Trey Lippe Morrison Returns December 13th to Buffalo Run Casino – Boxing News
Courtesy of Jim Ellis, Miami News Record
Photo by Boyd Caton
The biggest news to come out of Monday’s press conference to announce a Dec. 13 boxing card at Buffalo Run Casino was on the medical front.
Three-quarters of The Four States Franchise — Trey Lippe Morrison, Dillon Cook and Jarrett Rouse — have been battling hand and elbow injuries.
Morrison broke a thumb during practice last month, forcing him to drop out of a card at Oklahoma City.
Rouse injured both hands during his fourth round knockout of Casey Phelps in October.
Cook will learn Wednesday about the status of his left elbow that has kept him on the disabled list the last couple months.
Promoter Tony Holden had floated the idea of staging the card on the road in January, “but by popular demand, we’re going to go in December. It was a decision that we made as of this morning (Monday). I thought we had it last week.”
While Lippe Morrison and Rouse will be in action, Cook (13-0 with five knockouts) will have to sit out a second straight show here.
He originally injured his left elbow prior to his six-round unanimous decision over Marteze Logan here on Aug. 16.
“Dillon is in a situation where if he fought, it could set him back a year or two,” Holden said. “It’s driving this boy crazy because he’s sitting on the sidelines. But he has to.”
The problem is more serious than Cook originally thought.
“I was under the impression that it was an inflammation in my elbow, so I took off and didn’t use it. But it still hasn’t gotten any better,” he said.
After seeing a specialist in Joplin, Cook learned that it is a nerve issue that has been causing the pain.
“I go back to the doctor this Wednesday and he will tell me if I need surgery for sure or not,” Cook said. “If I do, I think its about a six-week recovery, then I can start using it fully, then 10 to 12 weeks to get it back to strength.”
Cook has been doing exercises at home as part of a therapy program.
“They are trying to fix it through therapy, but chances are, it will be surgery,” he said. “He (the specialist) said it will more than likely will be surgery.”
If surgery is needed, he wants to have it done as soon as possible so he can get back to training.
Lippe Morrison (5-0 with five knockouts) didn’t handle the layoff well.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “For two weeks didn’t get to hit a single thing. I was just looking in a mirror watching myself box. After that, there was a lot of footwork training, working on my stance. It was getting on my nerves.”
Lippe Morrison said the thumb was a little stiff once the splint was removed, but he is regaining flexibility.
“I was doing a drill with Verdell Smith (one of his trainers) working at cutting off corners,” Morrison said. “He was going towards my left, his right, and I threw a left hook to the body. I came up on the elbow with my thumb.”
Rouse is back training after suffering stress fractures in the big knuckles in each hand against Phelps.
He hurt the left hand in the first round then injured the right in the third round.
“I hit him a lot on the forehead,” Rouse said. “We’ve made a lot of adjustments to help me keep from doing that again.”
Rouse took out Phelps with a jarring right hook at 1:18 of the fourth round.
“I didn’t realize how long he was down until after my gloves were off and I turned around,” Rouse said. “I was kinda worried about it. He was down for a while. I was more worried about when he went down and hit his head than the punch itself.”
The fourth member of the 4SF – Jesse Cook (also 13-0 with nine KOs) – will be part of the Dec. 13 show, as well as Lippe Morrison’s brother, Kinzie Witt.
Cook pounded away at P.J. Krupp of New Orleans to the point that Krupp’s corner threw in the towel at 1:58 of the third round of their welterweight fight here in October.
Witt improved to 2-0 with a first-round knockout of Lucas Queen in Oklahoma City.
Holden said there’s a chance that Witt will be added to the 4SF in the future.
Tickets are on now, both online and at the Buffalo Run Showplace box office.
