Morrison punches too hard for a MW turned heavy. If Patterson beat Ellis up, ...Morrison, with nothing to fear, would land the hook like Frazier did and out goes the lights.
Patterson was much faster then Morrison, and Frazier had an actual workrate that let him get to Ellis. Morrison wasn't known for breaking punch stat records. Also, I have no doubt a sneak right, pin point right hand could stun and eventually result in a TKO stoppage against Morrison. When Ellis grew into a comfortable 195 pound heavyweight he dropped Oscar Bonavena twice in one fight. The only other two knockdowns against Bonavena... one from exhaustion against Ali in the final minute of their fight, and one against Oscar Bonavena.
TBH i havent seen too much of Ellis but i read Dundee claiming about 68/69 that 'my man' was one of the best 1st round bangers in the division. Tommy was an exciting 3 round figfhter, so for my money its a question of who gets in first, going on the info i have
If Patterson beat Ellis up,,he didn't so thats a moot point. Tommy had the power and tools to make this one interesting against the Ellis that essentially drew with Floyd. I see Jimmy dropped and Tommy stunned several times over the rounds, can't pick a winner here.
Ah, Morrison. What extreme slant on him is popular this week? One of the greatest contenders ever, big white Sam Langford with two good eyes and freak bad luck or completely incompetent wreck of a fighter who was lucky to make it past round one against anyone with any power whatsoever? Ellis almost had Patterson out of there in a round so bad for Patterson that it's a miracle he made it out of the fight, early on. Morrison would be susceptible too. That was a very competitive fight. One that I scored for Patterson, but it was certainly not one-sided. Sure, he was faster than Morrison, but the Patterson that Ellis fought was not exactly the speed demon he had been, by any stretch. He was quite faded and wasn't firing off those combos and following up very well. There were so, so many times during that fight that I thought if the young Patterson were in there, it would be over with ease and Ellis annihilated. Morrison I think was a committed enough finisher to have capitalized on hurting Ellis in a lot of the same spots that Patterson had him buzzed and couldn't quite capitalize on. Anyway, I figure it can go Morrison kayo, Ellis kayo or decision. I can see each of those outcomes pretty easily. Morrison was stopped three times, okay. He also had several fights where he traded and took quite a bit of punishment without getting stopped. Why some make it sound like if anyone hits him it's over based on this is beyond me. It makes about as much sense as going "Ellis was a middleweight! He gets destroyed."
