ERIK ?El Terrible? Morales had better make the weight in his scheduled third encounter with Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 18 in Las Vegas, otherwise, he will pay a heavy price.
Pacquiao?s manager Shelly Finkel and lawyer Nick Kahn, who is also a member of the Filipino?s management team, said that under the airtight agreement with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who handles Morales, there were monetary sanctions in case Morales didn?t make the 130-pound limit. The weight was stipulated in the rematch clause of their second fight in which Pacquiao destroyed Morales in 10 rounds.
Kahn said if Morales came in at a weight between 130.1 lb and 131 lb, he would have to pay Pacquiao $500,000. On the other hand, if he weighed 132 lb, which is the weight Morales had wanted in the first place, but which Pacquiao and his management team refused to agree to, he would have to pay the Filipino $1 million.
Kahn also disclosed that Pacquiao had the option to take the $1 million and not fight or take the money and fight Morales, which meant he would also earn a multimillion-dollar purse and a percentage of the pay-per-view rights.
Rafael Mendoza, the adviser of former two-time super bantamweight champion Oscar Larios, who survived 12 rounds against Pacquiao, said there was no way Morales could make the 130-lb limit and if he did, he was likely to get an even worse mauling than what he received in their last fight when the Mexican had major problems making the weight.
However, there are those who believe that the astute Arum would not have signed the contract if he was not certain that Morales could make the weight. If Morales comes in at 132 lb, which is what he requested in the beginning, he was ready to pay the fine because he knows Pacquiao would not back out and the $1-million fine could be recovered from the pay-per-view income.
