space hillbilly
Mentor
In a recent interview tommy morrison charged that his positive hiv test back in the 90s was a conspiracy by boxing to keep the world championship out of a white man's hands....WHAT DO YOU THINK????
tommy morrison
- Thread starter space hillbilly
- Start date
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
Did Morrison actually say that? I too have heard he was not HIV positive. Morrison was champion for a little while. I remember he lost his belt to some black bum.
Charles Martel
Hall of Famer
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
- Messages
- 8,484
There are certain "chosen" people who hate white men and so wouldn't have wanted Morrison to remain champ. He did have hepatitis C, which has the effect of weakening an individual, and received treatment for it - I wonder how he got it?
Morrison had fast, very hard, accurate punches, but yet he was disappointing against Bentt, showing a less than world-class chin. He did have a loss before that to top heavyweight Ray Mercer, the former Gold Medal winner at the Olympics, but fought very well up until the stoppage. He later appeared to be sick in the fight with Lennox Lewis - he probably had hep C by that time.
Interesting how whenever there's been a top white heavyweight, something always happens to him and he's never the same. For example, Joe Mesi is supposed to have brain damage. Ruslan Chagaev had hepatitis B, which often permanently weakens those who contact it.
And what happened to Wlad in the Brewster fight? He obviously wasn't himself - he appeared drugged, not tired.
Morrison had fast, very hard, accurate punches, but yet he was disappointing against Bentt, showing a less than world-class chin. He did have a loss before that to top heavyweight Ray Mercer, the former Gold Medal winner at the Olympics, but fought very well up until the stoppage. He later appeared to be sick in the fight with Lennox Lewis - he probably had hep C by that time.
Interesting how whenever there's been a top white heavyweight, something always happens to him and he's never the same. For example, Joe Mesi is supposed to have brain damage. Ruslan Chagaev had hepatitis B, which often permanently weakens those who contact it.
And what happened to Wlad in the Brewster fight? He obviously wasn't himself - he appeared drugged, not tired.
space hillbilly
Mentor
yes wa33 he did!! i was reading it on boxrec.com today...whiteathlete33 said:
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
lost said:
Good stuff lost. I also remember reading Morrison make "racist" comments several years back. He said something about blacks being tough until you hurt them.
GiovaniMarcon
Mentor
I'm sure most of the white weegros who hate on old Tommy are the same sort who get punked on the subway for their lunch money, then retire to the safety of their basement where they take out their aggression in pretending they're one of the characters in Street Fighter II and all the Ricans who humiliated them are E Honda or some sh-- like that.
And all the while their moms wonder why they never bring home a girlfriend, then one day in their late 20s they admit they're gay, and their dads hang themselves.
And all the while their moms wonder why they never bring home a girlfriend, then one day in their late 20s they admit they're gay, and their dads hang themselves.
The Hock
Master
Ah, the life of a wigger. Can't understand it.
Back to Tommy Morrison. His weak chin, not any conspiracy, kept him from being the top guy. Still, he could flat throw, and I loved watching the guy fight. He scored some great knockouts.
Would be nice for him if he didn't really have AIDS. Like many fighters, though, he has some sketchy in his background. Not the most credible source of info.Edited by: The Hock
Back to Tommy Morrison. His weak chin, not any conspiracy, kept him from being the top guy. Still, he could flat throw, and I loved watching the guy fight. He scored some great knockouts.
Would be nice for him if he didn't really have AIDS. Like many fighters, though, he has some sketchy in his background. Not the most credible source of info.Edited by: The Hock
nopictures
Guru
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2007
- Messages
- 114
Beat me to it Hock, his chin was his achilles heel...figuratively speaking. His left hook was no joke.
Morrison was the BEST and most EXCITING White heavyweight I saw during the 90's, the loss he suffered against Michael Bent (the BUM) was very costly, it was very disturbing, he was never the same after that defeat.
Whether the HIV thing was a conspiracy or not, he lost so many chances due to bad decisions here and there, as well as his weak chin. But, his knockout power enabled him to display some great and memorable performances. Best wishes to wherever he is right now.
