Monday Morning Morrison Reverie
Mike Sloan Jun 11, 2007
It's one thing to come into a new sport and try to bend the rules
just a little to make the transitions smoother, but to switch a
fight's framework completely around is just laughable.
Tommy Morrison, a long-forgotten shell of one of the greatest Great White Hopes in the history of professional boxing, made his "MMA debut" Saturday night in the northern Arizona desert.
Or should I say he made his professional boxing-inside-a-cage debut
instead?
According to a solid report from Tommy Messano, Morrison's fight against John Stover was originally supposed to be an MMA-style match-up sans ground fighting: just knees, elbows, kicks and punches. OK, that's fair and Stover agreed to it. But just before the bout actually started, the rules changed to prohibit any sort of striking save for punches, making it a boxing match disguised as an MMA fight.
It seems criminal to me to have the rules suddenly change just as the fight is about to start and it's no surprise considering someone from professional boxing was involved. It's also no surprise that the rule change took place since Morrison's advisor, Peter McKinn, also promoted the event.
Morrison has always been an "interesting" character as his potential and talent made him one of the fiercest contenders on the boxing scene in the early 1990s. But a brutal knockout loss at the hands of the inconsistent Ray Mercer derailed his world title hopes.
Morrison bounced back with several victories over nondescript opposition until he was bombarded within a round against one Michael Bentt. Morrison rallied his career once again but a lackluster draw with journeyman Ross Puritty and an embarrassing sixth-round TKO loss to guaranteed future Hall of Famer Lennox Lewis jeopardized his career.
His fighting future wound up in a tailspin and it finally halted after testing positive for the HIV virus in 1996. Morrison fought once more in a non-sanctioned fight in Japan, where he toppled Marcus Rhode in one round, and then was forced into medical exile.
In an out of jail after that and talked, Morrison openly discussed how he dealt living with HIV. (I've seen the specials on TV and read countless interviews). The funny thing is, now that Morrison has been on a crusade to regain a flicker of his once-sparkling career, he has claimed that he never had the HIV virus.
Confusing matters further, the heavyweight stepped into the cage Saturday under a cloud of accusations from his former agent, Randy Lang, who told the Arizona Republic that Morrison had repeatedly failed mandated medical tests for the HIV virus.
What?
It doesn't help Morrison's case that he turned to "MMA" on a secluded Native American reservation (outside the jurisdiction of the Arizona commission) and that his comeback boxing match earlier this year was in West Virginia, a state not known for having the strictest of boxing commissions.
And now his "MMA" debut this past Saturday quickly turned into a three-ring circus before it even began. It will be interesting to see, in light of this past weekend's events, how regulatory bodies react to Morrison should he again apply for a license to fight.
Misc. Debris
The Ultimate Fighter 5 is about to end this week and in no time season six will be birthed. I doubt I am the only one on the planet who thinks this way, but I am just TUFed out. Do we really have to watch the same exact reality game show again? …
Heavyweight Tim Persey (Pictures) tested positive for methamphetamine after his loss to Jonathan Wiezorek (Pictures) last week, citing yet another fighter to fail a post-fight urinalysis. My question is this: When are these fighters going to understand and get it through their ten-inch thick skulls that state athletic commissions test for this sort of recreational chemistry? (And speaking of Wiezorek, is he the only person to ever win his UFC debut but never be invited back into the Octagon? If that's true, then that's a good little piece of trivia.) …
So Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Dan Henderson (Pictures) are going to defend their world titles against each other in September in England. This means that we will finally get to see the crowning of one undisputed, official, absolute king of one weight class aside from Fedor? Comets must be filling the solar system and heading toward Earth this very moment. What happens if there is never another PRIDE show? Does that mean that if PRIDE somehow disappears before September, that Henderson isn't really a champion when he fights Rampage? Talk about an anticlimax.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan
Tommy Morrison, a long-forgotten shell of one of the greatest Great White Hopes in the history of professional boxing, made his "MMA debut" Saturday night in the northern Arizona desert.
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According to a solid report from Tommy Messano, Morrison's fight against John Stover was originally supposed to be an MMA-style match-up sans ground fighting: just knees, elbows, kicks and punches. OK, that's fair and Stover agreed to it. But just before the bout actually started, the rules changed to prohibit any sort of striking save for punches, making it a boxing match disguised as an MMA fight.
So, let me get this straight: Morrison and Stover both sign
contracts to fight in an MMA fight that allows virtually every sort
of standing strike, but minutes before they actually touch gloves
to compete, the rules completely change to favor the boxer?
It seems criminal to me to have the rules suddenly change just as the fight is about to start and it's no surprise considering someone from professional boxing was involved. It's also no surprise that the rule change took place since Morrison's advisor, Peter McKinn, also promoted the event.
Morrison has always been an "interesting" character as his potential and talent made him one of the fiercest contenders on the boxing scene in the early 1990s. But a brutal knockout loss at the hands of the inconsistent Ray Mercer derailed his world title hopes.
Morrison bounced back with several victories over nondescript opposition until he was bombarded within a round against one Michael Bentt. Morrison rallied his career once again but a lackluster draw with journeyman Ross Puritty and an embarrassing sixth-round TKO loss to guaranteed future Hall of Famer Lennox Lewis jeopardized his career.
His fighting future wound up in a tailspin and it finally halted after testing positive for the HIV virus in 1996. Morrison fought once more in a non-sanctioned fight in Japan, where he toppled Marcus Rhode in one round, and then was forced into medical exile.
In an out of jail after that and talked, Morrison openly discussed how he dealt living with HIV. (I've seen the specials on TV and read countless interviews). The funny thing is, now that Morrison has been on a crusade to regain a flicker of his once-sparkling career, he has claimed that he never had the HIV virus.
Confusing matters further, the heavyweight stepped into the cage Saturday under a cloud of accusations from his former agent, Randy Lang, who told the Arizona Republic that Morrison had repeatedly failed mandated medical tests for the HIV virus.
What?
It doesn't help Morrison's case that he turned to "MMA" on a secluded Native American reservation (outside the jurisdiction of the Arizona commission) and that his comeback boxing match earlier this year was in West Virginia, a state not known for having the strictest of boxing commissions.
And now his "MMA" debut this past Saturday quickly turned into a three-ring circus before it even began. It will be interesting to see, in light of this past weekend's events, how regulatory bodies react to Morrison should he again apply for a license to fight.
Misc. Debris
The Ultimate Fighter 5 is about to end this week and in no time season six will be birthed. I doubt I am the only one on the planet who thinks this way, but I am just TUFed out. Do we really have to watch the same exact reality game show again? …
Heavyweight Tim Persey (Pictures) tested positive for methamphetamine after his loss to Jonathan Wiezorek (Pictures) last week, citing yet another fighter to fail a post-fight urinalysis. My question is this: When are these fighters going to understand and get it through their ten-inch thick skulls that state athletic commissions test for this sort of recreational chemistry? (And speaking of Wiezorek, is he the only person to ever win his UFC debut but never be invited back into the Octagon? If that's true, then that's a good little piece of trivia.) …
So Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Dan Henderson (Pictures) are going to defend their world titles against each other in September in England. This means that we will finally get to see the crowning of one undisputed, official, absolute king of one weight class aside from Fedor? Comets must be filling the solar system and heading toward Earth this very moment. What happens if there is never another PRIDE show? Does that mean that if PRIDE somehow disappears before September, that Henderson isn't really a champion when he fights Rampage? Talk about an anticlimax.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan
