Documentary - Tommy Morrison
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM) North American (US West Coast - California, Portland) North American (US Western)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
When we talk about legendary boxer's of the eighties and nineties, we often hear the names of Sugar Ray Leonard Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, an 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. 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. Ah, popular young man Growing up through its 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, ah, highly known name in Oklahoma through the families generation of boxers. In his early years of boxing, Tommy shocked a lot of people out there being such a devastating force in 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 I D to compete in the amateurs. Morrison was moving fast, climbing the ranks in the amateurs, and from 1985 to 1988 Morrison had gathered in 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 you at the time by unanimous decision Stain. 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 Mohammed in New York City. It was clear from this point that Tommy was going to be a crowd friendly talent that put people on sees with his explosive style and deadly left hook that ended most fights early. With a recent signing to ESPN. Tommy face Jesse Shelby in August 1989 coming on strong from the opening bell, Morrison put on Shelby hard to eventually knocking amount in the second with a big right hand. Whilst Morrison did win two fights in 1990 his biggest breakthrough came not long after he starred in the famous Rocky five, where his popularity was catapulted to the next level, even though the fifth film being said by many as the worst in the Siri's Tommy had previously no acting experience and was praised upon for his role in the film. A rapidly growing star, Tommy was becoming, and after shortly dispatching of many of the same former opponents of Tyson's 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 year had the potential to be the fight of the century, with both fighters having similar aggressive styles and knockout capability. Bands were sure in for one **** of a spectacle, although Morrison was nothing less than up for the idea of the Tyson clash. Unfortunately, Tyson that 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 is Ah, highly polished knockout artists, Mercer had a more rugged but relentless brawling style. From the first minute of the first round, Tommy was hot off the mark, claiming lots of punch combinations from hooks uppercuts on Mercer, who was taken a **** of a beating. To people's astonishment, Mercer was taken the beating well and not showing much of signs of being hurt. Even after being heavily teed off on that times at the end of the fourth round, people could clearly see that Morrison had used all his energy, and his plan to blow Mercer away in the 1st 3 rounds had failed. With an empty gas tank going into the fifth round, Mercer came on strong and with no fuel, the fire back Morrison was taken out by probably one of the most devastating knock out in boxing history. With a slow reaction from the referee. Tommy unfortunately took way more punches than he should have after being knocked out cold. 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 parting 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 winds. Morrison went on to fight against George Foreman not long after, but Foreman, being much older and not being the same fighter he was in the seventies, wasn't quite the Tyson money fight. Tommy dreamt of that being said Forman was still no pushover, being able to take a punch and also land 12 from the opening bell. Morrison took a cautious approach, using the outside of the ring to avoid the dangerous blows of Foreman picking him off with sharp counterpunches. Learning from his mistakes from the Mercer fight, he avoided throwing everything. He had it Foreman in the early rounds, going on to win via decision, Tommy had fulfilled his dream of becoming world champion. After becoming the W b A 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. After the end had appeared to be near, Don King stepped in with an offer he couldn't refuse. A $10 million.3 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 booth 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 being 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 crazy enough. This turned out to be true. When Morrison had been medically diagnosed as HIV positive way back in 1989 7 years before the truth came out. Even the counselor, who had been helping them 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 air just claims the amount of evidence stacked up shows that these air 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 for getting him in a home town that once supported him completely. Abandon him as their own life was surely grim for the star. A boxing. Yet despite all of this, his initial road to recovery started off better than expected. Taking medication to fight the illness in nursing his body back to full fitness, things started look brighter for Morrison. But after meeting his future wife, Tricia, in the early two thousands, Tommy started act very differently, and not for good reasons. After such a sudden change in progress, Morrison had tried to convince people that the H I V 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 not only 40 years old, look like he had aged and extra 20 years. Sadly, on September the 1st 2013 Morrisonn passed away at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha due to cardiac arrest from multiple organ failure and only being 44 years old.
Tags
Athlete, Everyman, Family Man, Narrator, Sportscaster, Athletic, Authoritative, Believable, Casual, Conversational, Easygoing, Educational, Genuine, Informative, Knowledgeable, North American (General), North American (US General American - GenAM), North American (US West Coast - California, Portland), North American (US Western)