Whether the HIV thing was a conspiracy or not, he lost so many chances due to bad decisions here and there, as well as his weak chin. But, his knockout power enabled him to display some great and memorable performances. Best wishes to wherever he is right now.
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
Morrison was what everyone was waiting for. A white heavyweight with top notch skills. He was like the 90's version of Rocky Marciano, altough not nearly as good. We probably will not have a white American heavyweight champion for a long time. Thank god for the Klitschko's.
Tired old White
Guru
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 461
It is possible to have a successful career with out a great chin. It seems I recall seeing a fighter named Lennox Lewis whom many hail as as the last real Heavy Weight champ knocked out with one punch by a fighter of questionable talent named Oliver McCall. And there are still some who question Vladimir Klitschko's chin.
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
At least noone questions Vitali's chin.
Like some have stated, Tommy's downfall was his chin. You have to give credit to him for stepping into the ring with a glass jaw, knowing if it got tapped the chances of him falling were great. His only ace in the hole was his power and quickness.
His fought Lennox was when Lennox fought the best fight of his life. Tommy was still able to hang with him into the later rounds.
If I am Tommy I wouldn't be fighting now, the danger to his brain is great. Stop and train whites in mid America how to fight. The dream is over. Give another a chance.
His fought Lennox was when Lennox fought the best fight of his life. Tommy was still able to hang with him into the later rounds.
If I am Tommy I wouldn't be fighting now, the danger to his brain is great. Stop and train whites in mid America how to fight. The dream is over. Give another a chance.
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
Yes he is done at this point from a realistic standpoint, but everyone needs money.
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
Lost do you have a link to the Morrison interview where he says it was a conspiracy agaisnt him?
white is right
Hall of Famer
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
- Messages
- 10,159
Guys his old promoter Tony Holden and his manager from his 07' comeback have come out and said he is HIV positive. There is an old topic with links to stories about this. Tommy is only fighting in states without proper boxing commissions. What does that say about this comeback?
white is right
Hall of Famer
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
- Messages
- 10,159
Here is one story from an earlier topic..
Member #332
Joined: 16 February 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2675
Posted: 17 May 2007 at 2:45pm | IP Logged Quote white is right
Okay I was being lazy and didn't post this article. Read it and read what is implied...ARE YOU POSITIVE?
After 11 years on the sidelines, Tommy Morrison claims that the positive HIV test that ended his boxing career was incorrect  and enough people believe him for the former WBO heavyweight champion to have been allowed to fight again. RON BORGES investigates
Photo shot
In February, Morrison was allwed to fight again - Get Big Pic
When is a positive a negative? Or, in the case of Tommy Morrison, when is a negative a positive? Those are the questions staring the 38-year-old former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion in the face as he pursues a comeback to boxing after testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, 11 years ago.
Or did he really test positive?
Morrison's comeback began on 22 February at the Mountaineer Racetrack in Chester, West Virginia, a state that does not require a blood test but where Morrison delivered several test results to prove a point much of the boxing world, and an even larger percentage of the real world, will find hard to believe. Tommy Morrison insists he is now HIV free after testing negative a number of times. So many times that someone finally let him back into the mother of all blood sports. How long he stays there is anyone's guess.
Morrison has said at various times the change was the work of God, the result of a more healthy lifestyle and/or because the test he took in Las Vegas two days before he was to fight Arthur "Stormy'' Weathers on 10 February 1996 produced a false positive for HIV. He claims that could have happened because he was taking steroids, over the counter dietary supplements and Interferon, a drug commonly used to fight hepatitis C. Whatever the reason, Morrison took two blood tests in Arizona in January in an effort to be licensed to box again and both came back negative. Where that left him was convinced he could become the first George Foreman of the New Millennium, an old man in a young man's sport coming back after a 10-year absence to show the boxing world he remains someone to be feared. Just not for the reasons he once was.
"I knew I was negative,'' Morrison (47-3-1, 41 KOs) said three weeks after knocking out a less than journeyman opponent named John Castle (4-2, 2 KO) in two rounds. "I found out two years after I got out of prison [in Arkansas, where he did 14 months on weapons and drug charges during his exile]. Steroids and a lot of other things can make you test positive. It disappeared from my system a couple of times when I cleaned up but I continued to use steroids so it came back.
