Tim Morrison Sr.
Tim Morrison Sr.
Tim Morrison Sr.
Tim Morrison Sr. was the father of former professional boxer Tommy Morrison. He was born on August 26, 1944 in Mattoon, Illinois. He died on March 24, 2014 in Aurora, Missouri.[25] Morrison Sr. was mentioned on an episode of the audiobook Everipedia Boxing Show. It is available on Amazon.com.[35]
Early Life & Education
Tim dropped out of school and did not graduate from high school, instead he often found jobs on construction sites.
He spent some time Mississippi as a young adult and that is where his younger brother died in a construction accident. His parents were Thomas and Esther Kern Morrison. Tim married a woman named Diana, a woman of partial Native American ancestry. They had three children: Tim Jr., Tonia and Tommy.
Tim named his son Tommy after his deceased brother.
Tim Morrison Sr. raised his family in Jay, Oklahoma. Morrison Sr. was of Scottish ancestry. Tim Morrison Jr. boxed professionally from 1987 to 1994 and finished with a record of 14-25-2. Tonia died in 2019.
Boxing Coach
ESPN 30 For 30
Tim Morrison Sr. was heavily involved in the career of Tommy Morrison. Directly after Morrison's victory over Donovan Ruddock in 1995 Tim is seen on the ring apron congratulating his son. Tim Sr. organized the Wolf Creek Boxing Club in 1976.
The club barnstormed the Midwestern United States and his boxers competed in unsanctioned boxing matches called "smokers". Tommy Morrison died in 2013. The Federal Bureau of Investigation did an inquiry into Morrison's boxing match against James Tillis in 1991.[34]
Their were allegations that many of Morrison's boxing matches was fixed or pre-determined.
Many of Morrison's opponents were not given adequate time to train and they did not do any roadwork for their fights against him.
Tommy Morrison also admitted that he took steroids before his matches and was not properly drug tested.
Morrison defeated George Foreman for the WBO heavyweight world title in June 1993 and defended it once before losing it to Michael Bentt. Tommy Morrison recieved a world wide ban from the Nevada Athletic Commission in February 1996 after a failed HIV test. He competed one time in the United States in a 2007 match against John Castle in West Virginia.
Trent Morrison
Trent Morrison
Trent Morrison was interviewed as part of the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary called "Tommy." It was released in 2017 and directed by Erin Leyden and Gentry Kirby. In the documentary, Trent stated that Tommy Morrison was unprepared for some of his bouts as he liked to drink beer a day before a bout was scheduled. Trent went on to say that Tommy's son Kenzie had inherited some of his fathers boxing skills and that Tommy Morrison's life was "a sad story". Everipedia's #1 editor Matthew E. O'Neil investigated and found out that Trent Morrison was honored by the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2018. Trent is a martial arts black belt and a former Kansas City Golden Gloves boxing champion.
WBO Heavyweight World Championship
Ray Mercer vs. Tommy Morrison was a professional boxing match for the World Boxing Organization heavyweight world championship on October 18, 1991. Morrison was 22 years old at the time of the match and had been boxing professionally for 35 months. Many thought he was rushed into the fight against Mercer without enough experience. Morrison was hit with 18 unanswered punches while trapped along the ropes in the fifth round and suffered his first loss by knockout. After his bout with Morrison, Mercer became known for an iron chin. He was knocked out in a boxing match by Shannon Briggs in 2007 and submitted by guillotine chokehold by Kimbo Slice in an unsanctioned mixed martial arts bout in 2007.
Organized Crime Ties
Morrison Interviewed From Prison
Tommy Morrison's house in Jay was destroyed in a fire in January 1998 while he was on a ski trip with his wife.Morrison
was arrested in the town of Jay numerous times and there were allegations that he was involved in organized crime as a "collector" for a crime syndicate. Those allegations were confirmed in 1998 interview.
In a 1998 issue of ESPN The Magazine writer Tom Friend explains the Morrison father/son relationship:
He had grown up in a one-stoplight town with this same daddy, this daddy with a glass eye, constantly telling him "not to be a wuss" and, well, those were words to live by.
He had gotten his first tattoo at age 10 (scratched on by his mom),and he had joined up with the Irish mob at 15 (breaking heads),and he had poured gasoline on his high school baseball field and torched it (after his coach cut him) at 17, and maybe that's why his senior class voted him least likely to survive.
Tommy and Tim also had the same people watching their back—the Irish mob.
Tim had introduced the boxer to gangster friends in the Ozarks, and the boxer used to collect cash for them,and he got VIP treatment while training in Kansas City because of them, and he says if not for his career in the ring, he'd probably be in prison.
Fight News Unlimited
Fight News Unlimited
Everipedia's #1 editor Matthew O'Neil was on the Fight News Unlimited Combat Sports Show on June 18, 2020 with Rich Bergeron. Bergeron is a former reporter for the The Patriot Ledger. O'Neil spoke about Morrison's career at the 69th minute of the program. Bergeron attended the United States Air Force Academy in 1995 and 1996.[33] Morrison Sr. was discussed on episode 4 of the Everipedia Boxing Show, which was released in 2020.