It come to its nadir when he tested affirmative for HIV three years subsequent.
The last 20 years of the brash boxer's life would be characterised by extensive legal problems, erratic behavior and climbing on health troubles. Morrison would subsequent claim that he not ever tested positive for the virus that determinants AIDs, even as he was hospitalized throughout the last days of his life.
Morrison past away Sunday night at a Nebraska clinic. He was 44.
His longtime promoter and close friend, Tony Holden, verified that "the Duke" had past away, but his family would not reveal the cause of death. Morrison and his wife, Trisha, continued to refute that the previous champion ever had HIV throughout the final years of his life.
"Tommy's a very stubborn individual and he views things the way he likes to outlook things. That's his right and privilege," Holden said. "All through his vocation, him and I would arrive not to personal assaults but disagreements on certain things. We habitually completed up associates. That was Tommy.
"That's the way Tommy took off after he was told he was HIV-positive," Holden supplemented. "When he first was told, I was taking him to search treatment and to different medical practitioners round the homeland. And then he begun study on the Internet and started saying it was a conspiracy. He went in that main heading and not ever looked back."
The controversy, along with Morrison's rapid down turn, overshadowed a stellar career.
Morrison was a prodigious puncher whose bid to battle in the 1988 Seoul Olympics completed at the hands of Ray Mercer, who later administered him his first expert decrease. Along the way, Morrison became such a recognizable face that he was cast in "Rocky V" beside Sylvester Stallone.
Morrison won his first 28 professional fights, drubbing faded champions such as Pinklon Thomas along the way. He strike it large-scale at the Thomas & Mack Center in the summer of 1993 — a agreed decision over Foreman, then in the midst of his comeback — to claim a vacant world name.
As with so numerous things in Morrison's life, the good was rapidly pursued by the awful.
Morrison was in line for a high-profile bout with Lennox Lewis when he was distressed by unheralded combatant Michael Bentt in Tulsa, Okla., not far from where Morrison was raised. He was knocked down three times and the battle was called before the first around completed.
The loss intended a potential $7.5 million payday for a name unification battle easily vanished.
"I zigged when I should have zagged," Morrison said afterward. "It's one of those positions you have to live with and discover from it. I'll be back."
Morrison indeed came back, but he was never the same dreaded fighter. He trounce a assortment of long shots and faded stars over the next couple of years before getting knocked out by Lewis in the sixth around.
That battle occurred in October 1995. By February, Morrison had checked affirmative for HIV.
He'd been organising for another fight that winter when his blood check came back positive for the virus that determinants AIDs. Morrison's permit was quickly hovering by Nevada, and the ostracise was, in effect, upheld by every other sanctioning body. Morrison said at a news conference in 1996 that he'd not ever fight afresh, accusing his plight on a "permissive, very quick and reckless way of life."
His way of life never altered, though, even when he paced away from the ring.
Comments
Post a Comment