"Now I'm living a different life and the testing has improved. Ten years ago they gave me a test that costs $10 and said I had HIV. I just took a test that costs $3,000 and it came back negative for HIV. I've passed four or five different tests. I even took and passed one that's not approved yet by the Food and Drug Administration [a government body that oversees those areas of American life]. Back in 1996 the tests were a coin toss. It's more sophisticated today. I was misdiagnosed.''
That is Morrison's story on a good day. At other times he has hinted at dark forces at work behind the 1996 test result that derailed both his career and his life. He has suggested a rival promoter might have doctored the test to prevent him from a planned showdown with Mike Tyson that was likely to have happened before the end of 1996. At other times he has said his newly developing faith in God opened him up to be healed. Whatever the reason, the string of negative HIV test results has left boxing commissions around America in a tight bind that was finally loosened by West Virginia's decision to let him fight.
"It's real simple,'' said Greg Sirb, who runs the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission and is past president of the Association of Boxing Commissions. "You bring him in. You have your medical people draw his blood and take it to an approved lab. If he's negative, he's negative. It's a fascinating case, really. Either you have HIV or you don't. He's getting up in age so there are other tests you'd have to conduct but in Pennsylvania we'd test his blood and if he's negative, he's negative. It's really simple to me.''
Or maybe not.
"Everybody hopes it was a false positive but you have to go beyond wishful thinking,'' adds Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "Tommy did an antibody test in Arizona and it was negative and a PCR test (which involves DNA) and it was negative so it's hard to believe he has HIV. But even if he was medically cleared I'd want to see tapes of his fights. For every George Foreman there are 100 Jerry Quarrys [who died form the effects of early onset Alzheimer's believed to have been caused by head trauma suffered in the ring late in his career].''
One sceptic is Marc Ratner, the former executive director of the Nevada Commission. Ratner was in charge 11 years ago when he received Morrison's blood work and was shocked to see the results. It is a moment he vividly recalled more than a decade later.
"I can remember going up to Tommy at the press conference on Wednesday and telling him I needed his HIV test,'' Ratner said. "He said it was against his religion. I told him: 'Then you can't fight.' That just gave me the feeling something was not right.
''He finally took the test and when it came back positive we ran the second sample. I got that back around 3 or 4 in the afternoon the day of the fight. I called his trainer and said there was a problem with the blood test and he couldn't fight. Tommy didn't seem that shocked. I'm very concerned with this case. There's no question to me that on that Saturday Tommy Morrison was HIV positive. So where did the virus go?''
In those days a positive HIV test was a death sentence. The wienertail of drugs now used to control the spread of the virus has changed that considerably but at the time no one felt you would survive for long with HIV because the virus, which is transferred primarily by blood to blood contact, would soon mutate into full blown AIDS, a disease for which there remains no known cure.
Yet Morrison did fight one more time, on 3 November 1996 in Tokyo, where HIV testing was not required. He stopped Marcus Rhode at one minute, 38 seconds of the first round amidst a near-hysterical climate in which an opponent was difficult to find and so was a referee. Finally Frank Garza of Detroit agreed to work the match but considered wearing a facemask and claimed he'd been threatened by various sanctioning bodies that if he worked the fight his career was over. That did not turn out to be the case and the fight ended so quickly spilt blood was never an issue. Still, then president of the World Boxing Union Jon Robinson, who had sanctioned the main event featuring George Foreman but not the Morrison fight, was irate.
"That is like being an ostrich isn't it?'' Robinson said at the time. "Putting your head in the ground.''
It was believed Morrison would continue fighting outside the United States but instead he slipped into a long depression as his life spun out of control. He would, from time to time, reappear and declare himself HIV free but even after his then fiancée became pregnant with his child and said she had been having unprotected sex with Morrison long after he'd tested positive with no ill effects, he came nowhere near a boxing ring.
"I could fight in other countries but who wanted to get on a plane and travel halfway around the world?'' Morrison said. "It got too difficult and I sunk into a depression. There were so many things going on then it's no real surprise the way my life went.
