Morrison Foe Is a Fugitive

Think boxing has exhausted its supply of controversy, confusion and craziness? Wait until Sunday.

If a heavyweight fight between two Oklahomans goes off as scheduled that day in Tokyo, there will be a fighter in one corner who has tested HIV-positive. In the other corner is scheduled to be a fighter who has two arrest warrants out for him, one for rape and the other on drug charges.

In between them will be a referee possibly wearing protective goggles.

At ringside will be a promoter who didn’t even know about the HIV results until a few days ago.

And you thought Rocky movies were unbelievable.

The strange saga of Tommy Morrison, who learned he was HIV-positive in February, took yet another weird turn when his projected opponent, Anthony Cooks, turned out to be a fugitive from justice.

Tuesday, police in Okmulgee, Okla., issued a warrant for Cooks on a complaint he raped a 15-year-old girl Oct. 19. KOTV in Tulsa reported that another arrest warrant had been issued Monday after Cooks failed to appear last week for a jury trial on a charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana.

Okmulgee police said he was not in custody Tuesday night. Officers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City were helping look for him. They should have been looking in Los Angeles, where Cooks held a prefight news conference by phone Tuesday morning.

This latest obstacle in Morrison’s long and winding road back into the ring doesn’t appear to be enough to cancel at least his role in the fight, which will be on the undercard of a main event pitting two-time heavyweight champion George Foreman against unheralded Crawford Grimsley.

A publicist, who preferred to remain anonymous while representing Youth Planning, one of the promoters of the fight, said that a substitute would be found for Cooks, if necessary.

“I didn’t hear that there is a problem, but if Cooks cannot come, I don’t worry about that because the [World Boxing Union] will find someone from their sparring partners in their tour group, or another from Japanese sparring partners,” the publicist said. “So if Tommy Morrison can come to Tokyo, we’ll have the match as scheduled. This is not a formalized title match. It’s a kind of show. In that case, we often switch partners when we have problems.”

The American promoter, Ron Weathers, reached Tuesday night at his Los Angeles hotel, said, “I don’t know what the problem is, but if what I have heard is anything close to the truth, I’m gonna have to hold him (Cooks) for the police. I assure you, I’m not taking a fugitive to Japan to fight Tommy Morrison.”

The show will be seen Saturday night in the United States on pay-per-view.

The Japanese promoter of the fight told a Times reporter earlier in the week that he wasn’t even aware Morrison was HIV-positive, even though a worldwide ban on the fighter had been issued in February when a HIV test on Morrison in Nevada came back positive.

As of Wednesday, the Japanese government had no plans to stop the match--or to inform spectators who had purchased front-row seats of Morrison’s HIV-positive status.

Under Japanese law, an HIV-positive person cannot be barred from entering the country without evidence that the person plans to engage in such infectious activities as prostitution. Spokesmen for the ministries of health, foreign affairs, education and justice had no immediate comment, saying either that they were unaware of the upcoming match or that they did not know that Morrison is HIV-positive.

“We haven’t heard anything about this match,” said Nakamura Akihiko, an administrator in the Competitive Sports Dept. of the Education Ministry, which oversees most sporting events. “It’s out of our jurisdiction, so we don’t know anything.”

The third man in the ring Sunday, referee Frank Garza, said he is “strongly considering” wearing goggles for protection against Morrison.”I have absolutely no fear of anything happening,” he said. “There has never been a documented case of a boxer transmitting HIV to another boxer.”

And how does Cooks feel?

In a conference call given hours before the police announced they were on his trail, Cooks took a fatalistic approach about contracting the disease.

“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” Cooks said. “I could get it outside the ring just as easily.”

Cooks, 31, who was released from an Oklahoma prison 18 months ago after serving a year and a half for receiving stolen property, admits friends have been advising him against the fight. So why is Cooks ignoring that advice?

“I need the fight. I need the money,” he said.

Staff writer Sonni Efron contributed to this story from Tokyo.