Ring legend, and one of the best Mexican fighters ever, Erik Morales, will fight for his fourth world title belt in four weight divisions this weekend when he takes on WBC lightweight champion David Diaz, in Diaz’s home state of Illinois.
Most observers thought Morales, still only 30 years old, would have retired after he lost to Manny Pacquiao in their trilogy bout last November. Morales won the first fight of course, but in the rematch and the third fight he looked old and was KO’d in both.
He also lost to Zahir Raheem at lightweight – which is the division where this fight is taking place – meaning he hasn’t won a fight since March 2005.
Morales has been fighting at championship level since 1997, winning his first belt in September of that year. This alone secures his legendary status in the boxing world.
But he fought a lot of tough fights back-to-back. Coming off nine straight KO wins (8 of which were in world title defences), he boxed yours truly (reportedly his second toughest fight of all time) in October 1999.
We went full throttle for 12 hard rounds.
Four months later he was in another battle with Marco Antonio Barrera coming off as the winner in that bout. After a few more wins he lost in a rematch with Barrera at a higher weight class.
With 53 fights since March 1993, Morales has never really had time to recover between fights from his wars inside the ring. Even though he is still young, his body is old through taking part in big fight after big fight.
Erik Morales record:
48(34)-5-0
David Diaz record:
32(17)-3-0
Israel Vazquez record:
41(30)-4-0
Rafael Marquez record:
37(33)-3-0Erik Morales record:
48(34)-5-0
David Diaz record:
32(17)-3-0
Israel Vazquez record:
41(30)-4-0
Rafael Marquez record:
37(33)-3-0
An Olympian on the US team in 1996, Diaz is two inches shorter but three months older than Morales. He should be physically stronger since he has fought around the lightweight limit since turning pro in November 1996.
He has only one loss on his record but that was back in February 2005 to Kendall Holt – who is fighting for the WBO light welterweight belt in September.
Diaz has fought many more naturally bigger guys than his upcoming opponent. He is a southpaw with little head movement, tends to be flat footed and doesn’t show much speed. He is always in good shape and his last fight showed that he can still punch late in the fight.
Last August, while fighting for the interim belt, Diaz was getting a boxing lesson from Jose Armando Santa Cruz before he scored a KO win in the 10th round. He was well behind on all three scorecards and needed the stoppage to win.
The outcome of this will come down to what Morales has left in the tank. Even in his KO loss to Pacquiao last November he showed some signs of his old self early on.
The best plan for Diaz would be to watch for quick shots from Morales and to drag the fight into the middle rounds. By this stage Morales will show what he has. Diaz can then use his strength to overcome Morales and possibly get a stoppage win.
This is the last chance saloon for Morales but Diaz is a fighter that Morales can beat even if he only had 50 per cent left.