"When I left Vegas [after the test created a media frenzy] they took me down a back elevator and through the kitchen like I was the President and put me on a red eye back to Tulsa. When I landed it was weird. I was walking to my car and I saw a lounge and a TV was on. There was my face. I had another test in Tulsa and it showed the same thing and a couple days later we held a press conference to make the announcement.''
That day Morrison said: "Many times in life I've had to pick myself up off the floor. This has certainly been one of those times.'' It was a time that would continue for a decade.
At his side then stood his friend and promoter Tony Holden, who broke the news to Morrison in Las Vegas. Although he says he continues to wish him well, they seldom speak and Holden is not among those in favour of his return to boxing because he has serious doubts about the latest test results and Morrison's fitness to fight again.
"I talked to Tommy once a week until a few months ago,'' Holden said. "We talked until I did an interview on an ESPN show about this. His attorney said I was not to call again. He said he really cares about Tommy. I was disgusted.
"I think he's [HIV] positive unless he's been healed by God, and I wish he has. I think the wienertail of anti-AIDS drugs he's taking masks the presence of the virus. That's why he's coming up negative. I took him to see one of the doctors who invented these wienertails. He's saved a lot of lives but he explained to me when you're taking those wienertails the virus level can become so low it won't show up on a test but it's still there.
"He shouldn't be fighting. I think he's going to get hurt. He's been off for way too long to come back in the heavyweight division. I'm tired of hearing about George Foreman. George Foreman was heavy but he lived a healthy life. Take the HIV out of it. I don't think a guy at 38 should start a comeback after 10 years off considering the things he's done to his body. In a boxing ring, you've got to be 100 per cent. You can't be 95 per cent because it's a very dangerous place. People die. Maybe I'm overcautious but I think somebody needs to be.''
American promoter Bob Arum was sceptical himself before he agreed to try and do for Morrison what he did for Foreman when he launched a comeback that became a fairy tale after Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history by stopping Michael Moorer in the 10th round on 5 November 1994. Frankly, Arum knows, this one may not be.
"I went to my doctor and he told me there had been cases of HIV disappearing,'' Arum claimed, "so the next thing was how do I know these were real tests? I went to John Montoya [who heads the Arizona commission]. He had the blood drawn and tested. It came back negative. He had a test that costs $3,000. It came back negative. So I'm absolutely convinced his blood will not infect anyone. He's not infectious.
"Over a period of time we'll see if he can still fight. That's a separate issue. But having experienced George Foreman I know enough not to write him off. His first fight back he was slow. Tommy looked terrible and he wasn't fighting Jack Dempsey but he can still punch. We'll see if he can still fight. It's really a compassionate thing we're doing. Who knows?''
Becoming the next Foreman is Morrison's dream but it comes after not only the ravages of time and a difficult life but also with a dark shadow over him even after repeatedly testing negative the past few years. Will top rated heavyweights get in with an opponent who once tested positive for HIV? No one can be sure but in the risky business of boxing money talks.
When Castle was asked before the fight if he was concerned with being infected if Morrison was cut, he told Tim Smith of the New York Daily News: "Wouldn't you be?'' He fought any way after Morrison showed him three negative blood tests. Yet after the bout, Castle's trainer, Wesley Ramsey, admitted he would have stopped the fight if Morrison suffered a serious cut rather than the small one under his eye which came after Castle dominated him in the first round. Yet not even those concerns cause Morrison the slightest moment of hesitation as he ponders what he hopes will be a spring schedule of at least two more bouts before he faces stiffer opposition.
"People might raise questions but as long as the blood tests come back negative they'll see this for what it is,'' Morrison said. "I've jumped through enough hoops to change my name to Hoops. This is not going to happen over night but the last 10 years I've been healing while other guys have been getting hit. I'm a smarter, more relaxed fighter. I think I'll be a better, more methodical fighter.''
Before Morrison fights again he first must recover from a cracked rib sustained in his win. Then he must show vastly improved cardiovascular conditioning, according to Arum's matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, the guy who brought this idea to Arum.
