Tommy Morrison is forever immortalized as voracious young boxer Tommy ‘The Machine’ Gunn – who turned on his mentor Rocky Balboa for a shot at the title in 1990 flop, Rocky V.
Echoing the Italian Stallion’s underdog story, Arkansas-born professional boxer Morrison was plucked from relative obscurity to star in the huge blockbuster at the tender age of 20 – which was the anticipated final chapter in the iconic Oscar-winning franchise.
But, seduced by a heady mix of fame, partying, women and money, the former heavyweight champion of the world began a downward spiral – beginning with his shock diagnosis with HIV at age 27 which brought the curtain down on his bright boxing career.
This was followed by arrests and jail time – overshadowing Morrison’s work in the ring – and culminating in his early death from ‘full-blown AIDS’ in 2013 – after years spent denying he had HIV or that the virus even existed.
In February 1996 a tearful Morrison called a press conference to announce his retirement from boxing after his positive diagnosis – following a near eight-year professional career boasting many highs and stinging lows.
Tommy Morrison is forever immortalized as voracious young boxer Tommy ‘The Machine’ Gunn – who turned on his mentor Rocky Balboa for a shot at the title in 1990 flop, Rocky V
Echoing the Italian Stallion’s underdog story, Arkansas-born professional boxer Morrison was plucked from relative obscurity to star in the huge blockbuster at the tender age of 20 (pictured 1990)
But a shock HIV diagnosis, arrests and jail time overshadowed Morrison’s work in the ring – he died from ‘full-blown AIDS’ in 2013 – after years spent denying he had HIV or that the virus even existed (pictured two years before his death in 2011)
Fighting in a boxing era littered with history’s greatest, including Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and George Foreman – Tommy – nicknamed ‘The Duke’ – became known for his punching power and – like Rocky – being a ‘South Paw’ with his strong left hook.
He began his professional boxing career on November 10, 1988, knocking out William Muhammad in the first round, By 1989, he had 19 wins and 0 losses, 15 by knockout – catching the eye of Hollywood heavyweight Stallone.
That same year, after observing one of his bouts, Stallone invited Morrison to read for the part of up-and-coming boxer, Tommy ‘The Machine’ Gunn in Rocky V and cast him.
Morrison took a six-month break from boxing to work on the movie in 1990.
In Rocky V, a financially struggling Rocky, fresh off his defeat of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and retirement agrees to train new protegee Tommy Gunn (Morrison) at the gym once owned by his trainer Mickey.
As Rocky coaches Tommy to become a world-class fighter he is wooed by villainous promoter George Washington Duke (Richard Gant) into leaving Rocky behind to have a shot at the World Heavyweight Title against Union Cane (Michael Williams).
The film culminates in Rocky and double-crossing Tommy having an epic street fight with Rocky coming out on top.
The film was critically panned upon its release in 1990 – with shots fired at its screenplay, characterization and medical inaccuracies and flopped at the box office, becoming the lowest grossing film in the series.
After observing one of his bouts, Stallone invited Morrison to read for the part of up-and-coming boxer, Tommy ‘The Machine’ Gunn in Rocky V and cast him (pictured 1990)
In February 1996 a tearful Morrison called a press conference to announce his retirement from boxing after his positive HIV diagnosis – following a near eight-year professional career boasting many highs and stinging lows
In turn Morrison’s character was villainized and ranked among the worst competitors Rocky had ever faced. He would never again star in a film.
Stallone has since revealed he regrets making the film but was ‘greedy’ saying: ‘It was a mistake because the audience didn’t want to see the downside of the character. They wanted him to remain on top. I should have known that. I fell into a sense of self-parody.’
After Rocky V Morrison began to struggle with his incredible fame and the scrutiny that came with it.
His promoter Tony Holden and lawyer insisted he move from Kansas City to Tulsa to get away from the ‘hangers on’ and temptations faced by a young, handsome, wealthy and in-demand celebrity.
