Darrin Morris (June 15, 1966 – October 1, 2000) was an American

super middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ( ...

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, nicknamed "The Mongoose". Morris was born in

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and died in

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. He once was a sparring partner for

Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1977 and 1997, winning quintuple c ...

, and he achieved a professional record of 28-2-1 with 18 KOs. The

World Boxing Organization The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

(WBO) twice moved Morris up in its super-middleweight rankings in 2001, despite the fact that he had died of HIV-related

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...

the previous October, aged 34. Morris was ranked #7 at the time of his death and #5 when the WBO discovered the error. WBO president Francisco Varcarcel said, "We obviously missed the fact that Darrin was dead. It is regrettable." One week after

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newspaper ''

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'' broke the story, one of the three men ranking the boxers, Gordon Volkman, still had not heard that Morris was dead. In addition, Morris had only fought once in the three years before his death, beating a boxer with only 17 wins out of 81 fights.

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* 1966 births 2000 deaths Boxers from Michigan Neurological disease deaths in Florida Infectious disease deaths in Florida Deaths from meningitis AIDS-related deaths in Florida American male boxers Super-middleweight boxers 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-boxing-bio-stub