The tragic story of Rocky’s protégé Tommy Gunn, who supposedly had more knockout power than the feared Mike Tyson!

The story of Tommy Morrison, known to the layman as the character “Tommy Gunn” from the movie Rocky 5, ended very sadly. So let’s remember the man who boxed in the 1990s and was rumored to have more knockout power than the feared Mike Tyson.

Tommy Morrison conquered the world of boxing and the screen

Tommy ‘The Duke’ Morrison was one of the best boxers of his generation and has a number of famous victories on his resume. Most fans know him as the young up-and-coming boxer Tommy “The Machine” Gunn, whose character he portrayed in the fifth installment of Sylvester Stallone’s successful Rocky franchise.

But few know that Tommy Morrison was a successful boxer in his day, holding the scalps of such boxing legends as George Foreman and Donovan ‘Razor’ Ruddock.

Many fans of the time wanted to see him in the ring with the scariest man on the planet, the legendary Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, the fight that could have made boxing history never happened.

During his career as a professional boxer, Morrison terrified his opponents with a stunning left hook that instantly cut down his opponent like skittles. Tommy had been wrestling since he was ten years old, and during his amateur career he took part in an incredible 222 bouts, winning 202 of them.

He began his professional boxing career in 1988, fittingly knocking out William Muhammad in the first round. In just one year into his professional boxing career, he won an incredible twenty fights.

His immense talent was noticed by actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, who cast him in his film Rocky 5. A year later, Tommy took a six-month break from boxing to focus on filmmaking. This may have influenced his performance in his first career WBO title fight, in which he was knocked out in the fifth round by the then undefeated Ray Mercer.

He also won the scalp of the legendary George Foreman

But after his first loss of his professional career, he returned to the winning streak. After eight straight victories, he got another title shot against legend George Foreman, who shared the ring with Muhammad Ali in the memorable “Rumble in the jungle” match. In the fight of a lifetime, he was able to defeat the world boxing legend on points to win the WBO title for the organization’s heavyweight champion.

He defended and lost his championship belt later that year when he fell short to Michael Bentt. Morrison’s last executioner was another legend, Lennox Lewis, who won by technical knockout in the sixth round.

A crazy lifestyle ruined the career of a successful athlete

But things began to change drastically for Morrison. In 1996, he announced that he had tested positive for HIV, citing a reckless lifestyle as the reason. As a result, he was banned from boxing by the Nevada Athletic Commission and the 27-year-old boxer’s promising career came to an end. Morrison tried to dispute the test results with his wife, but to no avail. After that, his life went downhill.

During 1997 to 2000, he was arrested several times for offences against the law, especially for drink driving. Then in 2000, he was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of erratic driving, with police officers finding drugs and firearms in the boxer’s car. The sad story of a great boxer.

After his release, Morrison still attempted to resurrect his boxing career and even managed to enter two fights, having taken 4 negative tests which led to him being licensed.

He won both fights by TKO and adjusted his professional record to 48-3-1. However, after that a scandal broke out regarding the tampering of Morrison’s blood samples and he did not enter any more fights. By 2013, he could no longer move without assistance and at the age of 44, his life’s journey ended due to multisystem organ failure.

Source: ESPN, Boxing News Online, Twitter