AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 41
The 90s and another great boxer from that era Tommy Morrison (whose great-grandfather was John Wayne) who beat George Foreman for the world title – not many boxers can say that – and also starred in Rocky V! Watch The Scoop from Monday to Friday featuring Canadian heavyweight champ Bola Ray, who lends his vast experience in the sport and provides his comments and analysis on boxing, on YouTube and TalkinFight.com/live. #boxinghistory
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Transcribed:
Hello talking fight fans around the world, welcome once again to another episode of the scoop featuring the champ bola ray and tonight we’ve got a great episode lined up on good old tommy morrison.
What do you got to say about tommy, oh wow? Well, for you, for the most part, this is another episode in my ongoing um series on forgotten heavyweights.
Soldiers that made the 90s such an iconic decade for the division.
Um.
This specimen was known for his devastating left hook.
Was a world champion for a blip in time, but um beat he actually beat former world champion.
George foreman, not many people could put that on their resume and he had a couple more noticeable.
Uh notable wins, like dawn, been raised erotic.
He was the great grandson of the duke john wayne himself, but he’s mostly remembered for contracting hiv, which put an end to his uh boxing career.
My name is bola raymond olguwali.
This is the scoop.
So, in born january, 2nd 1969 in um, granite, garnet, garnet, arkansas uh, but raised in delaware county in a little township called jay was one thomas, david morrison.
The story is that his great-grandfather was none other than marion morrison, who most people know as john wayne because of his stardom or hollywoodism.
Let’S, let’s call it that his hollywood is hence why he got the name.
The duke was just so fitting.
Now his father pushed him into boxing at the ripe young age of 10, which is great and typical um, but that’s pretty much where his story with his parents actually stops being normal um his mother, not to be outdone, actually falsified his identification so as he could Enter tough men competitions at the age of 13.
, he fought men at the age of 13.
.
He had to show identification that he was 21.
now in her defense.
Tommy later spoke about this on a future interview and whatnot, and he’s claimed that of his 15 fights.
You only lost one so yeah.
What can you say but to say tommy’s upbringing was less than conventional would be like calling the cold war.
An unfortunate misunderstanding: tommy’s mom gave him his first tattoo when he was barely 10 years of age.
Tommy’S dad introduced him to a stripper when he was 14 so as to lose his virginity wow.
My dad gave me a michael jackson, thriller album when i would turn 14.
yeah tommy was wild with a great deal of ability, but just not very much guidance per se, and he was he graduated high school and actually earned himself a full-ride scholarship to emporia state University in emporia arkansas for football, but in his freshman year he also went on to win sorry.
He was in kansas, not arkansas, but kansas, and he actually went on to win the kansas city golden glove championships, not only win the tournament for kansas city, but one best fighter of the tournament he two weeks later went on to the national golden globes, where he Took home a bronze, not bad, this is in 1988 being 1988.
The olympics were right around the corner.
He then went on and tried out for the western america um olympic trials i wish of which he then took a gold medal, and he won that tournament too.
Only to then two weeks later have to go to the national olympic trials and, unfortunately and unbeknownst.
To me, this is where he first met the juggernaut of juggernauts ray mercer and they fought as amateurs of which didn’t prove positive for tommy.
That day, he lost by a slim margin of five to nothing uh november 10th.
1988.
Tommy, then decides to jump pro and he wins by spectacular knockout.
He actually goes on and has a long stretch of wins like he.
He went 19-0 with 15 knockouts in his 19th fight, none other than one sliced alone, sylvester stallone’s, actually in the audience who in essence fell in love with him.
Um sly was looking for a lead for his rocky five movie and he found him tommy the gun.
More or the duke morrison and his movie career had begun.
Tommy goes off and finishes his career, he um, or he finishes the movie and then returns back to what he was meant to do, which was be an actual boxer.
He continues on with the string of wins and including the string of wins.
He beat the former world champion pinclan thomas this one gave notice to the heavyweight division.
There’S a new kid on the block, keep your eyes open so and with that he ran into my main man ray mercer, but this time olympic gold medalist ray mercer, the fight started off very well for for tommy.
