Tommy Morrison's profession reached its pinnacle on a scorching June evening in Las Vegas, when he stepped into the ring and beat George Foreman to change into heavyweight champion.
It reached its nadir when he examined optimistic for HIV three years later.
The final 20 years of the brash boxer's life could be outlined by intensive authorized troubles, erratic conduct and mounting well being issues. Morrison would later declare that he by no means examined optimistic for the virus that causes AIDs, whilst he was hospitalized over the last days of his life.
Morrison died Sunday evening at a Nebraska hospital. He was 44.
His longtime promoter and shut good friend, Tony Holden, confirmed that "the Duke" had died, however his household wouldn't disclose the reason for his dying.
Morrison and his spouse, Trisha, continued to disclaim that the previous champion ever had HIV in the course of the closing years of his life.
"Tommy's a really cussed individual and he views issues the best way he desires to view issues. That’s his proper and privilege," Holden said.
"All by way of his profession, him and I'd come to not bodily blows however disagreements on sure issues. We at all times ended up buddies. That was Tommy."
"That's the best way Tommy took off after he was instructed he was HIV-positive," Holden added.
"When he first was instructed, I used to be taking him to hunt remedy and to totally different docs across the nation. And then he began analysis on the Internet and began saying it was a conspiracy. He went in that course and by no means seemed again."
The controversy, together with Morrison's fast decline, overshadowed a stellar profession.
Morrison was a prodigious puncher whose bid to combat within the 1988 Seoul Olympics ended by the hands of Ray Mercer, who later dealt him his first skilled loss.
Along the best way, Morrison grew to become such a recognizable face that he was forged in Rocky V alongside Sylvester Stallone.