Morrison, at first understanding the TWO tests he took to confirm his condition, went into insane denial and started telling the world there was NO SUCH THING as HIV. Tell that to the millions who lost loved ones to HIV, which festers into AIDS. Tell that to "Magic" Johnson.
This fool even convinced his wife to have unprotected sex with him. She could test positive at any time.
Tommy, by most accounts, was a good-hearted kid growing up, a good student, someone who cared about others. For one school project he "adopted" an elderly man, helping that man to get around, giving that man money out of his own pocket, too.
Tom Friend, writing for ESPN, paints a slightly darker picture of the blond, blue-eyed Middle American idol: "His mother gave him his first tattoo. And his father gave him his first woman -- at a strip club when Tommy was 14.They entered him, as an eighth-grader, in "tough man" contests. In other words, his parents essentially signed him up for bar fights. That's how he made his name. That and setting fire to his high school football field when he was cut from the team.
As Tommy emerged as a good looking, powerfully built athlete, he seemed to still have humility, even as he began knocking out boxer after boxer. Usually this creates a bravado-monster, but Tommy remained pretty well grounded.As well he should, since his shrewd management team was matching him against tomato cans and has-beens.
One of the most devastating KO's in the history of boxing...nearly ended his career. In a re-match with "Merciless" Ray Mercer, who had defeated him in an Olympic trials match, Tommy won the first three rounds. Mercer admitted, he was in with a kid who could punch. But Mercer listened to Tommy's heavy breathing after the third round and knew he'd survived Tommy's best punches. Ray turned things around, and in a frightening display of power that recalled the ring death of Paret against Griffith, Mercer unloaded again and again, even as Tommy sagged into the ropes, out on his feet. Before the referee finally stepped in, the defenseless Morrison had become a human punching bag. He could've died.
Tommy courageously came back. He believed he could still be champion. It was only one loss. The man had the heart of a champion and he wanted a champion's belt. What a man.
Yes, he fought some people most anyone in the Top 10 should beat, but he also fought tough opposition very much on his level. One of his best fights was against the Sumo-like Joe Hipp, a deceptively flabby looking fighter who had good power and a granite chin. Joe broke Tommy's jaw. Tommy's powerful fist literally cracked against his opponent's skull. He was seriously in danger of losing the fight but he somehow managed to score a late-round knockout.
Impressive for a different reason, was Tommy's defeat of George Foreman. In a move right out of the "Rocky" play book, Tommy changed up on his technique. Instead of being the KO artist, and going for the knockout, he used his speed. He wasn't known for speed, but he was faster than Big George. And so he got in, landed shots, and got out. He didn't go all out for a knock out, and stayed away from George's power.
Tommy Morrison now owned a title. He was the WBO HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION.
Unfortunately for him, he was knocked defending his title. HBO's announcers scoffed at opponent Michael Bentt, and it looked like they were right. Tommy hit him a few times, got him into trouble, and pushed him to the ropes, landing roundhouse shots to the body, and trying to get at the man's head as he covered up.
Tommy was swinging wild and got caught with a counter-punch. He walked right into it, and fell to the canvas. He got up dazed, and it didn't take long before he was clocked and knocked down two more times. The fight was over.
The likable Tommy rebounded against more tomato cans and has-beens and got his chance at the heavyweight crown again, but by the 6th round, Lennox Lewis was still the champ. Tommy, with only three losses on his record and a lot of heart, vowed to keep going. But a routine blood test found him HIV positive.
Tommy was not all that surprised...he admitted he'd made "mistakes" in his private life. When he was an up and coming boxer, and certainly when he was champ, he was partying. He had no shortage of ladies around, one of whom could've easily been HIV positive. It's not that uncommon for ignorant people to not only avoid using protection during sex, but to insist that heterosexuals can't possibly get AIDS. Even some in the porn industry believed at the time that a woman couldn't possibly get HIV or pass it on.
