ERIK MORALES will repeat over Manny Pacquiao. This is what The Ring magazine said in its analysis of the highly-anticipated rematch set to explode on Jan. 21 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Eric Raskin, managing editor of the publication dubbed The Bible of Boxing, wrote that “styles makes fights” and the Mexican will come into the fight extremely motivated.
“It’s the ultimate boxing cliche, but it’s true: Styles make fights. Morales will be more focused than he was for (Zahir) Raheem, and has all the right attributes to give the slightly less versatile Pacquiao fits. It will be the Mexican by unanimous decision again, with a knockdown or two along the way this time,” Raskin said in his piece that was splahsed on the cover of the magazine founded in the 1920s by Nat Fleischer.
Pacquiao is coming off a rousing sixth-round stoppage of the durable Hector Velazquez, while such cannot be said of Morales, who slipped on a banana peel against Raheem on the same night Pacquiao beat up Velazquez.
Despite the contrasting endings of their last bouts, oddsmakers still believe Pacquiao is the betting favorite.
Pacquiao holds a 40-3-2 win-loss-draw card with 31 knockouts, while Morales parades a 48-3 with 34 wins inside the distance.
Morales is 29 and Pacquiao just turned 27 two weeks ago in Los Angeles, where he’s been staying since Dec. 3.
Born and bred in the border town of Tijuana, Morales has a two-inch height advantage at 5-8 and a five-inch edge in wingspan at 72 inches.
Pacquiao, the pride and joy of General Santos City, began his career as a flyweight 11 years ago. After losing the world flyweight title in Thailand after he failed to make the weight, he skipped two weight classes and made a mark in the super-bantamweight category.
After terrorizing the 122-lb division, Pacquiao tried his luck in the powerhouse featherweight bracket of 126 lbs and created a stir when he became the first man to stop Marco Antonio Barrera.
After engaging Juan Manuel Marquez in a thrilling draw, Pacquiao went up in weight and brawled with Morales, who dealt him a points loss before 14,000-plus fans at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas last year.
