To all the idiots in this business who’ve been tweeting how HIV is manageable, read this:

from www.krmg.com – Morrison’s mother told EPSN in late August her son had “full blown AIDS” and has been near the end for months.

Diana Morrison said the man once known as “The Duke” had been bedridden for a year and has only been kept alive by a ventilator and feeding tube.

The Tulsa World reports Morrison’s former promoter Tony Holden confirmed the former champion died Sunday night in Omaha, Nebraska.

Tommy Morrison was 44 years old.

Morrison was born in Arkansas but spent his youth in Jay, Oklahoma. He took the boxing world by storm when he exploded onto the scene in the late 1980’s.

In 1990 Morrison played a young fighter from Oklahoma named Tommy Gunn in Sylester Stallon’s “Rocky V.”

Despite the movies poor reviews it made Morrison even more of a household name and star in the boxing world.

The pinnacle of his success came in June of 1993 when he beat George Foreman in a 12 round decision to claim the World Boxing organization heavyweight title.

In October of the same year Morrison lost the title in a bout at the Tulsa Convention Center to a fighter with little publicity named Michael Bennt.

Morrison was preparing for a fight in February of 1996 when he was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission.

Less than a week later Morrison appeared at a news conference in Tulsa where he confirmed he had tested positive for AIDS.

Blessed with a thundering left hook, Morrison’s career record was 48-3-1.