Only Tommy Morrison knew whether the diagnosis of HIV could've come from heterosexual sex or from drug experimentation with a tainted needle.
The rest...is absolutely pathetic history. The ignorance and redneck stupidity that seemed to be around him, led him to not only have unprotected sex with a variety of women (most sportswriters aren't even sure how many wives Tommy had...four or five...) but to literally swear at anyone reccomending medication for his condition. Morrison said "Magic" Johnson reached out to him: "He was preaching, 'Do what your doctor tells you.' Well, I didn't have a doctor then, so I got down on my knees and I prayed. Every day, I was like, 'God, what do I do?' Hell, I saw myself dying. And then I started getting all these books in the mail, and they all said, 'Don't worry about it. Just live your life.' So that's what I did."
Morrison's ragged road to ruin included three drunk driving arrests, over a year in jail, and a total breakdown in communication to the point where sometimes nobody knew where he was. All attempts to keep him straight and find him a job seemed to fail. Nothing...from the memorabilia-signing circuit to coaching kids at a gym, seemed to work for the troubled ex-champ. His incoherent rambling about HIV being fake only made things worse. He resorted to chest implants to keep his fearsome physique.
He managed to return to the ring in the corrupt country of Mexico, where he managed to win a fight. He won a second bought against a tomato can, but this impressed nobody. He was in his late 30's. He was out of shape. Sure, he had enough left to beat the average pug, but he couldn't compete against any quality heavyweight. It was crazy. Tommy was crazy.
Some pictures of him gave fans the sad truth. That balding, gray-bearded guy who looked to be in his 50's...was not going to be a heavyweight champion...and was not in good health. He might turn up here and there to sign autographs for money or to tell the world he was going to fight again...but most of the time he was well under the radar.
Boxing fans went to forums to find the latest on him, which was often a cryptic "he's ok..." and "he's not dying..." but not much else.
Tommy was not the smartest guy in the world, but his school record indicates he wasn't a bad student. Can we say the stupid things he said and the erratic way he behaved was not stupidity, or punch-drunk foolishness...as much as "denial" getting the better of him? It's possible. How many people become irrational in the face of mortality? How many have the strange mentality to get into a ring and risk their lives, believing they will become Heavyweight Champion of the World? It could be the same strange mentality leading to the delusion that HIV is a conspiracy of some kind.
What we know is that Tommy wasn't surrounded by very smart people or effective ones...ones that could put him on the medications that help boost the immune system. He had long been abandoned by most anyone who could do him financial good.
Tommy's wife and Tommy's mother didn't get along about anything, except their concern for him...and the fact that he needed an operation to remove the chest implants, and that he was often so weak he had to be hospitalized.
Ultimately the truth came out...Morrison had been hidden away for months in an un-named hospital, unable to care for himself; dying. AIDS, being a disease of the immune system, had left him vulnerable to any number of lethal and non-lethal diseases. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. He could've died of pneumonia, or cancer. Maybe he did. The family isn't saying, but it'll be on the death certificate. Had he been taking medication, he would most likely still be alive, not dead at 44...his most courageous fights meaning very little considering the big fight he ran from...going from denial to his early death.
This story is so false about Tommy's medical condition, it's hard to know where to start. I just got off the phone with his HIV-NEGATIVE WIFE, who said that they sought his HIV test results for a long time. When they finally got something, almost a decade after the supposed test, it didn't have Tommy's identifying information on it. It's not "denial" to ask that test-takers document their work. . . . And Magic Johnson is trash. Total trash. He's Earvin Johnson from Lansing, Michigan, a son of an auto worker who enjoys tremendous wealth from endorsing the drugs he says he took but never proved he took. What a horrible, insulting comparison to Tommy Morrison, who told the truth about what had happened to him. He was ruined by this bogus "HIV" test result after agreeing to fight Mike Tyson without the blessing of the corrupt boxing establishment. Get the facts. Get them from the source.
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