He completely battered it and banged rey for the first three rounds, but then the fourth round came around and then that’s when something a little more telling came about in that he got caught.
Ray picked up the pace, a little more exchanges, but it was still tommy’s round, but at the end of the round, tommy was visibly tired.
Now, on the exterior he looks like a juggernaut, he looks like a specimen chiseled out of white ivory um, but then yeah.
He was, he was sucking wind at the end of the fourth round.
The fifth round starts and yeah tommy got caught coming in on rey and ray caught him with the big right spun around.
This was the most memorable knockout in boxing history and unfortunately, tommy was the victim in any other environment.
We’Re talking street we’re talking in a bank we’re talking anywhere other than the boxing ring that beating that ray put on tommy would have got him and an assault, charge and aggravated assault charge at that.
It was epic now tommy continues on with his career.
Actually, rather spectacular, he was um, he goes on to win another six fights um in a row and against most notably uh one joe hip joe hip was the first native american to ever fight for a world title and this this win was.
It was remembered and it was revered not just because who he beat in johip, but the fact that and actually not just because he stopped johip in the ninth round.
But but the fact that he went and did this with not just a broken hand.
But a broken jaw and he pulled out a win like this.
Bravo man he went on to have two more fights and then he’s up against none other than the juggernaut of juggernauts.
George foreman for the vacant wbo heavyweight world title george was on his comeback.
Trail.
Um, so he was incredibly hungry and determined june 7.
1993.
They faced off for this dance.
Not many, including me, taught me any chance at being successful that night um, but when the final bell rang, oh boy, were we wrong? Oh, dear god, tommy chose to fight right, uh george, on the outside, which was ingenious, but i didn’t think that he had the boxing iq for this.
He would dart in throw the big combination, but the big thing which i expected, the big thing was, he wouldn’t stay there, he’d actually get out and he circled and danced and he made it difficult for for torch foreman to actually bang him up.
I thought that this was going to be two trains colliding who had bigger muscles and just pound the hell at each other tommy completely.
He punched heart, but he also outboxed him.
It was a spectacular fight.
Um tommy won the respect of so many people.
After that fight and uh yeah mine might include a 12th 12-round unanimous decision now.
His first total defense was supposed to be against a guy by the name, mike williams, who the night of the fight pulled out the night of the fight they’re.
The main event: can you see how promoters have heart palpitations pulls out of the fight, so the alternative was a fighter by the name of tim thomastech and he was ready to go.
He was in the audience.
He was ready to go now, something that most people.
Don’T realize or know about the pro game is that when um a promoter has the champion what he does is he sets him up for an opponent but to ensure that everything goes well like.
In this scenario, he will go off and get an alternate opponent just in case some kind of stupidity like this happens.
Now, that is what is just done, but most people in tv, fantasyland or whatever.
What you want to call it don’t know this component of the game so when they had tim ray to fight on a moment’s notice, it looked like they pulled him out of the stands and said here.
Bus driver take a beating for a couple of rounds and uh you’ll, get your 500 bucks and go home now.
The wbo being relatively new.
A new um belt scenario thought that it did look bad and decided to not sanction a fight on the grounds that thomas jack had lacked the experience to be fighting a world-class fight.
So the fight didn’t happen.
This turned or could have turned serendipitous because all of a sudden now there’s a mega fight on the horizon: a mega fight against lennox lewis, the wbc heavyweight champion unifying with the wbo heavyweight champion.
Unfortunately, tommy took a tune-up fight against a guy by the name of michael ben, who michael ben, i have no idea.
He is one took a fight against him, got knocked down three times lost via tactical knockout lost his belt.
There goes that wow anyways back on the horse again: tommy finishes 1994 with three more wins via knockout and one draw.
He then starts 1995 with three more wins only to face off against none other than donovan razer roddick, hmm june 10th, 1995.
tommy um.
Their dance is on, and you know it’s gon na be a nail.
Biter tommy got knocked down in the first round and made the count.