"I was quite sceptical when I heard he was claiming he tested negative,'' Trampler said. "My gut reaction was you can't test negative if you're positive. I went to watch him train in Arizona and he was pitiful but it's a short flight from Vegas so I went back a few times and kept seeing progress so I talked to Arum. He threw me out of his office.
"'He's POSITIVE!' he kept yelling. But he called his internist and he told him there are cases where the virus has left the body. Nobody knows why. Tommy passed all the blood tests so we decided to see if we could get him on a card in Phoenix in January. They were ready to license him but he hurt his hand so it got postponed until February.
"West Virginia doesn't require blood tests but they got advice from the ABC. You didn't need an expert to read his test results. He was the most tested guy on that card and that includes Joe Mesi. Tommy had no wind. He was gasping for air so I told him he has to hit the roads. He was running second in that fight until he landed that left hook.''
That left hook once made Morrison a commodity so hot he co-starred in one of the Rocky films alongside Sylvester Stallone. It also made him WBO champion when he beat Foreman but soon after he became a dethroned one when he was upset in one round by underdog Michael Bentt. That cost him a shot at Tyson and two years later he was stopped in six rounds by Lennox Lewis. Soon after he travelled to Las Vegas for a tune-up fight and left with an apparent death sentence he now insists he's beaten.
"It's not a real big surprise the way my life went after that,'' Morrison said. "People thought I was in denial. My own family thought I was crazy but God rewards those who are faithful. I don't remember a day that wasn't bad the last 101/2years. It was a very dark time for me. People would see me in airports and say: 'Dude, I thought you were dead.' I didn't have a friend in the world. I knew I wasn't HIV positive but they threw me out of boxing.
"As long as I test negative there's no reason anyone should be afraid to fight me. The Arizona Commission watched them take the blood out of my arm. The test came back negative. People are sceptical because they think this has never happened before but it has. Once I get the ball rolling it will all come out. There's no denying there was a mistake made.''
Tommy Morrison gets no quarrel about that. The question is what kind of mistake. A positive one or a negative one?
Member #332
Joined: 16 February 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2675
Posted: 17 May 2007 at 2:45pm | IP Logged Quote white is right
Okay I was being lazy and didn't post this article. Read it and read what is implied...ARE YOU POSITIVE?
After 11 years on the sidelines, Tommy Morrison claims that the positive HIV test that ended his boxing career was incorrect  and enough people believe him for the former WBO heavyweight champion to have been allowed to fight again. RON BORGES investigates
Photo shot
In February, Morrison was allwed to fight again - Get Big Pic
When is a positive a negative? Or, in the case of Tommy Morrison, when is a negative a positive? Those are the questions staring the 38-year-old former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion in the face as he pursues a comeback to boxing after testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, 11 years ago.
Or did he really test positive?
Morrison's comeback began on 22 February at the Mountaineer Racetrack in Chester, West Virginia, a state that does not require a blood test but where Morrison delivered several test results to prove a point much of the boxing world, and an even larger percentage of the real world, will find hard to believe. Tommy Morrison insists he is now HIV free after testing negative a number of times. So many times that someone finally let him back into the mother of all blood sports. How long he stays there is anyone's guess.
Morrison has said at various times the change was the work of God, the result of a more healthy lifestyle and/or because the test he took in Las Vegas two days before he was to fight Arthur "Stormy'' Weathers on 10 February 1996 produced a false positive for HIV. He claims that could have happened because he was taking steroids, over the counter dietary supplements and Interferon, a drug commonly used to fight hepatitis C. Whatever the reason, Morrison took two blood tests in Arizona in January in an effort to be licensed to box again and both came back negative. Where that left him was convinced he could become the first George Foreman of the New Millennium, an old man in a young man's sport coming back after a 10-year absence to show the boxing world he remains someone to be feared. Just not for the reasons he once was.
"I knew I was negative,'' Morrison (47-3-1, 41 KOs) said three weeks after knocking out a less than journeyman opponent named John Castle (4-2, 2 KO) in two rounds. "I found out two years after I got out of prison [in Arkansas, where he did 14 months on weapons and drug charges during his exile]. Steroids and a lot of other things can make you test positive. It disappeared from my system a couple of times when I cleaned up but I continued to use steroids so it came back.
