“Worst Heavyweight title fight in history”
A gentleman asked me the other day what I thought was the “Worst World Title Fight Ever”? My answer surprised the man catching him off guard, it was none other than Tommy “The Duke” Morrison. Many people forget that the former actor even had a belt, even more forget that he once defended it.
Tommy “The Duke” Morrison had won the vacant WBO Heavyweight strap from George Foreman in 1993. Seven weeks later in what was supposed to be a “grand homecoming” Tommy successfully defended his title against a guy named Tim “Doughboy” Tomeshek (51-12, 18 KO’s). But get this, Morrison didn’t even know his opponents name!!!
The Duke was originally supposed to fight another low level fighter named Mike Williams (22-6, 14 KO’s). Williams was a joke himself in that he hadn’t fought in over a year (after getting knocked down 4 times vs James Buster Douglas in a 7′th rd TKO loss). Williams had a stupid rivalry brewing with Morrison since the filming of “Rocky V” when Williams played the role of a Tommy “Machine Gunn” knockout victim. Just 1 hour before the fight Williams pulled out becuase he refused to take a pre-fight drugtest.
Tomeshek was called in as a true “last minute” replacement and got severely beat up for 3 rounds before the fight is halted in the 4′th. The fans in disgust of the clear mismatch threw ice chips into the ring. Morrison stated after the fight, “I didn’t know I was fighting whatshisname till I got out there,”….
This is why I rate this the weakest World heavyweight title defense ever! As blatantly corrupt as the boxing organizations have always been, it still manages to blow my mind at how Morrison was able to get this fight sanctioned as a World Title Defense?
As for the actual fight? It was as bizzare a championship as it gets with Tomeshek holding, taunting and eating punches. The contest was halted after the 4′th round when it was clearly apparent to everyone in the arena that the contest simply should have never taken place.