No one will ever be able to accuse Erik Morales of being weak of heart. If he were, he wouldn’t have signed to fight the vicious Manny Pacquiao only six weeks after losing a narrow decision to Marco Antonio Barrera in their third grueling bout, two of which were won by Barrera. “My thinking is that that is the kind of fighter Erik Morales is,’ said Morales’ promoter, Bob Arum, regarding his and Morales’ decision to go from the frying pan to the fire.
“Morales is a warrior. He only wants to do big fights. He doesn’t want to do lesser fights. He feels he let a lot of people down in the Barrera fight. And he wanted the biggest fight out there and clearly the biggest fight out there for him was Pacquiao.’
All the parties were present Wednesday at a Beverly Hills Hotel news conference to formally announce the March 19 super featherweight fight that will take place at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Even though many ringside observers had the third Morales-Barrera bout scored a draw last Nov. 27 at MGM Grand, Morales didn’t complain about the decision. Instead, he said he didn’t feel like he even got going in the fight until the middle rounds.
He said he is relishing another chance to show the public what he’s made of.
“I have another opportunity to show that in boxing, you need to be explosive,’ said Morales, 28, of Tijuana. “Boxing needs explosive fights. Don’t be surprised if this is one of my best performances.
“I gave the public three great fights last year. Even though I’m disappointed that I didn’t close it out (with a victory), beginning the year by fighting a great warrior like Pacquiao is exciting.’
Although Arum and co-promoter Murad Muhammad are calling this a super featherweight title fight, there is no actual belt on the line. The card will be available on HBO pay-per-view for $49.95.
Morales is 47-2 with 34 knockouts. He has won championships in the super bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight divisions. He lost his World Boxing Council super featherweight title to Barrera in November.
Pacquiao, 26, of General Santos City, Philippines, is 39-2-2 with 30 knockouts. He stopped Fahsan Thawatchai in the fourth round in the Philippines last Dec. 11 in his most recent bout.
Prior to that, last May 8 in Las Vegas, Pacquiao knocked down Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round. Marquez was gallant in coming back to earn a draw to retain his WBC and World Boxing Association featherweight belts.
This will be Pacquiao’s first fight at 130 pounds. He began his career in 1995 as a light flyweight and has won world championships in the flyweight and super bantamweight divisions. The biggest feather in his cap was an 11th-round technical knockout of Barrera on Nov. 15, 2003, in a featherweight non-title fight.
“I am ready to fight Erik Morales,’ Pacquiao said. “I will give him a good fight. Don’t miss this fight because it will be one of the most memorable fights in boxing history.’
Interestingly, a rematch between Mexico City’s Marquez and Pacquiao was in the works before Arum and Muhammad switched gears. Arum was asked what happened in that regard.
“Remember, Pacquiao-Marquez was going to be an HBO fight and their budget’s limited,’ Arum said. “And while we were trying to see if we could make that fight with a limited HBO budget and were having difficulty, it occurred to us that the pay-per-view fight out there was Morales and Pacquiao.
“So we went the other way and made the pay-per-view fight.’
Arum said that although Marquez is a world champion and a very talented fighter, he is not a big enough draw to be a main event on pay-per-view. He and Pacquiao were both offered $750,000 to fight on regular HBO, but Arum said Marquez wanted more.
“On pay-per-view, you can offer a lot more money, so we decided to make it pay-per-view,’ Arum said. “Pacquiao-Marquez was not going to be big enough yet for a pay-per- view fight. Marquez is a very good fighter, but he is not a pay-per-view draw. The two Mexicans who are pay-per-view draws are Morales and Barrera.’
Arum said he could not yet divulge the exacts of the contract for Morales-Pacquiao. He did say Pacquiao was going to be paid over $1 million and that Morales was going to be “very well paid.’
Morales and Barrera each were paid $2,250,000 for their third fight.
