BoxRec

How do you see this one playing out?

A close fight probably that could have gone either way. Mesi in a come from behind late round win probably.

A good fight....Mesi probably goes down but outworks a tiring Morrison.

A prime Morrison seemed to be at another level imo, I'd pick Tommy by third round tko.

Prime vs Prime

Duke win by KO 4

Morrison was on another level entirely to Joe Mesi, who never made it out of the B-class and was having a nightmare even then.

Morrison KO1 Mesi.

Tuan_Jim wrote:Morrison was on another level entirely to Joe Mesi, who never made it out of the B-class and was having a nightmare even then.

Morrison KO1 Mesi.

Picking Morrison to win is fine.. But in all honesty, I don't think these guys were too far apart in terms of their levels.

I'd go for Morrison as well...he beat a better class of fighter and carried some serious, game-ending firepower. When he was fit, focussed and not chasing the ladies he was a top-drawer fighter who only had to bow to the very elite guys.

Mesi was a tough dude and exciting to watch and it is a big pity we never saw his career come to any kind of meaningful conclusion. Seem to remember him having a whirlwind workrate and when he exchanged with fighters he always managed to land the extra shot and had some decent mobility.

Nice, full-on fight but I just The Duke had a little bit more of everything and comes out on top having swapped some bombs with Joe.

drunkenpiper36 wrote:Picking Morrison to win is fine.. But in all honesty, I don't think these guys were too far apart in terms of their levels.

Other than their skintone, I see no similarities.

It took seven years to move Joe Mesi up to fighting B-class heavyweight contenders (Williamson, Barrett, Jirov), whereas Tommy Morrison was fighting Ray Mercer within three years of turning pro.

It took Mesi a combined 20 rounds to get rid of the withered corpses of Cooper, Gonzalez and Izon. Given their expired punch resistance & lack of defence, and how suddenly Tommy Morrison could wipe out washedup name heavyweights, I can't see how on earth any of those three ghouls could survive the opening round versus Morrison.

Morrison came through wars with Joe Hipp and Carl Williams. Mesi found his level versus Barrett and Jirov. The Duke was just so much more balanced and well-schooled than Mesi. I can't see how anyone could picture Joe Mesi handling Foreman, turning the tables on Razor Ruddock, or going six rounds with a prime and on-form Lennox Lewis.

Lewis said of Morrison last year that through the whole fight he had to be careful because he knew Morrison 'was one of the most dangerous men I had ever faced.' I doubt even Monte Barrett rates Joe Mesi as one of the most dangerous men he ever faced.

I'd love to see, and would pay to watch, Morrison/Mesi, but Mesi is way north of his level versus the Duke.

Not even close. Morrison was a genuine contender. A world class heavyweight. Mesi was an unproven prospect.

Tuan_Jim wrote:

drunkenpiper36 wrote:Picking Morrison to win is fine.. But in all honesty, I don't think these guys were too far apart in terms of their levels.

Other than their skintone, I see no similarities.

It took seven years to move Joe Mesi up to fighting B-class heavyweight contenders (Williamson, Barrett, Jirov), whereas Tommy Morrison was fighting Ray Mercer within three years of turning pro.

It took Mesi a combined 20 rounds to get rid of the withered corpses of Cooper, Gonzalez and Izon. Given their expired punch resistance & lack of defence, and how suddenly Tommy Morrison could wipe out washedup name heavyweights, I can't see how on earth any of those three ghouls could survive the opening round versus Morrison.

Morrison came through wars with Joe Hipp and Carl Williams. Mesi found his level versus Barrett and Jirov. The Duke was just so much more balanced and well-schooled than Mesi. I can't see how anyone could picture Joe Mesi handling Foreman, turning the tables on Razor Ruddock, or going six rounds with a prime and on-form Lennox Lewis.

Lewis said of Morrison last year that through the whole fight he had to be careful because he knew Morrison 'was one of the most dangerous men I had ever faced.' I doubt even Monte Barrett rates Joe Mesi as one of the most dangerous men he ever faced.

