Zahir Raheem (26-1, 16 KOs) makes no bones about it; when he faces Erik Morales (48-2, 34 KOs) on Saturday night at the Staples Center, it will most likely be his last opportunity to become a big time player in the business of boxing.
It’s do or die.
“Very much so,” agreed the 28-year old native of Philadelphia.
For Morales, this is just another bout, marking time before another big prime time pay-per-view event. For Raheem, it’s everything. But while Morales’ and Manny Pacquiao’s names dominate the marquee, Rahim and Pacquiao’s opponent, Hector Velazquez are just bit players in this production.
At the opening press conference to announce this card in early July at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Velazquez’s absence was barely noticed, and while Raheem showed up early, no one outside of his trainer Don House or the Top Rank staff acknowledged his presence. It was probably because nobody knew who he was. When Morales would arrive, he would be mobbed by well-wishers and fans who surrounded him for autograph and photo requests.
Raheem and House witnessed the scene from across the ballroom where the press conference was being held.
“I take it for what it’s worth,” said Raheem. “It doesn’t bother me at all, though.”
“That was fine,” added House. “We understand the position we’re in. We understand this is a Morales show, Morales is gonna bring the people. We’re just two guys from the block who just have to be there.”
And that’s just the way the rising trainer wants it.
“People are overlooking us,” he states, “because they’re talking about the Pacquiao fight. Pacquiao has a tough fight himself. So that’s fine. That relieves the pressure from us. All we have to do is perform 12 good rounds, and to me, we’ll win the fight.”
It’s been a long and frustrating journey for Raheem, a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic boxing team that also produced such standouts as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Fernando Vargas and Antonio Tarver. Raheem was one of three Philadelphians to make that squad, alongside David Reid (the only gold medalist of the bunch) and Terrance Cauthen. So far, after some early success by Reid, the Philly trio haven’t had distinguished professional runs.
Raheem’s pro career has been derailed, he says, by forces outside the ring.
“There were a couple of times when I didn’t have a promoter, I couldn’t get any fights. In my career I’ve had a lot of ups and downs,” he says.
After the Olympics he would sign with Top Rank. But unfortunately, despite his Olympic pedigree, he was stuck in a city that despite it’s pugilistic history, hadn’t really developed an attraction in years, and was with a company that at the time was becoming more and more slanted towards the Latin market with their then-franchise fighter, Oscar De La Hoya.
“He was stuck in Philly and there was nothing for him and he was winning fights but nobody really cared,” said Cameron Dunkin, who managed Raheem for the first 11 bouts of his career while he was with Top Rank and has reunited with him.
After drifting in a boxing abyss for a few years, promoter Tony Holden would paddle in with a life boat and began to resuscitate his career. Beginning in 2001, Holden would give Raheem regular work and as much exposure as possible.
“He could fight; he wasn’t a big puncher, which made it a bit difficult, and early in his career when I had him he had management problems, and he was falling out of fights a lot due to management problems,” explained Holden. “That hurt me tremendously on moving him, but towards the end we started steamrolling.”
Holden had gotten him to a point where he was tabbed to face Main Events’ big featherweight prospect, Rocky Juarez, last July on HBO as the featured fight on a ‘Boxing After Dark’ telecast. It was his big opportunity to shine.
Unfortunately, he seemed to be fighting two-on-one that night in Houston as referee Bobby Gonzalez seemingly did everything short of tying Raheem’s hands behind his back and letting Juarez slug away at him.
Going into enemy territory, Holden knew they’d be facing daunting odds.
“I even did my homework in that fight, knowing we were going into his territory; I had a large fallout with the state commission and they ensured me that everything was fine and I said that I didn’t trust them and still held my ground.
“We walked into a hornet’s nest,” lamented Holden.
It would be the last fight that Holden and Raheem would work in unison.
“Zahir and I are good friends, he called me for advice on this fight,” Holden pointed out. “Our contract was up after our last fight. He was so devastated and I put him on a ShoBox fight like eight weeks later and he couldn’t find it in himself to fight that early. So we just kind of naturally dissolved our professional relationship.”
The Juarez bout was a bitter loss for Raheem, but he did learn something that night.
“The lesson I learned in that fight was that anything could happen, and I just can’t win – I gotta do more than just win,” he said. “I’ve got to dominate to a point where I don’t care if the referee and two of the judges got me down, it’s impossible for me to lose.”
