LAS VEGAS ? Erik Morales went into his fight Saturday against Filipino southpaw slugger Manny Pacquiao knowing that he needed a victory to keep his place among boxing’s elite. Morales’ back was against the wall. Like all great champions, he catapulted himself off that wall to register one of the biggest victories of his career as he won a unanimous decision over Pacquiao before 14,623 in a thriller at MGM Grand.
Morales won by three scores of 115-113.
Somehow, there were no knockdowns. The super featherweight fight was billed as a world title bout, but there were no titles on the line.
Morales (48-2), of Tijuana, came into the fight having lost a close decision to nemesis Marco Antonio Barrera last November. It was their third grueling bout, two of which were won by Barrera.
One could say Morales atoned for that, and that he more than kept himself in everyone’s top 10 pound-for-pound polls with the victory over Pacquiao, whose face was a bloody mess from a deep cut under his right eye sustained in the fifth round.
Like all of his fights with Barrera, Morales engaged Pacquiao in 12 rounds of absolutely brutal fighting, making it a fight-of-the-year candidate.
The gruesome cut opened under Pacquiao’s right eye looked bad enough to where the fight could have been stopped. Morales appeared like he might have a chance to stop Pacquiao.
But with a large contingent of Filipinos in the crowd, Pacquiao fought on. Despite all the solid left hands he landed to the head of Morales, however, Pacquiao (39-3-2) never could steer clear of the hard right hands, left hooks and cracking jabs with which Morales was clobbering him.
” Although it was ruled that the cut under Pacquiao’s eye was caused by a punch, television replays showed it could have been done by an accidental head-butt. The fighters clashed heads, with Morales’ head hitting Pacquiao where the cut opened. But right before that, Morales had landed a solid left hook.
“This was hard for me,” Pacquiao said of the fight. “Morales had a different style than Barrera. He threw straight to the body, and straight to the head.”
Morales, in the postfight interview, was asked about a fourth fight with Barrera.
“It’s hard to say,” Morales said. “The public will have the final say on that.”
Martin Castillo of Mexico retained his World Boxing Council super flyweight belt with a 12-round unanimous decision over Eric Morel on the undercard.
Mexico’s Jorge Arce, in a vicious fight, stopped Hussein “Hussy’ Hussein of Australia at 2:07 of the 10th round of a WBC flyweight elimination bout scheduled for 12.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (17-0) stopped Ryan Maraldo of Indianapolis at 2:56 of the third round.