Morrison faced several run ins with the law – including this 2011 arrest after a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper allegedly saw eight grams of marijuana in his vehicle
However, Morrison was determined to cash in on his newfound fame in any way possible and began a reckless partying lifestyle.
Standing at 6ft2 with his muscular frame and classic good looks, Morrison was inundated with attention from his fans,
He famously claimed he beat Wilt Chamberlain’s record of sleeping with 20,000 women.
The consequences of his ‘balls and brawn’ high-octane lifestyle would ultimately bring his bright future in the ring to a shuddering halt – but at the time Morrison was nearing the top of his game professionally.
Life would imitate art for Morrison in June 1993 when he became WBO heavyweight champion of the world after defeating George Foreman in a unanimous decision – but he would shockingly lose the title just four months later to Michael Bentt.
Morrison – the heavy favorite going into the match- was knocked down three times in the first round and Bentt was named the winner by technical knockout at 1:33 in the first round.
The defeat not only cost Morrison the WBO title but also a planned $7.5million payday courtesy of a WBC title fight with Lennox Lewis.
Morrison said afterwards: ‘I zigged when I should have zagged. It’s one of those situations you have to live with and learn from it. I’ll be back.’
In December 1993, two months after losing to Bentt, Morrison was charged with assault and public intoxication after he allegedly punched a University of Iowa student, claiming he had been ‘staring’ at him.
Morrison pleaded guilty – although claimed he was innocent – and paid a $310 fine.
Morrison would pick himself back up with a string of eight wins, and finally matched with Lewis in a non-title bout on October 7, 1995, ultimately losing by sixth round knockout.
But his biggest battle was yet to come. In February 1996, in the hours before a scheduled bout against Arthur Weathers, the Nevada Athletic Commission discovered Morrison had tested positive for HIV, suspending Morrison from boxing in Nevada. Others states soon followed suit.
Days later Morrison’s physician also administered a test, which confirmed the positive results. This came at a time when the virus still carried significant stigma.
Rocky V was slated by critics and Morrison’s character was villainized and ranked among the worst competitors Rocky had ever faced. He would never again star in a film
Morrison blamed his plight on a ‘permissive, fast and reckless lifestyle.’
The diagnosis spelled the immediate end of his boxing career just as he was aiming for a grudge match with boxing icon Mike Tyson.
The emotional press conference saw a sobbing Morrison lamenting how his ‘fast and loose lifestyle’ had led to the diagnosis – and vowing to raise awareness of the condition.
He said: ‘To all my young fans out there, I ask that you no longer consider me a role model. See me as an individual who had the opportunity to be a role model, but blew it.
‘Blew it with irresponsible, irrational, immature decisions. Decisions that one day could cost me my life.”
Sadly the last part of this haunting statement was to come to fruition.
‘To my family — I’m sorry to have to drag you guys through this with me. I wish there was a way I could go through this by myself.’
Morrison said he had spent days ringing up ex partners to encourage them to get tested.
He said: ‘I hope I can serve as a warning that living this lifestyle can only lead to one thing. Misery.’
‘This disease does not discriminate.. This is something that can jump up and bite you no matter where you are at. And it doesn’t matter what color you are.”
Life would imitate art for Morrison in June 1993 when he became WBO heavyweight champion of the world after defeating George Foreman in a unanimous decision
Morrison is pictured with his belt after winning against Foreman
Morrison would shockingly lose the title just four months later to Michael Bentt. Morrison – the heavy favorite going into the match- was knocked down three times in the first round and Bentt was named the winner by technical knockout at 1:33 in the first round
‘If getting up here and confronting this problem out in the open can get just one person out there to take a more responsible attitude toward sex, then I would feel I scored my biggest knockout ever.’
Morrison never gave a concrete reason as to when and where he contracted HIV – although he did tout a theory he contracted it through a dirty steroid needle.
Morrison’s family meanwhile has stated that he received a blood transfusion during a surgery in the early 1990s, which they believe may have exposed him to HIV.
