The UNTOLD Truth Behind The Death Of Tommy Morrison

uh once we got back here then we obviously had the test done and we just found out earlier today that uh the results of those tests did in fact confirm that i when we talk about legendary boxers of the 80s and 90s we often hear the names of sugar ray leonard marvelous marvin hagler roberto duran and iron mike tyson crop up more than often but one particular person who seems to slip under the radar is the famous tommy the duke morrison [Music] born in january 1969 tommy was quite the natural athlete and being the grand nephew of the hollywood legend john wayne morrison had the world at his feet a popular young man growing up through his school years tommy's charm and boyish good looks won the hearts of a lot of people especially the girls only being in his mid-teens morrison was already well known to many in his hometown of oklahoma growing up in a family generation of boxers he followed his father's and grandfather's footsteps on the path to becoming a champion in the sport in fact the morrison name was a highly known name in oklahoma through the family's generation of boxers [Applause] in his early years of boxing tommy shocked a lot of people out there being such a devastating force and an exceptional talent at such a young age tommy often destroyed fully grown men three times his age and being too young to legally fight was known to even forge a fake id to compete in the amateurs morrison was moving fast climbing the ranks in the amateurs and from 1985 to 1988 morrison had gathered an astounding record of 290 wins including 21 losses and an incredible 263 knockouts this moved him to competing in the 1988 olympic trials and facing future rival ray mercer who he unfortunately lost to at the time by unanimous decision staying dedicated and humbled to the sport of boxing and already having a decent sized fan base morrison moved on to start his professional career in 1988 with a first-round knockout of william muhammad in new york city it was clear from this point that tommy was going to be a crowd friendly talent that put people on seats with his explosive style and deadly left hook that ended most fights early i mean i'm in tip-out shape you know i'm i always am i've been working hard trying to improve on my lateral movement moving my head so with a recent signing to espn tommy faced jessie shelby in august 1989 coming on strong from the opening belt morrison put on shelby hard to eventually knocking him out in the second with a big right hand biggest score came when he received a call from the producers of rocky 5 telling him he landed a feature role i couldn't believe it the first time i went out there for the reading i i left feeling like a total jerk and i thought i'd embarrass myself and i'd never acted before who who's your best friend back in orlando oh that's uh that's oklahoma well yeah uh eric elder no no no no no no your best friend is a guy named frankie fear whilst morrison did win two fights in 1990 his biggest breakthrough came not long after he starred in the famous rocky 5 where his popularity was catapulted to the next level even though the fifth film being said by many as the worst in the series tommy had previously no acting experience and was praised upon for his role in the film because of having the opportunity to act i certainly feel more relaxed in front of people now and i certainly feel am a little bigger and it's going to feel stronger a rapidly growing star tommy was becoming and after shortly dispatching of many of the same former opponents of tysons with knockout after knockout it wasn't long before people started to talk about the potential showdown with the king of the division himself this sure had the potential to be the fight of the century with both fighters having similar aggressive styles and knockout capability fans were sure in for one hell of a spectacle although morrison was nothing less than up for the idea of the tyson clash unfortunately tyson had just lost to a massive upset against opponent buster douglas around that time three years on from his unfortunate loss to ray mercer in his olympic trial morrison had the chance to set the record straight and prove himself as a world champion once and for all unlike morrison who was a highly polished knockout artist mercer had a more rugged but relentless brault from here on was where tommy's life would gradually go downhill and change for the worse tommy got into bad habits and after hanging around the wrong people was introduced to the dark work of drugs which had been somewhat of an escape from his recent defeat at the time but also one that would destroy his life forever also known as being a womanizer tommy's hyperactive sex life also went out of control and was one of the reasons that he was blamed for what was later to come although the partying continued on a daily basis tommy still went on to compete against high level opposition even though he was heavily abusing his body at this point tommy's natural athletic ability still surprisingly managed to get him a bunch of wins winner by tko victory tommy [Music] morrison went on to fight against george foreman not long after do you feel that you have amends to make for the ray mercer fight obviously there was a lot to be learned in that fight that was the one fight that i feel as a team that we learned the most it gave us as a as a team an indication of what direction we needed to travel i need to become a more complete fighter when i say complete i mean being able to rely on other things other than being able to hit hard but foreman being much older and not being the same fighter he was in the 70s wasn't quite the tyson money fight tommy dreamt of that being said foreman fulfilled his dream of becoming world champion after becoming the wbo world champion tommy's life took a turn for the worst yet again tommy's performances and physical looks started to diminish in just a short time period of 12 months the lifestyle he had been living outside of the ring had clearly taken its toll on his health the effects this had on him in the ring was devastating as he went on to lose in some of the most shocking one-sided losses of his career i'm not interested in winning them all you know i just want to win one after the end had appeared to be near don king stepped in with an offer he couldn't refuse a 10 million dollar three-fight deal including the tyson dream fight which most would have said he had no chance of winning at this point with the first fight against journeyman arthur weathers an older looking morrison was ready to go but with only few days leading up to the fight a bizarre announcement was made for reasons people couldn't work out tommy had refused to give a blood test to the nevada commission a usual process for all fighters his reasons for avoiding the test didn't add up using excuses such as being scared of needles but such a weak excuse was going to get him nowhere in this case and eventually he had no choice but to give one otherwise he'd be removed of his license but the truth soon came out i'd ask that you no longer see me as a role model but see me as an individual that had the opportunity to be a role model and blew it blew it with irresponsible irrational immature decisions a decision that one day could cost me my life firm that i i have tested positive for that virus and now instantly suspended from the sport morrison then had his license to box revoked but suspicions arise that morrison had been hiding this for a while and tests should have been taken years prior crazy enough this turned out to be true when morrison had been medically diagnosed as hiv positive way back in 1989 seven years before the truth came out even the counselor who had been helping him during rehab had said he was told by morrison that he had tested positive back in 1989. there still are many claims out there as of today that has so-called morrison admits to testing positive earlier on but although these are just claims the amount of evidence stacked up shows that these are likely all to be true from what we've learned so far after word got out tommy's life was never the same with friends forgetting him in a hometown that once supported him completely abandoning him as their own life was surely grim for the star of boxing everybody turned against me i mean it was really strange you know it's a very dark umbrella to live under for such a long time and you know if it had to happen to somebody in my family i'm glad it happened to me yet despite all of this his initial road to recovery started off better than expected taking medication to fight the illness and nursing his body back to full fitness things started to look brighter for morrison but after meeting his future wife trisha in the early 2000s tommy started to act very differently and not for good reasons after such a sudden change in progress morrison had tried to convince people that the hiv was gone and that he had never even had it to begin with after dropping his hiv medication tommy started taking other recreational drugs like cocaine and crystal meth which led to heavy deterioration in his health after long years of abuse he was barely recognizable and at only 40 years old looked like he had aged an extra 20 years sadly on september the 1st 2013 morrison passed away at the nebraska medical center in omaha due to cardiac arrest from multiple organ failure and only being 44 years old thanks for watching if you like this video don't forget to subscribe and hit the like button [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Punch Perfect

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Id: eWCCw2x5i-Y

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020