But against Morales, he will be facing a similar set of circumstances like he did last summer. The Staples Center in Los Angeles will be ‘Tijuana North’ on this night.
” My attitude is that it’s one-on-one regardless,” he reasons. “It’s almost the same scenario; the only difference is I believe, honestly and whole heartedly, in the Rocky Juarez fight that the referee, there was just a little more to that than just him being biased. Now, in the Morales fight it’s another level than Juarez. I think you will have judges and a referee that will be little biased because it’s Erik Morales.
“But I don’t think it’s going to be any deeper than that.”
And his trainer, while not pulling a Joe Namath in predicting an upset, isn’t lacking in confidence.
“Oh, I’m very confident, very confident,” says House, who has earned plaudits with his work with Steven Luevano and Kid Diamond, among others. “I’m more confident than I was with Kid Diamond going into (Joel) Casamayor.”
Really? Why?
“Because he never trained as hard before, he’s never been in shape,” he answers. “The problem his whole career is that he never believed he had the shape to do what it takes to win. And now he’s at that point where, ‘I’m in great shape, I feel good, I’ve never been in this kind of shape’. So in every round it’s going to be like the first round – come out hard and I can go hard for 12.”
While many boxing insiders think that Raheem can give Morales some problems, most are still picking Morales to win. But observers are a bit surprised that Raheem was chosen to face Morales though, when any opponent coming off his riveting slugfests against Marco Antonio Barrera and Pacquiao would have been deemed acceptable.
“I didn’t think they’d accept him,” admitted Dunkin. “I put in the name and Bruce Trampler (Top Rank’s head matchmaker) was very skeptical at first and then just sort of OK’d it. They called and we got everything we could to push it on our end and ( Fernando) Beltran accepted it. I was very surprised.”
House says, “If I was Erik Morales I would NEVER fight a guy like Zahir Raheem. One, this guy’s as fast as lightning. He’s never in the same spot twice and he can hit.”
But the trainer believes that part of the reason his man was given the assignment was that some believe his heart pumps a bit of Kool-Aid, as they say.
“From what I’ve been hearing, Morales thinks, and I keep hearing this even from Top Rank, that Zahir has no heart,” he says. “That Morales is gonna catch him on the chin and Zahir is gonna fold. Question is, what happens when he hits him on the chin and he doesn’t fold?”
So with that in mind, House has Raheem on a full training regime that extends far beyond the gym.
“We’ve been training all this time and he’s realizing the types of things we’re doing that he’s never done before, all these different types of running. The different types of cardio programs I have and I got him into a doctor everyday for his strengthening and blood.
“He never did those types of things before. This is all new so he’s very confident on how he feels.”
Raheem says he’s never worked this hard in his life, and with it comes a new found confidence.
“Oh, man, I mean your confidence has got to skyrocket another 110-percent,” he says excitedly. “You’ve got more of an arsenal, you have more in your tank, you don’t have to worry about gassing out, you don’t have to save anything.”
Holden gives Raheem a shot if he can get through some familiar hurdles he’s faced before.
“I think Zahir can give him problems. But I think Zahir is in a bizarre situation,” Holden says. “He’s with a promoter that wants Morales to win, he’s with a manager, Cameron Dunkin, who pretty much has an alliance with the promoter. I think this is a young man that has no one looking out for him in any way, shape or form on this fight as far as judges, officials, anything. His own people want him to lose the fight.
“So it’s Zahir up against the world and I know he’s a real sensitive kid and if he can get through the problems and get himself to be 100-percent, I think he has a decent shot.”
But Dunkin dismisses such talk.
“Of course I want him to win, I manage him,” he bristled. “I offered him to several promoters; Top Rank came up with money, the others did not. That’s why he signed there.”
And Dunkin knows that they may never get a shot like this ever again.
“Yeah, he understands that; he’s a big boy, he’s been around ten years and since the ’96 Olympics everyone else has cashed in just about – or they failed – and he’s sort of right in the middle and this is his one chance to become a star.”
For Raheem, this is the gold medal he never attained in Atlanta, and a world title that has proved elusive so far in his pro career, all wrapped up into one.
“Yes it is,” he says. “Very much so.”