I'd love to see, and would pay to watch, Morrison/Mesi, but Mesi is way north of his level versus the Duke.

you make some nice and even valid points. And I can see some reasoning behind making Morrison the favorite. I probably would as well..But with all due respect, I think you're inflating his resume just a tad. I grew up watching Morrison in high school and college, and nobody including myself thought much of his opposition. in fact, most of the time he was fighting pure garbage. His name got put on the ballot as a top flight rising star by beating the exhumed remains of James Tillis and Pinklon Thomas, which was how he got the Mercer bout in his 29th fight. Ray himself was 30 years old with only 16 outings, struggled mightily to beat Damiani and Cooper and lost to a comeback Holmes immediately after wiping the floor with Tommy. The Williams and Ruddock fights were entertaining contests and should be considered "decent" wins. But you comment on how Mesi struggled with shot opposition, while Morrison was nearly beaten by those guys who were equally washed up. Purity was an 8-8 nobody and put him on the deck twice. Bent was nobody and stopped him in 1 round. The Foreman victory was the only thing that sets him apart from Mesi, but Tommy fought a different style for a one night only performance and against a guy who was pushing 45 ( still dangerous though. ) Admittedly I have seen a lot more of Morrison than I have of Mesi as I took a break from watching boxing during part of the 2000's era. But Joe doesn't look as crude on film to me as some have described and his opponents were not leagues beneath Morrison's in my opinion. On top of everything else, the man never lost or was too badly exposed. I'd give the guy a live chance even if the money should be on the ( real ) Duke's nephew.

I would favor Morrison by TKO in the latter rounds. I only say this because Mesi was in a hell of a contest with Cruiserweight king Jirov, and in my eyes probably should have been a draw. Not taking anything away from Jirov, but as a heavyweight he was nothing to scream over. Then again, I saw Ross Purrity put a beating on Morrison and was robbed blind. So who really knows.

drunkenpiper36 wrote:

Tuan_Jim wrote:Morrison was on another level entirely to Joe Mesi, who never made it out of the B-class and was having a nightmare even then.

Morrison KO1 Mesi.

Picking Morrison to win is fine.. But in all honesty, I don't think these guys were too far apart in terms of their levels.

That's not a surprise.

I've never seen anyone describe Puritty/Morrison as Puritty 'putting a beating' on Tommy. It was close and the two KDs were suppose to swing it for Puritty, rather than him being the dominant fighter, which he certainly wasn't.

What's interesting about that fight is the Morrison hook in one of the early rounds turns Puritty to jelly. Neither Klitschko was ever able to shake him up.

Tuan_Jim wrote:I've never seen anyone describe Puritty/Morrison as Puritty 'putting a beating' on Tommy. It was close and the two KDs were suppose to swing it for Puritty, rather than him being the dominant fighter, which he certainly wasn't.

What's interesting about that fight is the Morrison hook in one of the early rounds turns Puritty to jelly. Neither Klitschko was ever able to shake him up.

Imo, I felt Puritty won the fight on a wide margin. The draw was ridiculous. It was a hell of an entertaining fight, yes, but Ross was robbed and not by a little.

HomicideHenry wrote:I would favor Morrison by TKO in the latter rounds. I only say this because Mesi was in a hell of a contest with Cruiserweight king Jirov, and in my eyes probably should have been a draw. Not taking anything away from Jirov, but as a heavyweight he was nothing to scream over. Then again, I saw Ross Purrity put a beating on Morrison and was robbed blind. So who really knows.

That's true, but in fairness Purity was 8-8 when he fought Morrison. He hadn't had much experience getting hit by hard punchers and recovering from them yet. That said, I think its possible that Morrison may have had a bit more snap in his left hook than either Klitscko had in any of their punches.

I think you need to look past the 8-8.

