Tommy Morrison To Fight On Saturday

By Boxing News - 02/06/2008 - Comments

morrison6757.jpgBy John Dower: Former heavyweight contender, and sometimes movie actor, 39 year-old Tommy Morrison (47-3-1, 41 KOs) will be returning back to the ring on Saturday night against Matt Weisharr (3-0-2, 1 KO), fighting on the undercard of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs Jose Celaya junior middleweight bout at the Domo De La Feria, Leon, in Guanajuato, Mexico. Morrison previously tested positive for the HIV virus over a decade ago, and subsequently stepped away from the ring from late 1996 until 2007, when Morrison came back on February 22nd to defeat John Castle by 2nd round TKO.

Morrison, as most would expect for someone coming off such a lengthy layoff, looked poor, his handspeed slower, and gasping for breath even in the 1st round. Morrison has tested negative for the HIV virus in recent tests, which begs the question, why didn’t Morrison get more tests done years ago so that he would have been able to continue his career at an earlier stage? To be sure, Morrison wouldn’t be the first person that had false positives show up in an HIV test, but it’s unfortunate that he had to lose all the years because of what appears to have been a faulty test result.

Morrison reportedly only recently started training again, and according to Dan Rafael of ESPN, Morrison said “I decided to give it a final whirl in 2008.” If that is indeed the case, Morrison will need to be very busy to make up for lost ground, and will need luck on his part,for he’ll have to hope that the top fighters will want to get in the ring with him. Unless I miss my guess, there will be more than a few that might have a lingering doubt about the HIV test, and may be hesitant to fight him for fear that they may contract the dreaded disease.

However, who knows? Maybe Morrison may find it easy to get matches against quality opponents. Even if Morrison does get the fights he wants, it’s doubtful that he’ll have enough of his skills left in which to beat them. The heavyweight division has changed tremendously since the 90s in which Morrison competed, with many more larger heavyweights, with both speed and power that Morrison, and average sized heavyweight at 6’2″, would have to fight against.

Also there’s the question of injuries, a natural part of the sport of boxing, especially for aging athletes like Morrison nearing their 40th birthday. There’s nothing magical about 40, but when you add in all the time that Morrison has been away from boxing, it makes the likelihood of injury to occur. If there’s anything that Morrison can’t take, it’s more time off from the sport, because he needs to fight frequently if he has a even a small chance of competing for a championship in the next year or two.



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