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Philippines, 15 Sep 2024 |
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Morales feels ready for crossroads rubber match with Pacquiao PhilBoxing.com Sat, 11 Nov 2006 Starting with his second loss to Marco Antonio Barrera two years ago this month, Erik Morales has lost three of his past four fights. He has gone from a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter to needing a victory against Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 18 at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas to retain any sort of status as an elite boxer. He admitted as much during a conference call Tuesday. "Yes, without a doubt," said Tijuana's Morales, who is 48-4 with 34 knockouts and has won world championships in three weight classes. "This is a real important fight. And I need to win it. That's why I'm working so hard." In his past four fights, Morales has lost a decision to Barrera, won a decision over Pacquiao, lost a decision to Zahir Raheem in a one-fight move up to lightweight and been stopped by Pacquiao in the 10th round last January. Before that stoppage at Thomas & Mack, Morales relieved his father, Jose, of his duties as head trainer and brought in Jose Luis Lopez Sr. Morales also moved his training camp from the Otomi mountains north of Mexico City to Queretaro, Mexico. Morales, as been the case for some time, had difficulty making the 130-pound super featherweight limit, and he said that was the reason he had little juice in the rematch with Pacquiao. It was the first time Morales has been stopped inside the distance. The ordeal has been quite an awakening. Always smart in the ring, Morales has made changes, which, on the surface, appear to be intelligent. He brought back his father, and, at the behest of his promoter Bob Arum, he has welcomed personal velocity training into his daily regimen with open arms (velocity training is exercises and activities designed to improve body strength as well as agility, speed, balance and flexibility -- all the while assisting in weight loss). Morales is also back in the Otomi mountains. He spoke recently from there about his journey, one that has been topsy-turvy lately. "It's been a real eye-opener for me," Morales said of the velocity training. "They have done some things that have really rejuvenated my body, from healing some old injuries to getting me in the shape I need to be in to get ready for a fight and not worry about the weight." Tuesday, Morales said it's not that the velocity training is so much more difficult than anything he has been accustomed to, it's that there is a lot of it. "It really hasn't been that hard," Morales said, "just a little tiring because there has been so much to do." It's the way it has to be for Morales. After being humiliated by Pacquiao last January, Morales said he would only fight the Filipino star a third time if it was at the 135-pound lightweight limit. When Pacquiao balked, Morales was forced to make a decision -- take the big-money third fight at 130 or move on. He decided on the former, and he's convinced that he now has the wherewithal to win the rubber match. "I feel that I am the bigger guy and that if I'm in shape and stay focused, I can beat Pacquiao again," Morales said. "I probably made too many changes for my second fight with Pacquiao, from changing training sites to trainers, when all I needed to do was take more time to prepare and to make weight at a slower pace." Advertisement Morales said that when he was 21, he only needed six weeks to get ready for a fight. Now that he's 30, he said he realizes a month and a half will no longer suffice. "I was doing fine the first five rounds, but then I got tired and my legs were gone," Morales said of the knockout loss to Pacquiao. Watching the replay of that fight, Morales said, one would be able to notice just that. "I fought the last four rounds on heart alone, looking to land one big punch," Morales said. "But I never did." Jose Morales said he certainly noticed his son's lethargy as, for the first time, he watched from somewhere other than Erik's corner. "I felt that he lost most of his strength and conditioning while making the weight for his second fight with Pacquiao," Jose Morales said. "So I was very happy that he went to velocity for two months." And Erik is thrilled that his pops will be back where he belongs. "I'm very happy to have my father back in camp and in the corner with me," Morales said. "Not having him there for my last fight was a mistake. He just knows me so well and it makes me feel more relaxed and confident when he's with me." Morales will need every tangible and intangible he can muster to defeat Pacquiao next week. He has heard all the talk, both from the media as well as from Pacquiao, that he is no longer a top-of-the-line fighter. He is eager to prove them wrong. "People can write or say what they want," Morales said Tuesday. "I heard Pacquiao say I'm an old man, that I'm done. But we'll see Nov. 18 up in the ring." Meanwhile, Arum, chairman of the board of Top Rank Inc., was irate during Tuesday's conference call that the World Boxing Council, at its annual convention in Croatia, announced this will be a title elimination fight. Arum correctly pointed out that both he and Humberto Soto paid sanctioning fees to the WBC for Soto's super featherweight "title elimination" fight against Ivan Valle, which he won via fourth-round technical knockout last August at Thomas & Mack. "They can call it whatever they want," Arum said of the WBC, "but I'm not going to let these hard-working kids, who come with everything they've got, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in sanctioning fees. "On the Hasim Rahman-Oleg Maskaev undercard, Humberto Soto fought. He paid sanctioning fees because that was an elimination fight at the same weight. So, how can there be another elimination fight? "It's a (expletive) disgrace." Indeed, Soto is supposed to be next in line to Barrera's WBC super featherweight belt. He earned that. But Barrera has made it known recently that he wants Pacquiao to be his next opponent. Thus the WBC's decision to officially make Pacquiao-Morales III a title elimination fight. Gee, wonder if the WBC is then going to give Soto -- and Arum, because promoters share the cost of sanctioning fees -- their money back? Yeah, right.  |
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