In the wake of his stunning and costly loss to Carlos Baldomir last week, Zab Judah was still pushing for a fight against Floyd Mayweather in April. He claimed that this time around he would be fully prepared and that it was still a match-up that the fans wanted to see.
Well, a few e-mailers have wondered why is it that Erik Morales is still facing Manny Pacquiao despite his recent loss to Zahir Raheem in September but Mayweather-Judah isn’t proceeding?
Is it a double standard?
Absolutely.
And there’s nothing wrong with it.
I go back to the days in the early 90’s when the great Jimmy Johnson was in the midst of winning back-to-back Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys. One day during a film session, an underachieving linebacker by the name of John Roper, who had come over in a trade from the Chicago Bears, had fallen asleep. Johnson would walk over to the napping Roper and tell him that from this point on he could catch all the Z’s he wanted to as he was getting cut
As that announcement was made public and the story circulated on the unforgiving approach of Johnson, a member of the media asked what he would have done to a Michael Irvin if he had been the offending party.
Johnson explained that he’d turn off the film projector, turn on the lights, walk right over to ‘The Playmaker’ and gently tap him on the shoulder and whisper to him: ‘Hey, Michael, you OK? Not getting enough sleep, huh? Listen, this is kinda of important, so can you at least make it through this?’ And then he’d proceed with the game film.
And why? Because Johnson said he treated all his players the same- which was differently. Bottom line, he wasn’t going to treat a Michael Irvin like he did a back-up linebacker.
To Johnson, Irvin was up ‘here’, a guy that worked hard, came prepared and most of all, performed well. He helped JJ win football games so he earned that leeway. Roper was down ‘there’, a guy who, in addition to not really being diligent about the game of football, didn’t play that well.
In this case, Morales is Irvin, Judah is Roper. It’s as simple as that.
Morales has a track record of participating in great fights(winning his share) and doing boffo box-office numbers. And last March he and Pacquiao put on a great show. On the flip side, Judah was knocked out in his biggest fight against Kostya Tszyu, has never really been involved in a memorable bout and is not a ticket seller.
“The Judah-Mayweather fight was different,” explained Bob Arum last Thursday afternoon in Hollywood during Manny Pacquiao’s media day at the Wild Card Boxing Club. “Judah was never a prominent guy; I mean that fight would’ve been a terrific attraction if Judah had won. But once he lost, it wasn’t Judah anymore. Erik is Erik; he’s the ‘A’ in the equation. Every once in awhile he doesn’t prepare and he has an off-night. And so his public forgives him.”
And despite his loss to Raheem, Arum, who is promoting this bout and would’ve promoted Mayweather-Judah in April, says it hasn’t taken the luster off this rematch, which will take place at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas this Saturday night.
In fact, the perception that perhaps Morales is now more vulnerable is helping this promotion.
“The funny thing is that it turns out this fight is even more popular than the first one,” he says. “Because the Filipinos obviously believe their guy has a much better chance now. The last fight it was 70-30, Mexicans to Filipinos. The Mexicans are lucky if it’s going to be 50-50 here. We’ve been selling tickets in the hundreds to Filipino groups.
“We’ll have a packed Thomas and Mack and I’m sure great pay-per-view results.”
Another difference between Morales and Judah is that ‘El Terrible’ lost to a much more accomplished boxer in Raheem – a guy that is generally avoided because of his style and talent and his considered among the game’s elite in his division. Baldomir was a career journeyman coming into his bout with Judah, and had nine losses on his ledger.
Back in the summer, when Raheem was tabbed to face Morales at the Staples Center, where he co-headlined a card with Pacquiao – who faced the much easier to decipher Hector Velasquez – many pundits questioned the choice.
“We didn’t choose the wrong opponent,” insisted Arum. “The son of a gun didn’t train like he should’ve. I mean he couldn’t make 135 and he’s a 126-pounder, going up to 130. So obviously he wasn’t in great shape, and that being said, Raheem was a good fighter and we told HBO that when we made the fight it would be a competitive fight.”
Morales explains his loss by saying, “I think his style, to me, that was the biggest thing. I knew he was a difficult fighter, but I never thought he’d be that difficult to fight. I think his style was a lot more difficult than I expected and I never got around to figuring him out and I think that’s why I struggled so bad.”
And like in the past, because of a desultory outing, many have written Morales off. The whispers have started again – has Morales gotten to the other side of the mountain? But many others, having made that mistake before, just chalk it up as a bad night at the office.
“I think that as the fight gets nearer I think more people are beginning to digest the fight that happened and putting what happened with Raheem as just a bad night for me,” Morales would tell Maxboxing through Top Rank publicist Ricardo Jimenez. “You can see now when I was in Beverly Hills (for the pre-fight press conference) the odds were against me and he was the favorite and I understand now that the odds have come even; maybe I’m a little higher in some places.”
The last time Morales hooked up with the ‘Pac Man’, it was an exciting back-and-forth affair won by Morales. And we could be seeing a repeat of that battle.
“I think that’s going to be up to him,” says Morales when asked what type of fight he expects from the Filipino icon. “If he saw something that maybe he can utilize from my last fight, if he saw something he can capitalize on, maybe he’ll make the changes, and then I’ll have to adapt. I don’t see me doing anything different than what I did the first time.”
Which is exactly the reason why you proceed with Morales-Pacquiao II.
WHAT ABOUT FLOYD?
OK, now that everyone has had some time to get over the shock of Judah’s loss to Baldomir, what does Arum have in mind for Mayweather?
“There are two possible guys,” he says, “one is Winky Wright and the other is Carlos Baldomir. Now, the Wright fight is a pay-per-view fight, I don’t think the Baldomir fight is a pay-per-view fight. HBO would buy it but then you got Floyd and so forth. So really Floyd has these choices, fight Wright on pay-per-view, fight Baldomir, probably on HBO.
“Or wait a couple of months till these guys have recycled themselves like Castillo, Corrales and Cotto.”
And what about an Antonio Margarito?
“Floyd has a phobia; Margarito is like Floyd’s Avian flu.”
FINAL FLURRIES
Boxing got it’s first buzzkill with the postponement of Castillo-Corrales III, but the extra time off could be just what the doctor ordered for ‘Chico’….There’s a chance that February 4th Showtime card, which now has Rolando Reyes stepping in for Corrales, could be taking place from the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, Texas…..Just my opinion, but Miguel Cotto-Gianluca Branco is a step backward for the Puerto Rican star…..The forgotten Zahir Raheem will be the in-studio guest on ESPN2’s 2006 debut of Friday Night Fights….Hey Laker and ‘Lost’ fans, doesn’t Chris Mihm look an awful lot like Mathew Fox (Jack)?….Another note on Jimmy Johnson, what in the world is he doing with his hair?…..
