Pre-fight press conferences are almost always routine affairs, their dullness generally directly proportionate to the amount of time they consume. They’re pretty rote affairs: the promoter introduces, in turns, a representative of the host casino; someone from the network broadcasting the fight; the head of the relevant athletic commission; undercard fighters; the main event participants’ trainers, managers, beauticians, friends; and finally, the principal fighters themselves. And we, as the trained monkeys of the traveling press corps, sit through this so that we can hear the insightful exclamations from the fighters, which are almost always along the lines of: “I have trained very hard for this fight. I will be a good fight. I respect my opponent, but I will win.”
Oscar De La Hoya was the best (or worst) at this, emitting practiced sound bites with a perfect smile that made him the darling of Entertainment Tonight and the bane of boxing beat writers.
It’s one reason why this writer, at least, as always had a soft spot for the likes of Bernard Hopkins or Roy Jones, Jr, fighters who at least make some noise at the podium. The most extreme, of course, in recent years has been Ricardo Mayorga, who, before his rematch with Vernon Forrest, promised to take care of Forrest’s wife by having her sweep his yard in Managua (fortunately, there was no Mrs. Forrest), and, prior to fighting Cory Spinks, vowed to send Spinks to meet his dead mother.
Now, most people would agreed that that was going too far, but it made for better copy than the offerings of either Erik Morales or Manny Pacquiao, during the press conference at the beautiful Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Casino to provide final publicity (not that much is needed) for their rematch at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday.
Pacquiao: “It\’s going to be a good fight. Both of us trained hard. We will do our best to please everybody.”
Morales “”It’s going to be a difficult fight. We still have a lot to give. I have done lots of preparation, mental and physical. I’m going to stand up for this fight.”
But then, as co-promoter Bob Arum underlined, “As nice as they are here, [Morales and Pacquiao] are nasty in the ring. This will be no chess match. They’re not going to look at each other for twelve rounds and then start fighting in the twelfth. They’re going to throw more punches in one round than many others throw in an entire fight. There is no quit in these guys.”
The atmosphere on Saturday expects to be deafening and electric, as both fighters carry the weight of two boxing-mad nations on their shoulders. In the words of Fernando Beltran, Morales’ manager, “These two fighters, in both their countries, it’s like Elvis Presley. Manny is the Elvis of the Philippines, Erik is the Elvis of Mexico. It’s Elvis vs. Elvis.”
When last these two combatants clashed, ten months ago at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the Mexican Elvis emerged victorious, and to these eyes at least a shade more comfortably than unanimous scores of 115-113 might suggest. Although Pacquiao frequently had Morales rattled, the Mexican controlled large stretches of the fight, and deliberately threw away the final round by turning southpaw in a display of unwarranted bravado.
That might suggest that Morales would be favored in their rematch, but in fact the Filipino opened a slight favorite, and the odds presently reflect a pick ‘em fight. That’s because of three factors, two of them present at the last fight, one of them which happened subsequently, which Pacquiao backers cite in their favor.
The first is the fact that, due to negotiations of suspect quality on the part of Pacquiao\’s then-promoter Murad Muhammad both fighters were contractually obligated to wear the more padded Winning gloves, rather than the Reyes gloves that favor punchers and which Pacquiao prefers. This time around, both boxers can wear whichever glove they want, and Pacquiao has made it clear he will wear Reyes; Morales is equivocating on his choice.
The second factor was the accidental head butt that cut Pacquiao badly early in the fight, flustered him, and caused him to lose blood and energy. Without that, say Pacman boosters, it might have been a different story.
The third factor is Morales’ most recent fight, a disappointing September 10th defeat to Zahir Raheem. But it would be unwise to seek portents for Saturday’s fight from that performance.
Morales was distracted and out of shape for that bout, focused on his imminent wedding and dismissive of Raheem’s chances. This time he appears lean and ready. And Morales has always rebounded, and shown some of his most impressive performances, after being written off before. He was also coming off a defeat—to Marco Antonio Barrera—before facing Pacquiao the first time.
Besides, styles make fights. A cutey-pie slickster like Raheem would always cause even a focused Morales trouble. A straight-ahead banger like Pacquiao feeds to his strengths. Indeed, of the two, Morales is surely the better boxer.
If Morales is not in top shape, or is finally starting to slide, expect Pacquiao to out-hustle and overwhelm him, perhaps even stopping him late.
But if Morales is anything like close to the levels of fitness and concentration he has shown on his best days, expect him to handle the Filipino, perhaps more easily than last time, on his way to points victory.