"Now I'm living a different life and the testing has improved. Ten years ago they gave me a test that costs $10 and said I had HIV. I just took a test that costs $3,000 and it came back negative for HIV. I've passed four or five different tests. I even took and passed one that's not approved yet by the Food and Drug Administration [a government body that oversees those areas of American life]. Back in 1996 the tests were a coin toss. It's more sophisticated today. I was misdiagnosed.''
That is Morrison's story on a good day. At other times he has hinted at dark forces at work behind the 1996 test result that derailed both his career and his life. He has suggested a rival promoter might have doctored the test to prevent him from a planned showdown with Mike Tyson that was likely to have happened before the end of 1996. At other times he has said his newly developing faith in God opened him up to be healed. Whatever the reason, the string of negative HIV test results has left boxing commissions around America in a tight bind that was finally loosened by West Virginia's decision to let him fight.
"It's real simple,'' said Greg Sirb, who runs the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission and is past president of the Association of Boxing Commissions. "You bring him in. You have your medical people draw his blood and take it to an approved lab. If he's negative, he's negative. It's a fascinating case, really. Either you have HIV or you don't. He's getting up in age so there are other tests you'd have to conduct but in Pennsylvania we'd test his blood and if he's negative, he's negative. It's really simple to me.''
Or maybe not.
"Everybody hopes it was a false positive but you have to go beyond wishful thinking,'' adds Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "Tommy did an antibody test in Arizona and it was negative and a PCR test (which involves DNA) and it was negative so it's hard to believe he has HIV. But even if he was medically cleared I'd want to see tapes of his fights. For every George Foreman there are 100 Jerry Quarrys [who died form the effects of early onset Alzheimer's believed to have been caused by head trauma suffered in the ring late in his career].''
One sceptic is Marc Ratner, the former executive director of the Nevada Commission. Ratner was in charge 11 years ago when he received Morrison's blood work and was shocked to see the results. It is a moment he vividly recalled more than a decade later.
"I can remember going up to Tommy at the press conference on Wednesday and telling him I needed his HIV test,'' Ratner said. "He said it was against his religion. I told him: 'Then you can't fight.' That just gave me the feeling something was not right.
''He finally took the test and when it came back positive we ran the second sample. I got that back around 3 or 4 in the afternoon the day of the fight. I called his trainer and said there was a problem with the blood test and he couldn't fight. Tommy didn't seem that shocked. I'm very concerned with this case. There's no question to me that on that Saturday Tommy Morrison was HIV positive. So where did the virus go?''
In those days a positive HIV test was a death sentence. The wienertail of drugs now used to control the spread of the virus has changed that considerably but at the time no one felt you would survive for long with HIV because the virus, which is transferred primarily by blood to blood contact, would soon mutate into full blown AIDS, a disease for which there remains no known cure.
Yet Morrison did fight one more time, on 3 November 1996 in Tokyo, where HIV testing was not required. He stopped Marcus Rhode at one minute, 38 seconds of the first round amidst a near-hysterical climate in which an opponent was difficult to find and so was a referee. Finally Frank Garza of Detroit agreed to work the match but considered wearing a facemask and claimed he'd been threatened by various sanctioning bodies that if he worked the fight his career was over. That did not turn out to be the case and the fight ended so quickly spilt blood was never an issue. Still, then president of the World Boxing Union Jon Robinson, who had sanctioned the main event featuring George Foreman but not the Morrison fight, was irate.
"That is like being an ostrich isn't it?'' Robinson said at the time. "Putting your head in the ground.''
It was believed Morrison would continue fighting outside the United States but instead he slipped into a long depression as his life spun out of control. He would, from time to time, reappear and declare himself HIV free but even after his then fiancée became pregnant with his child and said she had been having unprotected sex with Morrison long after he'd tested positive with no ill effects, he came nowhere near a boxing ring.
"I could fight in other countries but who wanted to get on a plane and travel halfway around the world?'' Morrison said. "It got too difficult and I sunk into a depression. There were so many things going on then it's no real surprise the way my life went.
