TREY LIPPE MORRISON
As Trey Lippe reflects on the legacy of his father, Tommy Morrison, with Chris Walker, the heavyweight prospect outlines his own plans
We speak to the fighting son of a former WBO heavyweight champion
I MADE A BIG MISTAKE THAT COST ME PLAYING IN THE NFL. AFTER THAT, IT WAS TIME TO DO SOMETHING ELSE”
AS an eager student in Freddie Roach’s Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, Trey Lippe Morrison has, in one sense, already followed his father to Hollywood. Tommy Gunn, the character portrayed by former WBO heavyweight boss Tommy Morrison in Rocky V, was a handsome loner who spoke of a turbulent upbringing. Gunn’s chaotic life mirrored that of the actor playing him, but Trey, a 13-0 (13) heavyweight prospect, insists the only comparisons he’ll be drawing will be from the sporting world.
“Of course I want to be heavyweight champion of the world. I want the belt that my father held,” Trey Lippe Morrison declares.
The boxing dreams harboured by Morrison were only recently conceived. His longtime ambition – an NFL career – was torpedoed by a disruptive demeanour while a student attending the University of Central Arkansas.
“I made mistakes, and there’s probably a little too much that went on that really can’t be discussed, but basically I made a big mistake that cost me my going on to play football,” he notes, evasively. “It wasn’t just some sort of shot where I was an okay player who might have got lucky. The possibility of me playing in the NFL was very high and very likely. After that it was time to do something else.”
A discussion with Tony Holden, his father’s mentor, persuaded Trey there was enough interest in the renaissance of a Morrison brand that peaked in 1993, when Tommy won the WBO title against George Foreman. Tommy surrendered the same strap to the unheralded Michael Bentt in his second defence in the same year, before a thrilling win over Donovan “Razor” Ruddock two years later secured a showdown with Lennox Lewis. After that one-sided six-round defeat to the Brit, Morrison’s life went into freefall. Morrison tested positive for HIV in 1996, shortly before he was due to confirm a fight with Mike Tyson. Barring an ill-fated comeback the following decade, his career as a meaningful heavyweight was over. Morrison died of a cardiac arrest in 2013. His success in the ring was overshadowed by the constant troubles outside it. “Everything I know about my dad [as a boxer] is just like you know it, through stories from other people as I was way too young to even have the first idea what he was like,” Trey explains. “My mum would tell me stuff, and obviously people knew my dad, so it was getting used to the type of man that my father was and what he achieved. ➤
“But at the height of his popularity I was just a very young boy, I was a baby. His career had ended by the time I was going to school and all the HIV stuff meant that he wasn’t as popular as he once was, but I know my father the way I know him, and I’m more than happy with the memories that I’ve got of him.
“There are regrets there, and of course there will be because my dad never ever got to see me fight and that’s one thing I wish he was still around to see. Having my dad there sitting ringside screaming louder than everyone else in the crowd, telling me what shot to throw and then coming into my dressing room after the fight, and telling me what I did well or what I need to improve on in my next fight. He would make a good addition to my team but it’s not going to happen, is it? He’s up there and I know he’ll be smiling down happy that I’m trying to be just like him.”
Although confessing that his father’s thrilling career failed to interest him during a football-obsessed adolescence, Trey now accurately recites the events of “The Duke’s” career.
“Do you know what fight I love watching?” he asks, rhetorically. “The Ray Mercer fight. Even though my dad ends up losing that one with an almighty knockout, watch it before and you see just how good a fighter he was, because everything was going so well for him in that fight. He lost the fight of course but there’s so much to like about his performance in it.
“The Ruddock fight is just my father doing what he did best. He’s in there just looking for a knockout and you see that in so many of his fights. The standout fights, the ones that everyone knows like Ruddock and Mercer, are probably my favourite fights but I can’t just rely, in my own career, on footage of my father. I watch it because he’s my dad and everything he accomplished means a lot to me, but I can’t base my whole career on trying to be my father and try to copy everything he did. I’ve got to learn other ways as well.”
Morrison’s fistic education is important to those supporting his rise. A relative newcomer to the sport, a fact he frequently references, Trey’s apprenticeship was served in hostile gyms with sparring partners well aware of who his father was. A warped desire for superiority would sometimes emerge, one where beating up Trey in sparring represented a moral victory over, and perhaps envy of, the Morrison name. It irked Trey when starting out, but the motivation spurring on his adversaries also found its way to him.
“Those first few spars, getting hit was something else because nobody dare take it easy on me,” he reveals. “I was Tommy
I KNOW MY DAD IS UP THERE SMILING DOWN HAPPY THAT I’M TRYING TO BE JUST LIKE HIM”
Morrison’s boy and that meant these guys thought they were fighting my dad. I’m nothing like him, I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a boxer but because I walk into gyms with that name, it automatically makes people stand up and assume that I’m every bit as good as my dad. I was learning from scratch but the experience helped me. It showed me how hard boxing is and I’ve wanted to learn as much as I possibly can ever since.”
Now stationed at Roach’s West Coast workshop, Morrison is receiving some of the best tutelage within the sport. Surrounded by seasoned competitors at the California fight school, Morrison is digesting the endless knowledge therein to compensate for his lack of amateur experience. He did not have a single unpaid bout, and is now preparing himself for the more challenging tasks that will likely present themselves over the coming months.
Morrison is currently enduring a frustrating period of inactivity as he nurses a hand injury that has hindered him for the best part of the last year. With appearances on Shobox already logged, plus the influence of Roach and his late father, Morrison possesses the vital ingredients to create a name and identity for himself.
More importantly, the 28-year-old Tulsan certainly looks like he can fight and although the names on his immaculate ledger are hardly threatening, Morrison has dealt with each potential banana skin the way that he and his team intended. The tests will become sterner, however, and only then will the true qualities of Morrison be exposed.
“I’ve got a lot to learn and I can’t call out the big names at this point but believe me when I tell you that where they are is where I intend to get one day real soon,” Morrison passionately vows. “I’m going to be the world champion just like my father.”
If he achieves his ambition, and wins a world championship in the top division, he will be the first son of a heavyweight king to do so. For now, it’s a long way off but Morrison – with another nod to his mission’s infancy – is acutely aware of what he has to do.
“Just judge me a year or two from now and see how good I am then,” he requests. “I’ve got power, I’ve got a sporting background and I’ve got a huge desire to be the very best. I’ve already told you that I was going to be a sports star in some shape or form and although it wasn’t to be with the NFL, boxing has now given me a chance to be a success and make my family proud and my city proud. I’m knocking people out all the time and I’m learning so much with Freddie looking out for me, so just let’s see where I go. I’ve got so much more than my father’s name.”
GETTING HIT IN THOSE FIRST FEW SPARS WAS SOMETHING ELSE - NO ONE WOULD TAKE IT EASY”