8-8 is 16 bouts. Plenty of boxers have fought for a world title with 16 fights or less. Puritty's 8-8 included Cleveland Woods, Miroshenko, King Iptan, Brian Nielsen and Kirk Johnson. A lot of Olympians and decorated amateurs in that list, prior to Morrison. I fancy he learned more versus those men, and Morrison, than he did versus the string of bums he was matched with after Morrison and prior to Rahman, Grant, Klits etc.

Tuan_Jim wrote:I think you need to look past the 8-8.

8-8 is 16 bouts. Plenty of boxers have fought for a world title with 16 fights or less. Puritty's 8-8 included Cleveland Woods, Miroshenko, King Iptan, Brian Nielsen and Kirk Johnson. A lot of Olympians and decorated amateurs in that list, prior to Morrison. I fancy he learned more versus those men, and Morrison, than he did versus the string of bums he was matched with after Morrison and prior to Rahman, Grant, Klits etc.

Common.. Most of those fights were 4-6 round bouts and the men you listed had anywhere between as little as 2 to as much as maybe 8 fights a piece. He fought Morrison in a 10 rounder after never even being beyond 6 and was propositioned for the most part as a build up opponent. Cleveland Woods was a guy I watched somewhat regularly on ESPN around 1989-1990. Saw his first meeting with Joe Hipp in an entertaining fight that he lost. He was ok but not an exceptional talent. At least by the time he fought Wladimir Purity had been in a few 10-12 rounders against some more seasoned contenders/prospects and had even chalked up a few wins over cagey fringe types like Hipp and Gonzalez.

Oh man, picking in this proposed match up REALLY puts me on the spot as I know & have spent time with both men. Even fought on the same cards as both.
Being a Buffalo native myself, I spent gads of time around Baby Joe. Hell, I remember back in the early days of their amateur careers just like it was yesterday when it was Joe's big brother Tom Mesi who was thought to be the big prospect & Joe was just his chubby kid brother who was the amateur game a try out to see if he liked it. Obviously, that didn't stay that way for long as Joe excelled & it was Tom who lost interest in fighting.
Interesting thing was that at that time in the early '90s, the amateur game was SO basically non-existent in the area that Joe was forced to fight virtually his entire ammy career competing on the road. It wasn't until he turned pro that he began to fill arenas here in Buffalo.
But, I segued off course there, so back to the subject at hand.
I was a huge Tommy Morrison fan pretty much from the start & I was thrilled to be able to be one of the fighters chosen to engage in a STAR BOXING card of exhibition bouts vs a group of celebrities at Trump's Mark Ettis Arena held on the afternoon prior to that evening's Mike Tyson - Alex Stewart card in Atlantic City. I fought some guy known as The Fighting Fashion Designer who actually went on to have a handful of pro fights on the undercards of some high profile PPV cards. I just can't think of his name for the life of me at the moment.
Anyhow Morrison was also on that show vs someone as was Larry Holmes, Thomas Hearns, Ray Leonard & my old spar mate Hector Camacho.

As for a fight between the two?
I go with a tough late round KO win for Tommy in a war. Perhaps as exciting as Morrison's KO over Joe Hipp.

@JimAllcorn...cheers, great post. Really interesting to hear that Joe had a big brother who was fancied as well.
What's the definitive word on why Joe had to quit and what's he up to now.....he seemed ready to go for the very top.

Both were easy to hit and didn't have good chins. However, Mesi's defense was even worse and had an even weaker chin. Both were aggressive fighters. Of the two, Morrison hit harder.

Morrison's victim list isn't that impressive, but it's better than Mesi's.

Mesi would have a puncher's chance, but he would have to do it early before he got nailed himself. It might be interesting for a while, but Morrison would stop him by the middle rounds.

Ambling Alp II wrote:Both were easy to hit and didn't have good chins. However, Mesi's defense was even worse and had an even weaker chin. Both were aggressive fighters. Of the two, Morrison hit harder.

Morrison's victim list isn't that impressive, but it's better than Mesi's.

Mesi would have a puncher's chance, but he would have to do it early before he got nailed himself. It might be interesting for a while, but Morrison would stop him by the middle rounds.

A reasonable view.