Two and a half years ago, Erik Morales failed in his bid to become the first Mexican world champion at four different weights when he was outpointed by the relatively modest American David Diaz in a WBC lightweight title fight in Illinois.
It apparently marked a sad but inevitable end to the Mexican’s stellar career following two consecutive painful knockouts by Manny Pacquiao and a decision loss to the unheralded Zahir Raheem.
Morales, then 30, faded down the stretch against Diaz, and insisted: “This is it. I’m not going to fight any more. I’ve taken far too many punches, particularly in the head area. They are really beginning to bother me.”
Such words have, unsurprisingly, been airbrushed from the promotional material for Morales’ comeback fight, which will take place in Monterrey, Mexico this Saturday night against former WBA lightweight champion Jose Alfaro.
Worryingly, Alfaro can punch to the head a bit. Twenty of his 23 wins have come inside the distance.
Even more worryingly, Morales is convinced victory over Alfaro will move him closer towards his goal of a fourth fight with Pacquiao.
Morales was the last man to beat the Filipino sensation, on points in March 2005. This hardly qualifies him for another shot, but in a sport where big names always sell – and where Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones will soon meet – it is not impossible.
Morales, lest we forget, was not just beaten by Pacquiao in their third and final meeting, but destroyed. His warrior instinct got the better of him and he walked straight forward into a third round battering.
After that fight, he hinted at retirement.
“Maybe it’s getting to be that time,” he said. “For the first time in my career, I felt my opponent’s power.”
It would have been a sad but proud way for a legend to bow out.
Morales will always retain a special place in the hearts of the hard-to-please Mexican fight fans for his three wars with compatriot Marco Antonio Barrera, of which he won the first and lost agonisingly tight decisions in the others.
But Morales will test that loyalty to the limit by coming out of retirement in pursuit of a fight which will surely not happen even if – and it is a big if – the likes of Alfaro are put to the sword.
“Fans will see a different Erik Morales than in my last few fights,” Morales said this week, mindful of rewriting the kind of history that told him and the boxing world that his time was past.
“I’m hungry to win this fight and go on towards winning a world title in my fourth weight division. I want to prove to everyone watching that all my hard work will result in a great performance in the ring.
“At 147lbs, I’m faster than ever and freer with my body so I can get the most out of it. Defeating Pacquiao is my greatest accomplishment in the ring. I would love another chance at Pacquiao.”
Morales is not the first Mexican great to tarnish his legacy by fighting on too long, hardly surprising, perhaps, in such a fight-frenzied nation.
Barrera suffered the indignity of defeat to Amir Khan in his last fight in Manchester in March last year.
Arguably the greatest Mexican warrior of them all, Julio Cesar Chavez, cut a swathe through some of the finest mid-weight fighters of all, but the last bout on his record was a retirement defeat to a Nebraska club fighter named Grover Wiley.
To add insult to injury for Chavez, Wiley would never win again. He lost his next six in a row, including a defeat to feeble Khan foe Dmitriy Salita and a knockout loss to Chavez’s son, Julio Jr.
Last week, another Mexican legend, Jose Luis Castillo, failed to answer the bell for the sixth round of a fight with former ‘Contender’ star Alfonso Gomez on the undercard of Pacquiao’s fight with Joshua Clottey in Dallas.
Castillo, reportedly beset by financial concerns, said after the fight: “I want to apologise to the public. I found out tonight I didn’t have it any more. That’s it for me. I’m moving on but I’ll stay involved in boxing.”
An apology was the last thing Castillo would have considered bowing out with when he was in the midst of his epic battles with the late Diego Corrales. It would be a crying shame if the career of Morales was allowed to peter out the same way.
