By Brent Matteo Alderson

There was a lot going on during this year's inductions into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in California. I ran into Tommy Morrison and he was in the lobby chugging down White Russians while talking with a few fans and I walked up to hang out with him and his fan congregation as he was talking about Elvis.

“You know I’m a big Elvis fan and even in the end when he was in bad shape, he would walk out to the gates of Graceland and sign things and talk to his fans.  I tell people if you don’t like to deal with fans, stay home, don’t leave your house because it’s the public that puts us on a pedestal.”

As Morrison was commenting on the game and his thoughts about the hall of fame, I pushed my way ahead of the pack and asked the Duke some questions about his career.

BoxingScene.com:  How could you lose to Michael Bent in your hometown?

Tommy Morrison:  That was a fluke.  Let me tell you if we fought one hundred times, I would beat him ninety-nine out of a hundred.  That loss was really upsetting because I know I was better than that guy, it was a fluke, he got lucky.

BoxingScene.com:  I always felt like your brawl with Razor Ruddock was very underrated.

Tommy Morrison:  That was a good one, that was definitely one of my favorite fights.  Two big punchers and Ruddock was real dangerous and I got off the floor to win.  That was one of my best fights!

BoxingScene.com:  I wrote an article on BoxingScene.com called Great White Hype:  Tommy Morrison versus Gerry Cooney, and I picked you over Cooney.

Tommy Morrison:  Yah, Cooney was horrible, give me a break.

Interview Notes:  Morrison acted as though Gerry Cooney was a complete farce and responded as if the fight wouldn’t have been competitive.  I think Morrison is mistaken and is a victim of his own time capsule because he probably followed Cooney’s career from the Holmes fight onward, when Cooney was starched by Michael Spinks and George Foreman and didn’t see Gentleman Gerry practically take Ken Norton’s head off or knock out Ron Lyle in a round.

LENNOX LEWIS & MARVIN JOHNSON

The doors had opened up for dinner and the Hall of Fame organizers were pleading with everybody to go inside the ballroom for dinner.  It was 8:30 and the formal dinner had been scheduled to begin at 8PM so practically all of the attendees were seated waiting for the awards ceremony while the inductees were situated in a side hall getting ready to come out.  I went over and mixed my way into the intimate group and situated myself against the wall right next to Marvin Johnson.  I had taught in the inner city for a number of years and one of the secretaries had grown up with Marvin in Indiana so I mentioned her to him and we spoke briefly. 

BoxingScene.com:  (Pointing to Lennox Lewis) Imagine Michael Spinks beat Larry Holmes and Holmes was almost as big as Lewis.

Marvin Johnson:  Yah Holmes was big, but Michael was pretty big himself.
 
(Then about five minutes later Lennox Lewis came over and introduced himself.)

Lennox Lewis:  Hey Marvin nice to meet you I don’t believe we have met. 

Marvin Johnson:  Hey nice to meet you. 

Lennox Lewis:  How’s everything going with you man?

Marvin Johnson:  Good, good.

Lennox Lewis:  Anything new, what have you been up to?

Marvin Johnson:  Well my son got into boxing.  He’s trying to do it.

Lennox Lewis:     Does he have some talent?

Marvin Johnson:  He does, he’s got talent, I just don’t know if he got into it too late, you know what I mean.

Lennox Lewis:  Right, right.  Now did you get him into it?

Marvin Johnson:  No, no, he wanted to and I just told him where to go, the people to go to.

Lennox Lewis:  You just hooked him up with the right people then.  Why not the Ultimate Fighting, that seems to be the new thing.

Marvin Johnson:  No, no.  Just boxing.

Lennox Lewis:  Yah I don’t think it’s quite as civilized as boxing; two grow men rolling around with each other.   Yah I have a boy, he’s four, and he’s got it in him, but I think with his build he’s going to be an American footballer, but he has it in him, he has boxing in him.  I do little exercises with him to show him how to move (at this point Lennox brings his hands up and begins to shift his guard from the southpaw to orthodox stance.)  I also do speed drills with him, the slap game, you know the one with your hands (this is where you put your hand on top of someone’s hand and they try to slap the top of your hands before you can move them).  I can just really see it, he has what it takes.  

At this point the hall of fame organizers signal the fighters to get ready for their grand entrance.
 
Interview Notes:

Marvin Johnson is a nondescript person, a real quiet type of guy and never received the type of press and adulation that Morrison and Lewis received during their careers and he was just waiting for the ceremonies to begin when Lennox came over and talked to him.  And you could tell Lennox felt a certain amount of admiration for Marvin.  Even though Johnson isn’t a multi-millionaire and can’t be ranked amongst the division’s greats, he was an accomplished boxer, having won an Olympic Bronze medal in the 1972 games and was one of the elite fighters at 175 pounds when the division was at one of its strongest points in history.  Lennox Lewis is just a real classy guy.  He made it a point to come up to Marvin and pay his respects to a great fighter, to a man who’s career he had followed while he was moving up the ranks as an elite amateur.

Notes: 

Michael Spinks is one of the only guys weighing in at 175 pounds or less during the course of the last fifty-years that could have beaten a prime Roy Jones Jr.  With the cut off being 1958, I might include Bob Foster and Archie Moore on the list, but that’s about it.

I didn’t receive any e-mails regarding my guarantee on a Calzaghe victory and I’m sure I would have received a lot of them if Jones had won.  Even though I was sure Joe was going to win, there are no guarantees in boxing and I almost ate crow when Jones almost starched Calzaghe in the first round. 

Joe Calzaghe is a great fighter, one of the greatest fighters in European history, but Jones would have dominated Joe in his prime and I would guarantee that if I could.

I went to Oscar De La Hoya’s building in downtown Los Angeles last week and met up with Juan Manuel Marquez for a Ring Magazine interview.  The offices of Golden Boy promotions are like a shrine to Oscar’s career.  They practically have every positive article ever written on Oscar framed, lining the office walls, and every alphabet title Oscar has ever won is displayed in a huge glass case in front of the conference room. And to top it off they have the biggest bottle of Cazadores tequila that I have ever seen (I’ve seen plenty) on the counter top next to the conference table.

The Chris Arreola-Travis Walker heavyweight fight, on November 29 on HBO, is going to be a good one with both men promising to come forward.   

Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?”  Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com