Tommy Morrison: best wins and career analysis

I really enjoy your fighter write-ups, please do more.

 

Morrison doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Wilder. Every one of Morrison's top wins was against someone who was washed up, including his lone victory over a guy in the top ten.

 

If you watched the ESPN 30 for 30 on Morrison it explained it all. Morrison never reached his potential due to his own lifestyle choices (plenty of Heavyweights in the 80's and 90's fit this) he had savage power and a Glass Jaw. He was a 'good' fighter who either knocked someone out or got knocked out which made him perfect for TV networks. Nobody is saying he was a 'great' fighter because he wasn't. Morrison didn't take training camp serious and in several fights was drinking beer up until the day before the fight. His trainers said he wouldn't listen and rarely if ever took a training camp totally seriously lone exception being the Foreman fight and even then they said he disappeared on an alcohol bender right after that fight for a week. His mother also said he told her as early as 1990 that he might have HIV. Anyone on here who says Morrison couldn't fight is an idiot. I'd love to see him detonate on Wilder or Joshua's Glass Jaw. It would be brutal but conversely those guys could just as easily KO Morrison. One thing I can tell you Morrison would not be scared to fight them and he wasn't mentally weak like Joshua is for example. Morrison was a very flawed fighter and person.

 

Rating Morrison higher than he deserved was part of the gravy train being built around Tommy. He was a fabrication with potential dollars signs written all over him. You youngsters probably don't remember such a time but there ZERO white serious heavyweights. When Morrison popped there hadn't been even a minor threat in the division since Coetzee and not one that captured any imagination since Cooney (and before him since Quarry). The white heavyweight was all but dead. And this may seem crass and insensitive but it was a huge part of the math of making money in the sport. Thus, Tommy was fed a bunch of 4th tier opponents and the occasional washed up former contenders, ones compromised by drugs, inactivity and age. Matching him against Mercer was just hubris and there the bubble popped in spectacular fashion. The rest of his career was a succession of attempts to rebuild the image so carefully constructed pre-Mercer, and he always hit roadblocks because the reality is he wasn't that good. He was a trimmer Butterbean with a bleach job.

 

Those comparisons aren't exasperated at all. The Stewart comparison might be favorable in fact. The early/mid 90's were a time I was trying to get into the scene, got a few articles published, got some interviews. Morrison was a meal ticket, nothing else. Everyone laughed at the way it was always "we" with Morrison when interviewed. He didn't even have confidence in himself. He was emotionally crippled from the get. His dad took him to a whorehouse for his 13th birthday. It's amazing he got as far as he did. Perhaps with a different background or in a different sport. He did have tons of heart.

There was no chance he would have beaten Mercer. Mercer was beatable at that time when he showed up unprepared or disinterested. He would always show up fit and ready for Tommy. And Mercer didn't have concrete feet like an old Foreman. Tommy couldn't turn his back and run from Ray, who would have swung around from behind and laid him flat. Mercer was a killer when he smelled blood in the water.

 

It's wild how people can weave their own wildly divergent reality from something as concrete and self-evident as this.

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Lets not act like this was a fluke either, a fight who's outcome was changed by a lucky punch or cut. Morrison unloaded everything into Mercer for rounds. Mercer shelled up and let Morrison punch himself out. Mercer in his own words said Morrison hit him so hard he was farting in the ring.

Morrison would never beat Mercer. Doesn't matter if Mercer is 30 or 40. You can't even say Morrison was outboxing him with his brain like Damiani. All he could do was empty the tank and then deal with the consequences.

 

No fluke but Tommy was winning before Mercer took him out.

 

This is what Cooper vs Morrison would have looked like, for those interested.

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And what was Mercer doing? He shelled up, took everything had to offer for several rounds then knocked him out in brutal fashion when he did open up. It was no boxing masterclass. The one with the plan that worked was Mercer, not Morrison.

 

Sure but whatever success Tommy had in that fight should not be overlooked either. Tommy was doing very well in that fight before he got caught.

 

I'm not sure Morrison was any better than Savarese who was white. Even by contemporary white heavyweight standards I wouldn't consider him a standout.

Zolkin was probably better than Morrison and was also white

 

Corrie Sanders was a legit elite talent. Don King rued never landing him, knowing the ATM that guy could have been.

 

It's not hard to win a couple rounds in a row against a guy shelling up, especially when you completely empty your entire gas tank before the halfway point of the fight.

I wouldn't make Morrison the favorite against someone like David Izon but that's just me. Even with a Lou Saverese type.

 

Fair enough.