Speaking about Morrison’s womanizing, Holden branded him ‘the world’s greatest bimbo magnet’ and said: ‘In Kansas City it was the guys who wanted to be with him because he could get the girls. They just wanted to drag him out and get all liquored up and chase girls. And Tommy lacked the discipline to say no.’
In a 1996 interview with The Kansas City Star, Morrison said: ‘I don’t know if I got it from a girl or fighting.
‘It doesn’t matter how I got it. I’m going to do everything I can to educate people.
‘Four or five years ago I was a big, tough guy, thinking I was bulletproof. I considered myself pretty selective. I never really thought about it (AIDS).
At the time he struggled to come to terms with his condition, saying he felt ‘healthy and still runs.’
The shock defeat not only cost Morrison the WBO title but also a planned $7.5million payday courtesy of a WBC title fight with Lennox Lewis – he finally matched with Lewis in a non-title bout on October 7, 1995, ultimately losing by sixth round knockout (pictured)
Morrison is seen bruised and battered after his defeat by Lewis in 1995
He said: ‘This is hard to accept. Usually, if you have something wrong with you, you will know. I’m healthy and I will remain healthy. I talked to Earvin (Magic Johnson) last night, and he said he felt the same way.
Morrison said he was affected by rumors he knew he had HIV and had attempted to hide it, saying: ‘I’m glad I found out now. I could have fought another four or five years. I don’t want to put someone’s life in danger.
‘I don’t care what doctors say. I think it can be passed through the eyes and cuts. I don’t think they know.’
Holden also said: ‘Tommy has lived a promiscuous lifestyle. It wasn’t uncommon for me to go to his hotel room and find three or four women outside the door fighting over who was going to get Tommy that night. We had groupies all the way up to career women.
His trainer Tom Virgets said:: ‘After autographing sessions . . . Tommy would hand me 15 or 20 notes given to him by women, with names and phone numbers and little messages you couldn’t repeat.’
The detailed descriptions of Morrison’s love life were hit by claims his team were trying to send a message that the boxer ‘was not gay’ with his lawyer Stuart Campbell denying this at the time, saying: ‘We’re just trying to play it straight up.’
Morrison was shunned by fans after his condition became public with Holden telling ESPN: ‘Tommy had a hard time with it back then, people wouldn’t shake his hand, wouldn’t come close to him, wouldn’t let babies next to him.’
‘You took a kid from this height of stardom, being in movies, to the point where everyone wanted to be Morrison’s friend to the point where, man, nobody wanted to be in the same room with him. I witnessed it. And it was heartbreaking.’
Morrison was a dad of two sons by the time he was 19 – he is pictured in 1989 months before shooting to fame in Rocky V
While his star was rising, Morrison lived by his own words a ‘reckless’ lifestyle of womanizing and partying, bedding more than 20,000 women – he is pictured September 1995, five months before his HIV diagnosis
Shortly after his diagnosis Morrison began taking Retrovir to treat his HIV – but ceased using it after a month claiming it was ‘medical propaganda.’
He turned to religion and denial to combat his condition.
Morrison revealed he had sought advice from NBA legend Magic Johnson – who went public with his HIV diagnosis in 1991.
In 1998 he said: ‘I remember talking to Magic the day I announced I had HIV. 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.’
Without boxing to anchor him, Morrison swiftly went off the rails and in just five years got four DUIs and and ended up in prison for two years over drug and firearm charges.
In October 1996 he pleaded guilty to transporting a loaded firearm in Oklahoma – to which he received a six-month suspended sentence and a $100 fine.
The next year he was convicted of DUI in Oklahoma following an accident that injured three people – he was ordered to undergo treatment.
Morrison’s legal woes continued in September 1999 when an Oklahoma court gave him a two-year suspended sentence for a DUI – which was elevated to felony level due to his previous DUIs.