"When I left Vegas [after the test created a media frenzy] they took me down a back elevator and through the kitchen like I was the President and put me on a red eye back to Tulsa. When I landed it was weird. I was walking to my car and I saw a lounge and a TV was on. There was my face. I had another test in Tulsa and it showed the same thing and a couple days later we held a press conference to make the announcement.''
That day Morrison said: "Many times in life I've had to pick myself up off the floor. This has certainly been one of those times.'' It was a time that would continue for a decade.
At his side then stood his friend and promoter Tony Holden, who broke the news to Morrison in Las Vegas. Although he says he continues to wish him well, they seldom speak and Holden is not among those in favour of his return to boxing because he has serious doubts about the latest test results and Morrison's fitness to fight again.
"I talked to Tommy once a week until a few months ago,'' Holden said. "We talked until I did an interview on an ESPN show about this. His attorney said I was not to call again. He said he really cares about Tommy. I was disgusted.
"I think he's [HIV] positive unless he's been healed by God, and I wish he has. I think the wienertail of anti-AIDS drugs he's taking masks the presence of the virus. That's why he's coming up negative. I took him to see one of the doctors who invented these wienertails. He's saved a lot of lives but he explained to me when you're taking those wienertails the virus level can become so low it won't show up on a test but it's still there.
"He shouldn't be fighting. I think he's going to get hurt. He's been off for way too long to come back in the heavyweight division. I'm tired of hearing about George Foreman. George Foreman was heavy but he lived a healthy life. Take the HIV out of it. I don't think a guy at 38 should start a comeback after 10 years off considering the things he's done to his body. In a boxing ring, you've got to be 100 per cent. You can't be 95 per cent because it's a very dangerous place. People die. Maybe I'm overcautious but I think somebody needs to be.''
American promoter Bob Arum was sceptical himself before he agreed to try and do for Morrison what he did for Foreman when he launched a comeback that became a fairy tale after Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in boxing history by stopping Michael Moorer in the 10th round on 5 November 1994. Frankly, Arum knows, this one may not be.
"I went to my doctor and he told me there had been cases of HIV disappearing,'' Arum claimed, "so the next thing was how do I know these were real tests? I went to John Montoya [who heads the Arizona commission]. He had the blood drawn and tested. It came back negative. He had a test that costs $3,000. It came back negative. So I'm absolutely convinced his blood will not infect anyone. He's not infectious.
"Over a period of time we'll see if he can still fight. That's a separate issue. But having experienced George Foreman I know enough not to write him off. His first fight back he was slow. Tommy looked terrible and he wasn't fighting Jack Dempsey but he can still punch. We'll see if he can still fight. It's really a compassionate thing we're doing. Who knows?''
Becoming the next Foreman is Morrison's dream but it comes after not only the ravages of time and a difficult life but also with a dark shadow over him even after repeatedly testing negative the past few years. Will top rated heavyweights get in with an opponent who once tested positive for HIV? No one can be sure but in the risky business of boxing money talks.
When Castle was asked before the fight if he was concerned with being infected if Morrison was cut, he told Tim Smith of the New York Daily News: "Wouldn't you be?'' He fought any way after Morrison showed him three negative blood tests. Yet after the bout, Castle's trainer, Wesley Ramsey, admitted he would have stopped the fight if Morrison suffered a serious cut rather than the small one under his eye which came after Castle dominated him in the first round. Yet not even those concerns cause Morrison the slightest moment of hesitation as he ponders what he hopes will be a spring schedule of at least two more bouts before he faces stiffer opposition.
"People might raise questions but as long as the blood tests come back negative they'll see this for what it is,'' Morrison said. "I've jumped through enough hoops to change my name to Hoops. This is not going to happen over night but the last 10 years I've been healing while other guys have been getting hit. I'm a smarter, more relaxed fighter. I think I'll be a better, more methodical fighter.''
Before Morrison fights again he first must recover from a cracked rib sustained in his win. Then he must show vastly improved cardiovascular conditioning, according to Arum's matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, the guy who brought this idea to Arum.
"I was quite sceptical when I heard he was claiming he tested negative,'' Trampler said. "My gut reaction was you can't test negative if you're positive. I went to watch him train in Arizona and he was pitiful but it's a short flight from Vegas so I went back a few times and kept seeing progress so I talked to Arum. He threw me out of his office.
