Young Heavyweight Morrison Is Promising

Tommy Morrison can hit. Hard.

The 20-year-old heavyweight has won all 16 of his bouts since he turned professional in November, 1988--half of them by first-round knockouts.

“This guy happens to be a hell of a puncher,” says Al Braverman, boxing director of Don King Productions. “If he hits you, you’re going to go down.”

Just over a year ago, the blond-haired boxer was practicing on the front porch of his family home in Jay, Okla., by slugging a duffel bag stuffed with old clothes and sawdust.

These days, many of his fights are carried nationwide by ESPN, the cable sports network. He is on the undercard of the Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran fight Dec. 7 in Las Vegas.

Morrison’s power punching has stunned opponents and boxing enthusiasts alike, but his managers know it alone won’t make him a champion. Morrison’s pro boxing career has taken off so fast that he has yet to master some basic techniques.

Morrison, whose brother, father and grandfather boxed as professionals or amateurs, ditched plans to take a football scholarship at a small Kansas college when his mother urged him to compete for the 1988 Kansas City, Mo., Golden Gloves championship.

Morrison, who had never had any formal boxing training, won the title.

He fought his way into the Olympic boxing trials, but lost a match by decision to Ray Mercer, who went on to win the gold in Seoul. After beating Morrison, Mercer said of the Oklahoma native: “The kid’s going places.”

Morrison’s raw talent attracted the admiration of John Brown, the owner of a boxing products manufacturing and distributing company in suburban Kansas City, who became Morrison’s co-manager and trainer.

“Tommy previously never had any type of skilled professional training until we got ahold of him in July 1988,” said Brown, who is himself new in the professional boxing circuit. He had trained amateur boxers before but never a professional.

Brown wants to let Morrison get more seasoning by gradually pitting him against more experienced fighters.

“We’re certainly not going to rush him,” Brown said. “He’s got a lot of untapped skill we want to tap. That takes a lot of hard training, and that takes time.”

The 6-2, 215-pound Morrison, who last year moved to the Kansas City suburb of Shawnee, won’t be facing the likes of heavyweight champion Mike Tyson for a couple of years yet.

“We have a two-year timetable,” Morrison said in an interview at a high school track where he runs laps. “Time’s on my side. I’m a young guy.”

Morrison said he still wants to learn how to bob his head, slip punches and develop a stance that would make him a more elusive target.

Wearing sunglasses, a black tank top and shorts covered with drawings of the cartoon character Garfield, Morrison looked like someone headed for a beachside fraternity bash. His youthful looks and unassuming manner, however, belie a fighter who moves in quickly for the kill.

“People don’t like to see a sloppy fight, to see heavyweights wallow around,” he said. “They like to see exciting fighters.”

Morrison’s concussive left-hook has created some excitement.

Just 15 seconds into the first round of a fight on Sept. 5, Morrison felled Ric Ennis with a left to the head. Morrison won later in the round after delivering a few more lefts.

Bill Cayton, who managed Tyson until last year, has said Morrison’s left hook is as good as Joe Frazier’s. Cayton is now Morrison’s other co-manager.

Noting that Morrison’s opponents have barely had time to lay a glove on him before being knocked out, critics say it is unclear whether Morrison himself can withstand a hard punch.

Morrison contends he has taken many punches, in brawls while growing up in Jay--where he said fights were sparked by racial tension between whites and Indians--and while fighting as an amateur.

Critics also say Morrison has faced inferior boxers.

Peyton Sher, a matchmaker who has organized fights for Tyson and who was temporarily with Morrison’s camp this year, said Morrison “hasn’t progressed with his opponents.”

“What you try to do in developing a fighter is put him in with fighters with different styles and experience,” Sher said. “They’re putting Tommy in with experienced fighters, but experienced losing fighters.”

But Brown insisted that Morrison was learning from his opponents, and that the young boxer would face tougher competition as he got more experience.

Morrison is eager to get the seasoning behind him and speaks about his lust for the limelight.

He said Tyson, accompanied by an entourage of aides, fans and reporters, recently saw one of his bouts from a ringside seat.

“After the fight, I was watching Tyson get up at ringside, watching people swarming around him, with flashbulbs popping, and that made me jealous,” Morrison said. “I was thinking, ‘That could be me -- if I bust my butt the next two years, that could be me.”’

Braverman, who has been watching Morrison’s progress, said that may well happen.

“Tommy is a very brilliant, bright young prospect,” he said. “If he gets a little polish on him and they bring him along as they’ve been bringing him along, he could step into the ring with Tyson.”