Tommy Morrison: Who’s Next?

By Boxing News - 02/12/2008 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Last Saturday night, former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison returned to the ring after a year lay off to stop a badly inexperienced fighter Matt Weishaar (3-1-2, 2 KOs) in the 3rd round at the Domo De La Feria in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico. The win was a potentially important one for the 39 year-old Morrison, who has recently said that this will be his final push for a heavyweight title surge. It’s unclear whether Morrison does have a chance or if he’s merely deluding himself with his dreams of a landing another title shot against one of the four heavyweight champions.

As things are if Morrison wants to continue fighting in the U.S., he’ll likely have to take further medical tests to ensure that he’s clean of the HIV virus, otherwise he’ll be looking at fighting out of the U.S., something that would all be erase any chance at another title bout in the future.

Morrison, who had classic bouts earlier in his career with excellent fighters like Ray Mercer, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis and Razzor Ruddock, to name just a few, remains a popular fighter given his earlier career, and would likely be a fighter that could get a lot of media attention. One would assume that Morrison, knowing the importance of proving that he’s HIV negative, will take further tests to prove that the initial HIV test, which turned up positive over a decade ago, was a false positive. If Morrison does move and head and take the tests, I can see him landing some good opponents in the near future.

However, I’m not sure how much Morrison would have left of his boxing skills at this point in his career. I do, however, believe that inside of three rounds Morrison’s power is close to what it was earlier in his career. Beyond that point in a fight, I’m guessing that he would quickly tire out and lose his power. For that reason, Morrison’s going to need to take it slowly by working his way up from short bouts, lasting 6-8 rounds, until he has the stamina once again to fight 10 and 12 round bouts. He has to think of it as starting completely over again.

At 39, Morrison is not too old, because this is the same age that Foreman launched his own comeback in the 90s. Morrison has Foreman-like power, and can end a fight in an instant in the same manner that Foreman could. As such, I think Morrison should concentrate on fighting more journeyman or raw opponents until he’s ready to start taking on good fighters, say in a year or so.

Of course, as I said before, this all hinges on Morrison taking – and passing – additional HIV tests. However, I believe him when he says that he’s clean of the virus, and that he can pass further tests.



Comments are closed.