TWO FOES? With the frenzy of last week’s scintillating 3-0 sweep at the Staples Center in LA still hanging in the air, my e-mail inbox is heavy with boxing questions. Here’s some today, along with a few other readers’ views and questions.
1) Tiyoyex Ranara ([email protected]): “Your enjoyable columns on Rey Bautista mentioned the foe as Felix Murillo. But when I saw the fight on TV, I noticed that ‘Boom-Boom’s opponent was named Flores. Is Murillo and Flores the same person?”
Rey only had one foe last week – Felix Flores-Murillo, a Colombian now living in Miami. Short but built like a Veco post, Murillo was a vicious puncher, so says Rey, whose left ear wailed in pain after being tagged by a wicked right.
Fortunately, Murillo couldn’t take Rey’s punishment, yielding in three rounds.
2) Joel Talisic ([email protected]): Will Pacquiao-Morales II push through? If so, is it at 130 or at 135 pounds?”
With Morales’ unexpected loss, the anticipated rematch has undeniably lost some of its luster and marketability. But promoter Bob Arum insists that the show must go on this Jan. 21, 2005 at a still-to-be-determined Las Vegas venue. After his dismal debut at 135 pounds, Morales will scale back to 130 for the PacMan fight.
3) Neo Anderson ([email protected]): “Erik Morales wants to fight Diego Corrales, but can he beat Diego?”
I don’t think so. The extra pounds at lightweight gave Erik feet of clay as shown in the Rahim fight, where Morales got hit by 161-of-586 punches and 111-of-282 power punches. Erik survived 12 rounds of eating the pillow-soft punches of Rahim, but against the dangerous Corrales, “El Terrible” wouldn’t only lose badly, he’ll be tempting fate.
