wow, I never knew that's what happened to him.
Professional career ended by HIV
A few days before a scheduled fight against Arthur Weathers in 1996, Morrison tested positive on a mandatory HIV test performed by the Nevada Athletic Commission.[6] Morrison's personal physician administered a confirmatory test, which was also positive.[7] Nevada canceled the fight and placed Morrison on indefinite suspension. At a news conference, a "reflective"[8] Morrison said that he had contracted HIV because of a "very permissive, fast, reckless lifestyle' that involved unprotected sex with multiple partners."[2] Morrison also said that he once thought HIV was a danger only to drug addicts and homosexuals, but that his infection was evidence that HIV "does not discriminate."[2] Morrison stated that he would never fight again.[9] Later in 1996, Morrison announced that he wished to make a comeback with one more bout, the proceeds of which would benefit his newly created KnockOut Aids Foundation.[6][10] To treat his HIV infection, Morrison told the New York Daily News in 2001, he took antiretroviral medication, which reduced his viral load to low levels[7] and according to his promoter, saved his life.[11]
HIV controversy and comeback bid
Beginning in 2006, Morrison launched another comeback bid, alleging that his positive HIV tests had been false positives or that he was a victim of a plot by a rival boxer.[12] The Nevada boxing commission's medical advisory board reviewed Morrison's status and concluded that the HIV positive results were "ironclad and unequivocal."[13] The commission's Keith Kizer stated, "I hope he's HIV negative, I really do, but it doesn't seem likely...We'll wait and see what happens. He said he's been tested several times in recent years, but (we'll ask) what happened from 1996 and 2002, the years he won't talk about."[13] Morrison said he tried to get a copy of the original test results. "We've asked, but they can't come up with it," he said. "I don't think it ever existed."[13] USA Today reported that "Goodman said that's nonsense: 'All Mr. Morrison has to do is contact the laboratory, and they would immediately release the results to him.'"[13]
Unable to box where governing bodies required HIV testing, Morrison had several fights in places where testing was not required.[14][15][16] The Kansas City Star called his last fight, in Wyoming in early 2009, a "staged" event that could be found on YouTube as "Tommy Morrison's fake fight."[3] Morrison also fought an unsanctioned fight on the sovereign territory of the Yavapai-Apache Nation in Arizona, where the state boxing commission does not have jurisdiction. The fight was originally scheduled to follow normal mixed martial arts rules, but was changed on the night of the event to first to exclude ground-fighting, then to exclude kicks, knees, or elbows.[12][17] Where HIV tests were required, Morrison refused to take them. The RACJ, the boxing commission for Quebec, required a routine, supervised HIV test of Morrison in advance of a scheduled 2011 fight. Morrison declined to take the test.[18]
Morrison says he received anywhere from three[19] to six[15] negative HIV test results from the time of his incarceration for a drug conviction in 2000-2001 through 2007, but others dismiss these purported results as fraudulent or forged. Although West Virginia did not require a blood test before Morrison's 2007 fight, Morrison submitted a negative HIV test result "just to satisfy them."[15] However, according to the New York Times, it was not clear that "anyone monitored the...blood draw,"[11] leading to suspicions of switched blood samples. Despite a reported negative test result in Arizona in 2007,[19] the state commission did not clear Morrison to fight, and the Philadelphia Daily News reported that there "seems to be some question about" whether the tested blood was Morrison's own.[2] Also in 2007, the Arizona Republic reported that Morrison had again tested positive for HIV. A former associate alleged that Morrison had tested positive as late as January, 2007, and accused Morrison of "blood tampering and fraud" or forging test results.[12][13] Doctors hired by various news organizations to review Morrison's test results expressed skepticism about the negative results.[11][19][3]
Morrison continued to dispute his HIV-positive status but admitted confusion about the difference between the HIV test, which determines whether a person has contracted the virus, and the viral load test, which measures the level of virus in the blood: "What the doctors would tell me is that the HIV is undetectable. 'We can't find it, but it's not a negative test.' I didn't understand that," he told ESPN.[15] Antiviral medications such as those taken by Morrison after his diagnosis[7] often reduce the amount of circulating virus to an undetectable level, but this does not mean that the person is no longer infected. A test conducted in California found that Morrison was HIV positive but that his viral load was below the limit of detection.[2]
By 2011, Morrison began to make various fringe claims, saying that he was able to teleport himself or regrow limbs, and that he should be able to box without HIV testing because HIV itself does not exist:[3] "I'm living proof that HIV is a myth."[2] He had made a similar statement in 1998, when he told ESPN that "HIV can’t be transmitted sexually anyway, unless it’s man to man. HIV is a harmless disease (sic) that does not cause AIDS."[9] In 2011, the Kansas City Star reported that although Morrison appeared superficially healthy, his skin was sagging, his reflexes were slow, and he had lesions on his hands and arms that resembled Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-defining cancer.[3] HIV, the viral cause of AIDS, has killed millions of individuals worldwide,[20] including several people associated with the boxing industry, such as boxer Ruben Palacios and the former fiancee of HIV-positive boxer Lamar Parks.[2]