Let's talk Tommy Morrison

I remember him being on the rise and not sure if I noticed him because he was a white heavyweight having success(of course this might grab anyone's attention) or he was just there on an undercard of a Tyson fight on HBO or whether it was on ESPN or CBS/ABC , I just remember I couldn't look away . I think he had 27 to 28 wins and undefeated before going up against Mercer who was also unblemished . I know that Tommy had lost in the Olympic trials to Mercer by the cards and the title fight was a disaster.

He has other notable wins ,an Old Foreman in the last 9/9 of his career , Carl Williams , Pinklon Thomas, Razor Ruddock ,Tillis . However how quality of wins were these exactly ? Tommy loses his title after one successful defense to a relative greenhorn in Bentt and then recaptures a title after Ruddock only to lose it the big Brit.(Which I do not think he could ever beat anyways)

He didn't seemed to be mismanaged or mishandled and might've had too many fights before getting a shot at a title in the Mercer fight which Im not sure was a product of mgmt or something beyond his control.

My overall analysis of Morrison is that he was a great contender , not sure of what his ranking was but he was in a class just below the elite I guess you say. I never saw him as an Elite boxer and wasn't surprised by the way his boxing career progressed.

Ive heard this mentioned before that styles make fights and maybe he matches up well with other great or elite guys. Does he do well against Cooney , Bobick ,Coetzee , Bruno not that these are elite guys but I would say of his same Caliberish . People probably had high hopes but he just couldn't get there and probably no matter how bad they wanted him to get there he was never going to . Did the Olympic loss to Mercer affect him in the aspects of mgmt? Honestly, I do not think he could compete with just about any elite heavy , did he catch his notables in a shellform of their prime ? I think he did.

I know about his demise and I would like to keep that out of this conversation if at all possible as I want to focus on him in the ring . I hate to hear that he is most remembered by his appearance in Rocky 5 (which i thought was ridiculous) and how he perished. Its easy for people to pick apart anyone especially someone in the spotlight. We all have our own set of dynamics and deal with them the best we can. The fortunate thing for us is that any type of fault, weakness, flaw, addiction etc will never be exposed as are the issues of those in the spotlight .

 

Ok , he was more hype than actual talent then. Of his era does he even sit in the top 20 or was he just a test horse for true and or real prospects?

 

Now this makes since, and he lost his pedigree once he lost to Mercer. If he beats Mercer (which he never would've because Mercer was his superior and at that time considered "Elite") then proves he's in a different class and his journey ends up who knows where...I know people hate hypothetical scenarios but they seem to frequent the boards. He was what he was . A decade or two will need to go by for his pedigree to rise .

 

I agree about being a great combination chef although I thought the steroids were used as adjunctive therapy do TO his Immunosuppression which doesn't make sense either bc steroids lower the body's immune system which may have contributed to the progression of his dx . However if he used PEDs to build muscle mass and power for fights then my opinion falls even lower than it already is .

I agree if he could've knocked off a top contender things would have been different, he was obviously thinking early round KO with Mercer but it wasn't in the cards . He forgot the whole "Protect yourself at all times" moto after Ray got out the corner and threw Tommy back into it as he should've put his hands up and that punch festival would've at least been muted and the fight continues but if he was a fictional form of himself due to PEDs, my respectometer for him seems to be on the decline.

 

Rocky got a tip from Mickey's ghost(after Apollo was killed in the ring ) that Drago was already including PEDs within his training/nutrition plan so he jumped on board .You honestly can't blame Balboa for trying to even the playing field otherwise the outcome of the fight in the Soviet Union would've had Rocky making his trip back to the US in a casket.