OLD SCHOOL training and scientific technique will propel Erik Morales to a victory over Filipino rival Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 18 in Las Vegas.
An article in the daily Mexican sports paper Esto reported that the Mexican is convinced that the team-up between his father and long-time trainer Jose “Olivaritos” Morales and staffers at the high-end Velocity Sports Performance based in Los Angeles will enable him to conquer the scales and make the 130-lb superfeatherweight limit.
Morales boasted that when the World Boxing Council orders the two fighters to weigh in on Oct. 18, exactly a month before the fight at the Thomas and Mack Center, they should not tip in more than the required 143 lb. limit.
The WBC mandates that Morales and Pacquiao must not weigh more than 143 lbs, which is 13 lbs over the super-feather limit or 10 percent of the agreed weight of 130 lbs.
Morales said that people should not be surprised if he ends up weighing less than 143 lbs.
According to Games and Amusements Board boxing division head Dr. Nasser Cruz, who is a member of the WBC Medical Advisory Board, one week before the fight, the two fighters must not weigh more than 136.5 and on the day of the weigh-in, they must not exceed more than three pounds.
“This is to prevent the fighters from getting dehydrated if they end up having trouble making the limit,” said Cruz, who formerly headed the GAB’s medical division.
“With these gentlemen with me, I have been doing things that I have never done before and I know I can make the weight comfortably,” Morales, 30, said from his high-altitude training camp in the Otomi Mountains outside Mexico City.
Aside from getting help from traditional boxing men in the senior Morales, doctor Roman Cruz and Jorge Quezada, the Tijuana pride also draws valuable assistance from conditioning expert John Park of South Africa and Swede masseur Jorgen Persson.
“Everything is going on well,” said Park, who took Morales under his wings for almost weeks before the boxer headed to the mountains two weeks ago.
Morales promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank told the Bulletin recently that it is the fighter himself who is footing the bill incurred at the high-tech training center.
