This Saturday, August 4, Erik Morales will take on David Diaz in the ‘War For Four’ at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
The ‘four’ in this title refers to the fact that if Morales, 48-5 (34), wins this bout he will become the first Mexican to claim major belts in four different weight classes. Sounds good on the surface, but in reality this shot at adding a lightweight title to his r?sum? could be considered somewhat of a gift to Morales, given that he has lost four of his last five fights, and, after his last no mas-esque outing (against Manny Pacquiao last November), he was widely regarded as finished. In addition, winning this belt would grant Morales the statistic, but wouldn’t make him champion of the division, not in the same way he was champion of the super bantam, feather and junior lightweight divisions. If he were facing Joel Casamayor (and this was Casamayor’s belt, before he was divested of it for refusing to face mandatory challenger Diaz, so the WBC claims), or a different Diaz (say, Juan) – this ‘War for Four’ fight moniker would have more meaning.
Unless – and this is the caveat that could turn the whole thing around – he wins impressively. Then, perceptions could change. Boxing is always ready to embrace a comeback, and El Terrible has had such an illustrious career that it is easy to forget he is still only thirty years old – a little shy of the age when most elite boxers retire (other than as a stunt, ? la Floyd Mayweather). But of course going 36 rounds with Barrera, and 25 with Pacquiao, as well as engaging in numerous other wars, will tend to age a fighter (and especially a stand-and-trade type like Morales) beyond his years. Troubling also is the way in which there is a pattern of decline in Morales’ record: he was brilliant in winning the first slugfest against Pacquiao in 2005; he was stopped in the tenth round in their second fight, and, by their third meeting, he was blown out in three rounds. And then there was the loss to Zahir Raheem, later in 2005, in Morales’ only other fight at lightweight, in the recent past.
But great fighters often have one last great fight in them, and if Morales can look good against Diaz, he will make many who have called him a shot fighter eat their words.
In case it appears that, like the bout’s marketing strategy, I seem to have forgotten there’s another guy in this fight – it should be pointed out that as well as being the titleholder, Diaz, 32-1-1 (17), is also the hometown guy.
Diaz is a solid fighter who was an outstanding amateur. He is roughly the same age as Morales, but his career has traversed a vastly different path. A national Golden Gloves champion and Olympian in 1996 (he was on the same US team along with Floyd Mayweather and Fernando Vargas), Diaz had a 13-0 record before walking away from the sport for two years. He took it up again in 2002, and continued building on his unbeaten record until he was stopped, in 2005, by Kendall Holt. Since then he has been undefeated in his last seven fights (although one of them was a draw).
The biggest victory of his career came last August, against Jose Armando Santa Cruz, a win that made him the mandatory challenger for Casamayor’s WBC title, or the ‘interim champion’ as the WBC had it. In that fight he was behind on the scorecards before pulling out a tenth-round knockout against the highly touted Cruz. Other recent opposition has been patchy however; in the bout before that he went 12 rounds against a fighter with a 12-12-4 record.
Diaz will be hungry to impress in his hometown, and also to prove that the title he acquired by forfeit, really belongs to him. Morales, for his part, will be trying to prove that he isn’t washed up.
“I don’t what he’s got left,” Diaz says. “What I can tell you is that I am ready.”