"'He's POSITIVE!' he kept yelling. But he called his internist and he told him there are cases where the virus has left the body. Nobody knows why. Tommy passed all the blood tests so we decided to see if we could get him on a card in Phoenix in January. They were ready to license him but he hurt his hand so it got postponed until February.
"West Virginia doesn't require blood tests but they got advice from the ABC. You didn't need an expert to read his test results. He was the most tested guy on that card and that includes Joe Mesi. Tommy had no wind. He was gasping for air so I told him he has to hit the roads. He was running second in that fight until he landed that left hook.''
That left hook once made Morrison a commodity so hot he co-starred in one of the Rocky films alongside Sylvester Stallone. It also made him WBO champion when he beat Foreman but soon after he became a dethroned one when he was upset in one round by underdog Michael Bentt. That cost him a shot at Tyson and two years later he was stopped in six rounds by Lennox Lewis. Soon after he travelled to Las Vegas for a tune-up fight and left with an apparent death sentence he now insists he's beaten.
"It's not a real big surprise the way my life went after that,'' Morrison said. "People thought I was in denial. My own family thought I was crazy but God rewards those who are faithful. I don't remember a day that wasn't bad the last 101/2years. It was a very dark time for me. People would see me in airports and say: 'Dude, I thought you were dead.' I didn't have a friend in the world. I knew I wasn't HIV positive but they threw me out of boxing.
"As long as I test negative there's no reason anyone should be afraid to fight me. The Arizona Commission watched them take the blood out of my arm. The test came back negative. People are sceptical because they think this has never happened before but it has. Once I get the ball rolling it will all come out. There's no denying there was a mistake made.''
Tommy Morrison gets no quarrel about that. The question is what kind of mistake. A positive one or a negative one?
white is right
Hall of Famer
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
- Messages
- 10,159
Here is the other...Ex-agent: Morrison tested HIV positive
The Associated Press
PHOENIX  Tommy Morrison's former agent said the fighter tested positive for the HIV virus in mandatory blood tests for a boxing license, The Arizona Republic reported Friday on its Web site.
"Tommy has tested positive for the HIV antibodies and he always has," Randy Lang told the newspaper on Friday.
Lang said he stopped working for Morrison, the former heavyweight champion set to make his mixed martial arts debut Saturday night at Cliff Castle Casino, on Feb. 25 because the tests had been misrepresented by the boxer and promoter Peter McKinn.
A message left on McKinn's cell phone wasn't immediately returned.
The Associated Press
PHOENIX  Tommy Morrison's former agent said the fighter tested positive for the HIV virus in mandatory blood tests for a boxing license, The Arizona Republic reported Friday on its Web site.
"Tommy has tested positive for the HIV antibodies and he always has," Randy Lang told the newspaper on Friday.
Lang said he stopped working for Morrison, the former heavyweight champion set to make his mixed martial arts debut Saturday night at Cliff Castle Casino, on Feb. 25 because the tests had been misrepresented by the boxer and promoter Peter McKinn.
A message left on McKinn's cell phone wasn't immediately returned.
space hillbilly
Mentor
Here's a new Morrison interview, Tommy is starting to look bad.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/12/2651357/tommy-morrison-now-42-still-clings.html
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/12/2651357/tommy-morrison-now-42-still-clings.html
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
Wow!! For a 42 year old man Morrison sure looks a lot older. He's basically fighting for money to make a living at this point, he will never again be a contender.
white is right
Hall of Famer
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2006
- Messages
- 10,159
He looks withered and haggard. Thank god he can't get a license in any state where he could face a real opponent who could kill him. Maybe he has dementia because what he says doesn't make any sense. If you read between the lines of what he is saying he isn't taking any medication for his illness either.
Edited by: white is right
whiteathlete33
Hall of Famer
Morrison would get killed in the ring with any heavyweight in the top 100 of the rankings. He was very good back in the day but the guy looks like he's going to croak any minute now. After seeing that picture of him he may actually have AIDS.
space hillbilly
Mentor
Yea, just two years ago he looked ok, but now he looks sick...whiteathlete33 said: