By Mark Vester
It was reported in the Arizona Republic , that former WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison (48-3, 42KOs) is ready to make his debut in mixed martial arts, with a goal in mind of eventually landing a fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck "Iceman" Liddell.
Morrison, who recently resumed his boxing career after testing positive for HIV 11-years-ago (1996) in Las Vegas, has a scheduled bout against 340-pound mixed martial artist John Stover. The bout is scheduled to take place on June 9 at the Cliff Castle Casino in Arizona and promoted by Worldwide Fighting Championship.
Following his positive test for HIV, Morrison was medically banned from boxing. In the last few years, he told anyone that would listen that he was given a false-positive HIV result in 1996.
On at least 5 occasions since December 2006, Morrison has tested negative for the HIV virus. After the head of the Arizona State Boxing Commission personally watched Morrison take a blood test at a lab in Phoenix, and the test came back negative for HIV, Morrison was licensed to return on February 20, where he knocked out John Castle (4-2, 2 KOs) in the second round of a scheduled four round contest.
A second comeback bout was scrapped after medical documents were not received in time by the governing athletic board. Morrison did not look great in his bout with Castle and appeared to be tired by the second round. There has been no word on who Morrison is training with in order to properly prepare himself for his MMA debut.
Send news tips to Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com