He passed medical tests in Arizona – even as Nevada stood by its decision – and returned to the ring in 2008. Morrison fought twice more in his career, winning once in West Virginia and for the final time in Mexico in 2008 (pictured)
On September 16, 1999, the police stopped Morrison for driving erratically and found drugs and weapons in his car, which resulted in various drugs and firearms charges.
He would be jailed for two years for these offenses.
While awaiting trial on these charges, he was arrested again on charges of intoxication and weapon possession while a felon in November 1999.
Two months later on January 14 2000. he was sentenced to two years in prison.
He was sentenced to another year in prison on April 3 2002 after violating parole in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but was given credit for time previously served.
When he was released from prison in 2002, Morrison said his HIV tests had resulted in false positives, and he wanted to resume his career.
In an interview with Doghouse Boxing in 2004, Morrison was still in denial over his HIV saying: ‘My feelings haven’t really changed. All the things we’ve been told by our Government, I’ve read about and I’ve found it to be false.
‘A lot of people believe that I’m still alive because I never bought into it. I’ve gotten too many confirmations from God and I know I’m on the right track.’
He passed medical tests in Arizona – even as Nevada stood by its decision – and returned to the ring.
Morrison fought twice more in his career, winning once in West Virginia and for the final time in Mexico in 2008. He finished his career with a record of 48-3-1 with 42 knockouts.
In an interview given as he was gearing up for his ill-fated comeback to the ring, Morrison reflected on the stigma he faced due to his HIV diagnosis.
The star is pictured in 2011 two years before his death – his official cause of death was cardiac arrest, resulting from ‘multiorgan failure due to septic shock caused by a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection’
He said: ‘Some of my best friends that I grew up with wouldn’t even wave at me going through town.’
He said people at the gym were afraid to use machines after him over irrational fears his sweat would give them the virus.
Holden said: ‘Tommy’s a very stubborn person and he views things the way he wants to view things. That’s his right and privilege. All through his career, him and I would come not to physical blows but disagreements on certain things. We always ended up friends. That was Tommy
‘That’s the way Tommy took off after he was told he was HIV-positive. When he first was told, I was taking him to seek treatment and to different doctors around the country. And then he started research on the Internet and started saying it was a conspiracy. He went in that direction and never looked back.’
Morrison had a tempestuous love life – fathering two sons by the age of just 19.
His sons Kenzie and Trey Lippe Morison, now aged 33 and 34 were born just 10 months apart to different mothers. Both have followed in his professional boxing footsteps.
Morrison fathered Trey with former high-school girlfriend Cristi Rader. The pair first met aged 13 where Morrison captured her attention with his tattoo and the fact he could drive a car.
Their first date was to see Rambo starring Stallone in 1982 – eight years before Morrison would star alongside the Hollywood titan.
There followed a 15 year on-off relationship with many ups and downs. Trey was born on September 27 1989 when Morrison was just 20 years old and months away from stardom in Rocky V – released in November 1990.
Cristi told ESPN in 2014: ‘Let me just tell you, he had a way. He was smooth, and he did have a heart. He was a good person. He just had a lot of demons — I guess issues. I don’t ever want to put his mom down or his dad down, but he had a hard life.
‘We loved each other as much as we knew about love at that time. He never knew how to let go. Nor did I.’
Trey said of Morrison: ‘He was my dad. But really, he wasn’t… It was kind of like we were best friends. I mean, he gave me dad advice. He made a lot of mistakes. He told me a lot about the wrongs not to do. That’s how people learn. You can learn from somebody else’s wrong.’
At one point in 1996, Morrison was married to two women at the same time: Dawn Freeman and Dawn Gilbert.
Despite his diagnosis in 1997 Morrison said he was still having unprotected sex with his first wife, saying ‘I’ll trust an attorney before I’ll trust a doctor.’
He wed Freeman in May 1996 and Gilbert four months later. Morrison would remarry Gilbert in 2001 before she left him in 2007.