I’M like okay round two tommy repays, a favor by rocking donovan and giving him a flurry and the ref gave him a standing, a count.
So now it’s even the next four rounds are pretty much even um.
It’S a it’s an entertaining fight, but then comes the sixth round and donovan catches.
Uh tommy, with a beautiful left hook, boom tommy, is rocked and he’s in trouble.
Donovan johnson, giving it to him given to him, goes to throw a big monster left hook.
Tommy throws a quick left hook.
First catches donovan donovan goes down.
Donovan makes the eight count.
Tommy jumps him throws another flurry on him with seconds left.
The ref stops the fight tactical knockout for tommy morrison in the sixth um yeah.
That was rather impressive, to say the least.
His stock went super high, and now he got that fight against lance lewis.
Now lex lewis is no longer the wbc world champion.
He um he lost to all over mccall um, but in a pre-fight interview – and i think i had a lot to do with the ego, but lennox actually made the commitment that in the event he loses to tommy he’s retiring from the sport of boxing linux lewis.
On october, 7th 1995 linux proved his superiority with the six round knockout or technical knuckle for that matter.
Tommy was never in the fight he got out.
Boxed like it literally was a clinic.
I fell for him then, but this is tommy the gun or tommy.
The duke sorry, i keep calling gun.
Oh yeah, that’s another tommy he’s on my radar, but um yeah.
He um tommy, the duke does it did.
What tommy duke does brushed himself off got back on the horse.
He put together um a couple more fights and then, but these these opponents were nothing nothing to to write all about like we’re talking guys with five and six fights against a guy who just fought twice actually former world champion and just fought nice lewis so yeah.
He strung together three quick uh first round knockouts and then um in 1996.
He was getting ready for a fight against uh agave, nemo, arthur weather when the nevada state athletic commission banned tommy, gunn or tommy duke.
Why do i keep calling him gun um bam, tommy to duke permanently for testing positive with hiv tommy inside the ring was spectacular, a true asset to the sport, strong good, looking guy, he brought it.
He brought audiences to watch it tommy outside of the ring.
Nothing shy of a different cat and when i say different, i mean odd okay tommy, who, at the time, had two wives refused to believe and saw that this whole hiv thing was a conspiracy against him.
Yeah um.
He did a whack load of uh television interviews, tv interviews, um, explain to the boxing public about his hiv and whatnot.
But what wasn’t seen behind the camera was his reluctance to accept that anything called logic in an interview with larry king.
When asked, did you think you could this could ever happen to you? He said no, because he thought that aids only happened to black people.
Now, four years prior to this magic johnson had con uh contracted hiv and took his medication and whatnot, and is here with us today, tommy refused to take the medication, regardless, who told him even magic.
Johnson magic johnson himself spoke to him and mentored him through his trying times telling him you need to take a medication of which he still didn’t do and rested his salvation on his lord through prayer.
His lord was going to make everything.
Okay, he well september.
1St 2013 tommy went to see his lord personally to discuss.
What is he waiting for in curing him face to face tom was a great fighter, but a completely different cat.
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It’S your boy, bowler! That’S the scoop.
Thanks very much once again, a great story off we as fans, don’t really appreciate what everyone goes through, both personally and privately and tommy.
As you said, was a chiseled man and a great fighter in the ring and took on whoever but boy, oh boy, i had no idea.
He went through that end.
If you will never no idea, none whatsoever.
He was a different cat, yeah stories about how he he believed that the world was coming to an end december 31st.
1999.
So he went and bought himself a cave where, where he laid thinking that the world is going to come to an end, i don’t know how surprised he must have been when the world didn’t yeah different cat different and that’s.
I can’t get any more politically correct than that different cash.
It takes all types.
Doesn’T it ray the takes thanks very much.
I appreciate it uh.
We look forward to your episode tomorrow, night uh, being the end of the week, hope you’ve got a good one.
Lined up for us, i’m sure you do uh to all the good listenership out there thanks very much remember to like share subscribe if you are going to subscribe to ring that bell for notifications again, thank you see you tomorrow, night
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