"Baby" Joe Mesi vs Tommy "The Duke" Morrison - who would have won?

Mesi gave overhyped white hopes a bad name, which is pretty pathetic...

 

Morrison via KO inside 5 rounds.

 

I wouldn't exactly call Mesi a bum.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUUJgW--tYo[/ame]

Even in his short comeback AFTER his long layoff, he started whipping himself into good form....
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Puk8AgKg6A[/ame]

Mesi's only two subpar performances were against Barrett and the last round against Jirov. Against Barrett, Mesi had cut his eye open on a car door a few weeks out from the fight, and couldn't even train or spar. Mesi still won the fight, just faded a bit down the stretch as he was out of shape, overweight, and exhausted. Mesi was absolutely abusing Jirov throughout their entire fight. He was boxing Jirov's ears off. It wasn't until Jirov landed a hard blow behind the head with less than 30 seconds left in the 9th round that Mesi took a huge turn for the worse. We can't blame him... he had bleeding on the brain. Later on Mesi admitted that he didn't even remember boxing the last round of the fight. That shows what an amazing heart Mesi had that he actually still survived and won that fight.

I don't see how people can call him a bum. That's just silly.

 

As pathetic as the black hope Dominick Guinn who was coming along at the same time?

 

When people are saying that he shouldnt be considered a bum based on his win over Williamson Id say thats pretty pathetic.

 

No one is even saying that he was going to be a World Champion (not even an alphabet champion).

A win over williamson, in the manner he won it was a decent win and about as impressive as it could be, wasnt it?

If it is pathetic to use this as a decent win, isnt it pathetic to use the fights he actually won as evidence that he was a total bum?

 

Joe Mesi was 36-0 as a professional boxer. He has pro wins over the likes of Monte Barrett, David Izon, TOS, and Jirov. At his height when he was injured he was ranked #1 by the WBC. He also beat Hasim Rahman in the ams. To call someone like that a bum is ridiculous. He clearly was never the best in the division, because he was never going to beat either Klitschko. However, he was hell on wheels, very exciting, and very dangerous for everyone else. He certainly was not even close to being a bum.

 

worth mentioning that Williamson also outpointed McCall and then had some more decisions and stoppages over some unrecognized names here.
those names are not great fighters nor they will make HOF , but winning against them does count .
i did not find any pro fights of Mesi on youtube except his KO of Williamson.
Tommy Morrison , i guess because of his record and opposition , still has not interested me enough to look for his fights.

Morisson's quality of wins is really not much better , he just has more big names in his record , not necessarily in their primes or as his wins.

but regarding the forum's ignorance of Mesi , and mentions of Morison , i will guess the majority here will pick Morison .

regarding Mesi , i think he had some brain injury prior to the Jirov fight , and that what makes people think he was chinny.
if i am right , then Mesi was almost a career long injured fighter whom retired undefeated , and he did face some decent fighters.

 

I remember Morison getting blasted out by Michael Bent...Joe started fast and would take Tommy out early, Joe faded after 7 rds but I dont think Tommy would be there at that point

 

No, he shouldn't be considered an " overhyped bum" in comparison to Morrison.

 

They were both overhyped, the difference is that Morrison actually managed to beat some legitimate contenders. Something Mesi never did. Barely beating cruiserweight Vasili Jirov, getting a gift over Barrett (something some on here seem to have forgotten), and wins over completely shot Izon and Cooper really dont do much for me. If you want to get excited over his KO over Williamson fine, but every loss on Williamson's record is via KO except to Chris Byrd, one of the lightest hitting heavies in history.

So when you consider that Morrison was overhyped and still managed to beat some decent fighters, including George Foreman (who would have decapitated Mesi) Then yeah, I think Im safe in saying that Mesi was an overhyped bum.

 

Morrison, early.

He had some bad losses but people spend way too much time looking at one or two bad results in a career of over 40 fights while ignoring the positives.

 

I dont know if George Foreman would have decapitated Mesi. Prime for prime without a doubt, but old George was a totally different proposition and was nowhere near as good as people remember, because he was simply so unbelievably slow, he could rarely land his punches. Tommy beat him, because he was so slow that Tommy could stick and move. George fought plenty of fighters that were rated no better than Mesi and struggled to get the close wins, because they all stuck and moved instead of using their usual style. And foreman was so slow, he had trouble landingon them. I expect Mesi to be no different.

Morrison handled foreman more impressively than most, but that fight is not really what he should be guaged on. You say the Monte Barrett fight was a gift. I will have to watch it to recall it (I am not really much of a barrett or Mesi fan anyway) but wasnt that the fight where Mesi won the early rounds comfortably and then Barrett won the last few? I can remember that this is how most of Mesi's fights went. Dominant early and then he would run out of steam and/or get slowed down by a big punch later in the fights. This is something that experience and training can overcome (wont always but can).

You criticise the Monte Barett win (perhaps correctly) and i agree that Barrett is not much of a heavyweight guage, but he was better in them days, and a year or so ago, when David Haye beat Monte Barret (albeit a little more impressively) he all of a sudden became the next big thing and leading contender behind the klits in many people's eyes. Perhaps if Mesi has done the same thing, he himself has proven that he isnt a total bum?

 

atsch

 

You say Morrison " actually managed to beat some legitimate contenders", and "managed to beat some decent fighters" ........ but you only name one, a 44 year old Gerorge Foreman who Morrison wisely ran from and outpointed (something Joe Mesi may have been capable of too).

Morrison beat no one else, just washed-up guys with recognizable names and a few second-raters, along with dozens of tomato cans.

If you dissect Morrison's record with the same accuracy and honesty you have done with Mesi's, you'll see that they are in the same ballpark.