There comes a time when a great fighter takes that one fight too many, and this might be the case in Las Vegas on Saturday night when Erik Morales steps through the ropes at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to meet Marcos Maidana in a junior welterweight title bout. Morales, 34, has had many marvellous nights in the ring, but he looked a fading fighter when Manny Pacquiao blasted him out of the fight in three rounds in their rubber match. That was more than four years ago. A two-year break from boxing allowed Morales the chance to rest his body and regroup mentally for one last charge towards championship glory, but can he really have improved with age? I very much doubt it.
Although Morales has won three comeback fights against boxers who were moving up in weight, he hasn?t been convincing. Still, Morales has the big-fight reputation that not only permits him to top the bill on HBO PPV but also lends the illusion that he can perhaps recapture the old magic.
Unfortunately for Morales, he is meeting a younger, stronger, naturally bigger fighter who can really punch. Maidana isn?t a slow slugger, either. He is capable of bringing fast pressure, as Amir Khan discovered in last December?s classic contest, with its cliff-hanger closing rounds.
When an ageing ex-champ meets a fighter such as Maidana it is unlikely to end well for the older man. Morales has the jab, the ring generalship and the boxing acumen to keep Maidana at bay in the early rounds, but one struggles to imagine how he can outbox and outsmart his relentless opponent for the full 12 rounds.
Maidana is the type of fighter who keeps coming and keeps punching: stop him here and he attacks you there. It seems that Maidana has trained well under the direction of his new trainer Rudy Perez in Mexico. The Argentinean fighter looked in fine muscular trim at Friday?s weigh-in while Morales?s body seemed somewhat lacking in muscle tone. This doesn?t mean to say that Morales didn?t train hard. I believe Morales has probably pushed himself to the limit in training camp in the Otomi Mountains in his native Mexico and I think he will be as well conditioned and as ready to fight as it is possible for him to be. Yet one feels that it still won?t be enough.
Morales was probably getting hit a bit too easily by Jose Alfaro, Willie Limond and Francisco Lorenzo in his comeback bouts. If these fighters could hit him, so can Maidana. I believe that Morales was at his best fighting from junior featherweight (122 pounds) up to junior lightweight (130 pounds). Now he is meeting a strong, hungry, powerful 140-pounder. Maidana feels that he was unlucky not to get the decision against Khan, and I don?t think he will be showing Morales any mercy. Maidana had Khan a punch or two away from being stopped in the dramatic 10th round. If he is able to unleash this sort of onslaught on Saturday Morales might simply be swept away.
There is a certain mystique about fighters such as Morales, and as Maidana lacks the scientific subtleties of the sport there is a temptation to think that the veteran might be able to score an unlikely win based on superior technique. I will resist this temptation, though, and go with the logical choice ? which is Maidana. If Morales wins I will consider it one of the greatest upsets in boxing history.
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