout the entirety of the fight. Easily.

Regarding Morrison I feel he was a progeny of the Tyson era, and being managed by Bill Cayton helped as we witnessed highlight reel knockouts from Day 1.

Morrison would beat 80's retreads easier than most then lose a big fight. He'd bounce back and win a big fight and go right back to losing to someone he should've steamrolled.

I liked Tommy. He was one of my favorite 90's big men.

 

For me Morrisson is one of the really good examples for that you need to see a fighter against good competition before you can really say something. Because against D-level opponents he looked as good as Tyson did against that level. It was when he started to meet a higher level that the difference between them became clear.

Got to give him credit for his very disciplined effort against Foreman, though, and the fight against Ruddock was one of the most exciting of 90's HW fights.

 

I agree I think Morrison would've fared better against the 80s mob who were not consistent, plus there was less fighters with real concussive power.

Apart from obviously Holmes, Tyson, I'd give Morrison a decent shot against the rest depending on when he fought them.

 

I watched rounds 5-7 (so not the early assault) to refresh my memory and it’s 80-90% one punch and fall inside to a clinch — one jab, clinch; one hook, clinch; repeat.

Over three rounds I saw maybe 6-7 combinations. So roughly two per round, maybe 2.5 if you wanna be generous. He threw the hook to the body/uppercut combo a couple of times. He threw I think 2-3 shoeshines with 3-4 body punches. And a couple of times he exchanged throwing multiple punches but out of all that he really only landed two or three solid, effective punches in three rounds of his combos.

That’s not a high rate of combinations. It was barely more than Ribalta himself threw … unless we’re saying Ribalta is also a great combo puncher.

Go watch Morrison and you’ll see a guy who threw in combination at a way higher rate than Tyson.

 

A good but not great fighter when he faced an ATG in Lennox Lewis he was easily destroyed.

 

I'm 50/50 on Morrison dominating the 80's. Guys like Truth Williams, who was past prime but still a threat, gave Tommy hell. Guys with solid beards like Holmes, Witherspoon, Thomas and Tucker could withstand Tommy's power.

Then you have guys like Tubbs, Page, Douglas, Biggs who could befuddle Morrison but might look for that canvas soft spot when their chin gets dinged. I dunno, I'd have to watch a bit more to give a better assessment.

One thing we can agree is the 80's heavies were incredibly inconsistent. In AND out of the ring!!

Frank Bruno vs Tommy Morrison would've been scintillating and also powerpunchers like Weaver, Bonecrusher, a prime Ruddock, Coetzee, Cooney and the like.

In the latter 90's, Morrison-Tua could be a rerun of Morrison-Foreman...or not...

 

Plus Ron Lipton’s incompetence in stopping it.

 

Tommy vs Weaver in particular would've been a great fight- like a Moorer-Cooper type duel

 

I am not sure that he would have done to be honest.

He won his title from old Foreman, and lost it to Michael Bent.

That is no guarantee of success ion the 80s.

 

That's almost par the course for the 80s haha

 

Yes, While I do think Tyson had very developed skills for a HW, this notion that he had constant head movement and throwing constant combos like a 220 lbs version of Duran is a myth. He had a tendency to get wild at times even in his most celebrated performances and the head movement and combos typically dropped off after a few rounds.