DragonKing Dark: The death of boxer Tommy Morrison

Karl Stern’s Dark 100 looks at the late Rocky V star & real-life boxer.

On this week’s DragonKing Dark, I continue on my path through the 100 darkest moments in pop culture series.

Tommy “The Duke” Morrison was a rising boxing star in the late 1980s into the early 1990s who famously held a version of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title by defeating George Foreman.

He also got his break in acting by appearing as the character Tommy “The Machine” Gunn in Sylvester Stallone’s 1990 Rocky V. But, Morrison’s lifestyle caused his star to tumble and a failed HIV test effectively ended his boxing career despite the fact that he protested and denied having HIV or AIDS up until his death at 44 years old in 2013.

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