On the night that West Virginia and Wake Forest played a classic double overtime thriller in the NCAA tournament, Erik Morales put on some of his own ‘March Madness’ with a pulsating 12-round decision over Manny Pacquiao that had the sold out crowd of over 14,000 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on their feet for much of the night.
People always talk of reforming and revitalizing the sport of boxing. The answer to saving this sport is very simple: more fighters like Morales and Pacquiao, and fights like the one that took place on Saturday night.
“It was a great pleasure to fight this way,” said the victorious Morales at the post-fight press conference. But of course the pleasure was all ours, as Morales put on another all-time great slugfest, one that should go up on his trophy case next to his first and third fights versus arch-rival Marco Antonio Barrera and his assorted battles with Wayne McCullough and In-Jin Chi.
There’s no doubt about it, this Tijuana bred boxer is the single toughest, roughest, man in boxing.
“I think I was controlling the fight with my distance; sometimes I need to put a little flavor into the ring,” he would continue. “My promoter always says that I make the fights very difficult, but they’re not difficult, they’re fun for the public.”
The action would heat up in the first round as Pacquiao seemed to hurt Morales downstairs and he looked to have a distinct advantage in quickness and hand speed. But as the fight progressed to the middle rounds, Morales – proving that he fights with just as much brains as brawn – made the necessary adjustments and began to control the fight with his jab and by utilizing his superior reach and length.
In the fifth round a clash of heads would open up a gash above the right eye of Pacquiao. But even with impaired vision, Pacquiao would gamely hang in the fight. Rounds seven and nine will be candidates for ‘Round of the Year’ as they featured vicious back and forth exchanges of leather and an ebb and flow that left you breathless sitting ringside.
But even those stanzas paled in comparison to the 12th and final round, where machismo seemed to have gotten the better of Morales. Despite having piled up enough points to have coasted to a victory, he would instead go toe-to-toe with the ‘Pac Man’ – while boxing from the southpaw stance. It seemed more than once in those furious exchanges that Morales’ knees buckled.
“I decided to stop myself in front of him in the 12th round because I wanted to give the public what they deserve. It was a great round, I’m very happy about it.”
The decision was unanimous across the board, 115-113 for Morales, a score that was repeatedly echoed across ringside in a decision that was as unanimous as can be. But while the fight was close, Morales clearly was the victor. He was the more precise, sharper, more versatile and steadier fighter throughout the 12 rounds.
For Morales and his promoter, it wipes away the bitter aftertaste of their loss to Barrera on Thanksgiving weekend.
“I think this is the most satisfying (win) because Erik, instead of heeding the advice of some people – not mine – to fight an easy fight or a mismatch, he said to me he wanted the toughest guy out there,” said a beaming Bob Arum. “And he’s right, all the great ones, after suffering a defeat – and I still don’t believe he lost that fight to Barrera – come back strong like a Muhammad Ali. They don’t putz around fighting inferior opponents.”
So what’s next for boxing’s greatest one-man show?
“There’s a lot of fights,” says Arum, who seems to be sending a message by excluding a very obvious choice. “There’s Pacquiao, there’s the winner of Jesus Chavez-Carlos Hernandez, there’s Joel Casamayor -which would be a very interesting fight – there’s Robbie Peden, who just had a great victory. We’re not waiting for anybody, anybody.”
That ‘anybody’ would be Barrera, who faces someone named Mzonke Fana on April 9th.
“We make our own schedule, we do our own things and we fight the best guy out there,” said Arum, obviously sending a message to Barrera and his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. “And the best guy out there means generally, the one you can make the most money with.”
But of course, that would be Barrera. This is all just promotional posturing by Arum. A fourth fight with Barrera seems like the most lucrative, although not everyone is convinced that you can get Arum and his former fighter to co-promote anything at this very moment.
But regardless, Morales, who’s basically insured himself first-ballot induction into the Hall of Fame, has a bright future with many different possibilities. On the other hand, the brave and gutty Pacquiao, who still left the arena to the cheers of an admiring throng of his Filipino supporters, faces an uncertain future as the behind the scenes tug-of-war for his services will surely heat up between Murad Muhammad, Rod Nazario, Shelly Finkel, Keith Davidson and Nick Khan.
