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

I agree with that. He sure could hit! I liked him and enjoyed his fights, but what you said about his chin was true. I would only add that, at times, his stamina was very questionable as well.

 

Big puncher but pretty fragile, defensively flawed, stamina issue, but what a great left hook he had. He was also a fun fighter to watch.

 

He had some good movement. Sometimes slipped the jab well. Good at making openings. Deadly left hook. Not a bad fighter but not great. At his best I’d say he was a solid fringe contender

 

I wad reading a book where it said his opponents were carefully curated but he did fight some good fighters.

 

Glass cannon with some skills.

 

As been pointed out already, very good punch, not Mike Tyson power but not far off. His chin let him down. He gave Mercer a scare for a few rounds and smashed An over the hill Ruddock.
He was always in with a puncher s chance.
Entertaining guy. Colorful, which we've kind of lacked recently.

 

From an American Great White Hope point of view, he was American and he was white but I don't think anyone really cared about his skin color related to wanting him to become a champ because he wasn't black.

 

I think the era of the great white hope thing died with Cooney. Given how long now we have all watched black men dominate most sports, how many people are really out there caring about the skin color of a champ? I'd wager you had far more Americans rooting for Wilder over Fury because Wilder is American than you had Americans rooting for Fury because Fury is white.

I think the big rivalries are now by country, which is a healthier thing. Unless you were the pendejo like me who sat next to his Mexican wife and father-in-law, while rooting for Mayweather over Canelo..

 

I am sure that everything you said is correct. Internationally we certainly care about rooting for the American regardless of skin color.

 

Wasn't a huge part of inconsistency down to his wild partying? I always felt his defeats seemed more down to lack of discipline, focus (and in the case of Bentt) underestimating his opponent than being particularly chinny? He seemed to have lived a crazy life style from day one and I feel got rather caught up in his own hype. The punches Mercer hit him with would have KO'd anyone.

 

His win over Foreman was an oddity, win over Ruddock gets underrated, win over Thomas overrated. His punch was good, chin not so much but I think it got much worse after the Mercer destruction. Drugs and lifestyle also really hurt him.

So...decent but flawed.

 

Yeah, I remember American boxing magazines still obsessing over race, until the heavyweight division became dominated by twins from the Ukraine who were very much white, and very much not American. The whole narrative from that angle seemed to disappear and it went back to the “where is the next great American heavyweight?”

 

Then you had the "American Badass" Undertaker rooting for Fury to KO Wilder...

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