Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993 TAG: 9308310252
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
"I didn't know I was fighting whatshisname till I got out there," he said.
On Monday night, Tommy Morrison made a singularly bizarre defense of his World Boxing Organization crown, scoring a fourth-round technical knockout over Tim Tomashek, a flabby, last-minute replacement.
About an hour before the 12-round bout, Mike Williams withdrew, prompting his own manager to call him "yellow" and "a dog." Promoter Bob Arum said Williams refused to take the pre-fight drug test.
It was the first defense of his WBO crown for Morrison (38-1), who is to fight WBC champion Lennox Lewis in March. He was hoping for a good fight before his hometown Kansas City fans.
"It's an odd feeling; it's a bad feeling," Morrison said. "There's not much I can say. . . . At least it was not my fault."
Arum suspected as early as Thursday he may have trouble when Williams did not show for a news conference. As a precaution, a call went to Tomashek on Saturday.
The 28-year-old said he was working at his job at Shopco Distribution in Green Bay, Wis. He was told to hurry to Kansas City.
"They beat me up at work," said Tomashek, who waved to the pro-Morrison crowd between rounds. "That was my training for this fight. I thought it was a joke at first. I said, `Oh, I might as well.' "
The Kemper Arena crowd, which booed Arum's announcement that Williams had left the building, booed even louder when Morrison was awarded the TKO after the fourth round, in which Morrison pounded Tomashek with left-right combinations and opened several face cuts.
Arum would not say Williams withdrew because of the drug test.
"How can I say that?" he said. "I don't really know."
Bob Jordan, the manager for Williams, did not really know, either, but he was incensed.
"The official word is Mike turned yellow and left," Jordan said. "He said he pulled a muscle in his back. We had two doctors check him out and they could not find an injury. His wife said there's nothing wrong with him."
Bill Cayton, co-manager for Morrison, said Williams (21-3) left with back spasms.
Williams, waiting for a cab outside the arena, would not discuss his reason for pulling out, although he said it was not because of a drug test.
"Don't even bring that up," he said. "I don't do drugs."
Morrison scored with left jabs in the early rounds and then put Tomashek down hard with a combination to the head in the fourth. Tomashek's eyes were puffy and bruised. The ringside physician and referee did not allow him to go another round. His record is 34-11.
Williams is a former sparring partner of Morrison's who lost to him in a fictionalized fight in the movie "Rocky V."
"These people [Top Rank, Inc.] said if it's money, they would pay him anything he wanted," Jordan said. "It wasn't the money. He just walked out. . . . I was his manager. He's a bum."
by CNB