The disappointing loss was the end of a contentious week in the Pacquiao camp that saw a very public war of words between his promoter and trainer Freddie Roach. Pacquiao’s preferred brand of gloves, ‘Cleto-Reyes’ were contracted out of this fight, replaced with ‘Winning’ gloves – which Roach would later describe as ‘pillows’. Muhammad would accuse Roach of being an inept hand-wrapper in response to Roach’s comments that he wasn’t looking out for his fighter. James Toney, who is also trained by Roach, had to be talked out of coming to Vegas for fear that he would turn out Muhammad’s lights for the comments about his trainer.
Several sources have told MaxBoxing that Muhammad took the suite that was to be given to his fighter at the MGM Grand. Later on in the week he flipped over a table in anger in a meeting with Arum over some tickets. To cap things off, at the post-fight presser, when Arum announced that he was turning over the mic to Muhammad, a loud scream of ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!’ went out through the media center.
It was one of the most comical moments you’ll ever see in this business. It was like being ‘gonged’ off the Gong Show before ever stepping on stage or having Sandman Sims start dancing as you’re rubbing the famous Apollo Theater tree stump. Earlier in the week, Arum, of all people, was given a standing ovation by the media after retaking the microphone from Muhammad.
On top of all this, it looks like Pacquiao will be having issues with the IRS. As if Morales hadn’t taxed him enough.
This loss isn’t a devastating one for Pacquiao, who still has to be considered among the game’s better prizefighters and one that will still be in the thick of a lot of big events.
But while he fought courageously against Morales, he still showed that for the most part he is a one-dimensional fighter, much too reliant on his straight left.
“We didn’t go to the body enough,” said Roach afterwards. But it was a difficult task since Morales did an effective job of keeping Pacquiao at bay. And while the gloves may have been an issue, it seemed that it was in the lower body where Pacquiao didn’t execute properly.
He gave up way too much ground to incoming Morales volleys, and instead of drawing the proverbial line in the sand and holding his ground, he would scamper in retreat, taking away his ability to set his feet and counterpunch. There’s an old saying from the legendary basketball coach, John Wooden which says, ‘Be quick, but don’t be in a hurry.’ Pacquiao, in his zest to reach Morales, oftentimes employed sloppy footwork coming forward, taking away his own balance and ability to really sit down on his punches.
Pacquiao was in a hurry.
In short, his custom-made PONY’s didn’t have the right gallop in them.
But perhaps, he was just beaten by a larger man.
” Honestly,” said Morales, “I was too big for him, I really feel that.”
Bigger, but also better, on this night.
TOP RANK CARD
The battle between Jorge Arce and Hussein Hussein was the leading candidate for ‘Fight of the Year’ – for about 90 minutes.
But it capped off an entertaining card that featured Mike Alvarado’s exciting win over Hilario Lopez, a sharp performance by Martin Castillo – who nearly blanked Eric Morel – an improving Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and then Arce’s 10th round stoppage of a game Hussein.
“This fight was so good, Morales-Pacquiao, we didn’t want to screw it up by doing a second-rate undercard,” said Arum, the same man who used to shove Butterbean and Mia St. Can’t Fight down our throats not-too-long ago. “Bruce Trampler put together what he believed were two great fights underneath. One of them turned out to be not-so-competitive. The other one exceeded our expectations.”
JULY 9TH
It looks like Arum’s ‘Million Dollar Ladies’ will be taking place on July 9th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, but instead of Lucia Rijker taking on Laila Ali, she’ll be facing Christy Martin, in a fight that probably should’ve taken place at least five years ago.
Arum says that he will be featuring several of his world champions on the undercard.
FINAL FLURRIES
I wonder what Juan Manuel Marquez was thinking on Saturday night?….. I hear that negotiations for a July matchup between Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor are moving along pretty well…..Hot lightweight prospect ‘Kid Diamond’ could be facing Joel Casamayor as the opening bout on HBO when Miguel Cotto makes his Madison Square Garden debut on June 11th…. I gotta say that the atmosphere at the MGM Grand was electric, it was truly one of those special nights that only boxing can bring. Larry Merchant said, “It’s one of the reasons why we do this.” So true, so true…. There is nothing like two groups of rabid fans pulling for their men – and then graciously accepting the verdict with class afterwards…. And there really is nothing like a guy really belting out the Mexican national anthem and ring walks for big fights. Those moments are priceless…..