He fathered a third son with Gilbert – Tristin Duke Morrison, now 20 – eight years after his HIV diagnosis. He detailed how the pair had conceived a HIV-negative child by using a pioneering ‘sperm washing’ technique.
He said: ‘It’s been a blessing. I called Dawn, my wife, from prison one day, and she told me she’d been watching The Montel Williams show.
‘They had a couple on where the guy was HIV positive and the wife was negative and they wanted to have children, but no one would help them. There was this one doctor out of Boston named Ann Keesling who did a procedure called sperm-washing which allowed couples where one was HIV positive could have an HIV negative child.
‘It’s a controversial procedure but it’s been used in Europe for some time now and it’s foolproof. People don’t believe God is still in the miracle business, but he performs them every day.’
In 2011 Morrison wed third and final wife Trisha after getting engaged in 2009.
Trisha sensationally told the Kansas City Star ‘We have unprotected sex’ with Morrison adding: ‘Every day, We’re wild.’
Morrison was born into a broken home in Gravette Arkansas before spending his early years in Jay, Oklahoma.
Coming from a strong line of fighters, he was encouraged to pursue boxing from an early age.
When he was just 10 years old he persuaded his mother Diana to give him his first tattoo by heating a needle in his kitchen and etching an inking of boxing gloves onto his left arm.
Aged 13, he would claim she obtained a fake ID so he could enter local ‘Tough Man’ contests with a minimum age requirement of 21.
Morrison added he participated in at least 15 contests, beating men more than twice his age, and losing only one match.
His father took him to a strip club to lose his virginity aged 14.
His teenage years were spent training in barns with makeshift punching bags before he entered professional boxing aged 19.
The same year he received a football scholarship to Emporia State University, Morrison won the Regional Heavyweight Title – Kansas City Golden Gloves from Donald Ellis and advanced to the National Golden Gloves in Omaha, Nebraska.
He was eventually knocked out in the semi-finals.
His bid to fight in the 1988 Seoul Olympics ended at the hands of Ray Mercer, who later dealt Morrison his first professional loss.
Nicknamed ‘The Duke’ claiming he was a ‘grand-nephew’ of John Wayne, Morrison claimed an amateur record of 202 wins and 20 losses.
Morrison’s behavior became increasingly strange and delusional in his later years.
Before the millennium dawned, he bought a cave to hunker down in as he believed the world would end at at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000 – he slept in the cave on New Year’s Eve.
Morrison died at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska on September 1 2013. He went to his grave still adamant he had a false positive.
His official cause of death was cardiac arrest, resulting from ‘multiorgan failure due to septic shock caused by a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.’
His mother, Diana Morrison, told ESPN he had been in denial about having HIV ever since receiving the first test results.
He hated people to know he was sick. she said, adding that he got pectoral implants to make himself look bigger and stronger. The implants were later removed after becoming infected.
She said for the past year he had been bedridden and fed through a tube. He was unable to speak and relied on a ventilator.
‘He’s in the end stages. That’s it,’ she said in an interview the month prior to his death. ‘I tell him that the family loves him, he’s always in our prayers … I don’t tell him to keep fighting or nothing, because I want him to go.’
She added he had ‘full-blown AIDS’.
His mother, Diana Morrison, told ESPN he had been in denial about having HIV ever since receiving the first test results and said he had ‘full blown AIDS’ a month before his death (pictured 19930
‘Tommy fought right to his last breath. I held his powerful left hook hand till the end and he was not alone. I never left his side,’ Trisha wrote on his Facebook page.
The International Boxing Hall of Fame paid tribute to Morrison as having brought ‘so much excitement and energy to the heavyweight division in the 1990s.’
Holden said: ‘If Tommy was fighting today, he no doubt would be a world champion. You have to look at who he was fighting in the ’90s, the guys in that division were Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, Ray Mercer, George Foreman.
‘There’s no one with that talent today. Tommy would absolutely dominate if he were in his prime boxing today.’