Boxing Champ and ‘Rocky V’ Star Dead At 44

Tommy Morrison, the extremely gifted heavyweight champion died in a hospital in Nebraska this past Sunday.

Morrison had great success early in his career, winning fights left and right, even beating George Foreman in a match. He also played “Tommy Gunn” in Rocky V. Morrison was a rock star who looked like he would never slow down, but his life changed forever back in 1996 when he tested positive for HIV.

After testing positive, he would only participate in three more matches before officially retiring in 2008. Oddly enough, Morrison could never accept the fact that he had HIV. In fact, he believed at one point that it was all just one big conspiracy.

Even as he was clearly dying from the illness, he would never accept the fact that he actually had it. According to his wife, Morrison died of, “respiratory and metabolic acidosis and multiple organ failure.” She confirmed the news on a MMA website.

Morrison’s close friend Tony Holden said this about the about the boxer,

“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.”

It really is a shame that his career and life went downhill so rapidly. This dude was a beast in the ring, winning his first 28 professional fights. Sadly, his personal problems were just too much for everyone to handle. He had multiple run-ins with the law, even spending three years in prison back in 2000.

Everyone agrees he had an incredible talent, and most people agree he let a lot of it waste away.