Boxer Tommy Morrison Dead: WBO Heavyweight Champ Also Played Tommy Gunn in 'Rocky V.'

He was so young.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Tommy Morrison dies at 44; former heavyweight boxing champion."

Former heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Morrison, who starred in the 1990 movie "Rocky V" and later saw his fighting career shortened by a positive HIV test, has died. He was 44.

Morrison died Sunday night at a Nebraska hospital, his former manager, Tony Holden, told the Associated Press. The fighter's family did not disclose the cause.

In 1993, Morrison beat George Foreman for the World Boxing Organization heavyweight belt but soon lost it and a looming $7.5 -million payday to unheralded challenger Michael Bentt. Morrison later lost to another former distinguished heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis.

"Tommy had a good left hook and quite a bit of ring savvy, and if his opponent was having a little bit of an off night, he'd win," said Bruce Trampler, the matchmaker for the boxing company Top Rank that promoted 27 of Morrison's 52 fights.

However, Morrison "was in obvious decline the last few years," Trampler said.

Nicknamed "The Duke," Morrison was born in 1969 in Gravette, Ark., and grew up in Oklahoma. He enjoyed a strong amateur career that was stopped short of a U.S. Olympic bid in a 1988 loss to Ray Mercer.

The 6-foot-2 boxer won his first 28 professional fights, including a victory over former champion Pinklon Thomas, and played Tommy Gunn opposite Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky V."