Former Heavyweight Champion Tommy Morrison dead at 44

Former WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison died in an Omaha, Neb., hospital late Sunday night. He was 44.

Morrison's longtime promoter, Tony Holden, said Morrison died at 11:50 p.m. with his wife, Trisha, beside him.

Morrison tested positive for HIV in 1996 before a fight with Arthur Weathers, effectively ending his boxing career. In the years that followed, he denied having HIV and also challenged the existence of the virus.

Holden declined to comment Monday on the cause of Morrison's death. "I don't know what the official cause of death at the hospital will be," he said. "You prepare for things like this, and still you feel like you got hit by a truck when you hear the news."

In 1993, Morrison beat George Foreman to win the World Boxing Organization heavyweight title. He lost to Lennox Lewis in 1995.