A fitting finale to a great and classic rivalry.
Manny Pacquiao and Eric Morales, two noble warriors of their generation, slug it out again for the third – and perhaps the last – time on Nov. 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The third installment in their rivalry was formally announced yesterday by Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank Promotions and handler of Morales, and Pacquiao’sAmerican manager Shelly Finkel.
The Pacquiao-Morales trilogy is just among the few in boxing history and some of which became legendary, among them the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard-Tommy Hearns, Micky Ward-Arturo Gatti and Morales – Marco Antonio Barrera.
The fight will be over 12 rounds and to be shown by HBO on pay-per-view.
Again, it will be fought at the 130-pound limit, with Arum paying Team Pacquiao reportedly a whooping $500,000 in the event Morales failed to meet the weight.
Finkel confirmed the inclusion of the special clause in the contract when he was recently in Manila for the Pacquiao-Oscar Larios fight.
Arum earlier tried to have the fight be held at the catch weight of 132 lbs, but abandoned the proposal when Pacquiao insisted that there will be no third match if the Morales camp persists on fighting two pounds over the super-featherweight limit.
The weight issue came about after Morales himself admitted that his loss during the Pacquiao rematch had a lot to do with his decision to fight back at the super-featherweight division (130-lbs) after going up at the lightweight division (135-lbs) in his previous bout with American Zaheer Rahim.
But all of the excuses have now been put aside as Arum said he’s looking forward to the fight he termed as the most exciting of the trilogy.
“I expect this third fight to be the most exciting – and that’s saying something,” said Arum.
“Erik is very determined and he is anxious to take on Pacquiao for a third time. These two great champions have given it their all, each and every second in the ring, especially against each other.”
Finkel said for his part, “He (Manny) is thrilled to have this rubber match to show who is the better man. He’ll start training in August.”
The 27-year-old Filipino boxing icon is currently in his hometown General Santos City. He was out of the house and tending to his cock farm when reached for comments about the official announcement of his third bout with Morales.
Pacquiao and Morales split their first two meetings that took place in a year’s span.
The 30-year-old Morales, a three-time division champion from Tijuana and considered one of the greatest boxers Mexico ever produced, won the first bout in January of 2005 in a close, unanimous decision.
But the Filipino lefty came back with a vengeance just six months ago when he dealt his rival the worst beating of his colorful 14-year career following a sensational 10th round technical knockout.
Pacquiao has a ring record of 42-3-2, with 32 knockouts and is coming off a one-sided, 12-round unanimous decision over Larios two weeks ago. He has gone 16-1-2 in his last 19 fights, 15 of which were by KOs.
Morales (48-4, 34 KOs) remained idle since that loss to Pacquiao and reports had it that he is currently overweight and out of shape.
Only recently though, Morales admitted he’ll be undergoing a four-week weight training program in Los Angeles, USA under the care of a team of experts to make sure that the Mexican boxer will be able to meet the 130-lb. limit.
Morales then proceeds to Tijuana and begins the initial phase of his training.
Pacquiao won’t begin his training until Sept. when he flies in the US and prepare under the watchful eyes of Freddie Roach at the famed Wildcard Gym in LA.
