After unifying the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation world super featherweight titles, classy Mexican Erik Morales indicated in a post-fight interview that although he planned to move up to 135 pounds, he was not ruling out a title defense against Manny Pacquiao.
Morales recently unified the WBC and IBF titles with an impressive unanimous decision over Carlos ?Famoso? Hernandez.
Ever since he annihilated legendary Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in 11 rounds last Nov. 15, Pacquiao has dreamed of going after Morales whom promoter Murad Muhammad described as ?the last man standing.? This is even though Pacquiao was held to a controversial draw by World Boxing Association/IBF featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
Pacquiao, the featherweight People?s Champion, has expressed confidence he could beat Morales and this was bolstered by the fact that Morales, who improved his record to 46-1 with 34 knockouts, caught Hernandez with several vicious combinations but couldn?t put him away.
A member of Team Pacquiao, boxing analyst Moy Lainez said the Filipino ?hits harder than Marquez and is much quicker and can beat Morales for sure.?
Lainez said that Hernandez trained at Freddie Roach?s Wild Card Gym before Pacquiao?s fight with Barrera and the Filipino southpaw had hurt him during sparring sessions at that time.
Pacquiao?s business manager Rod Nazario said he was sending Pacquiao along with Philippine super featherweight champion Bobby Pacquiao to train under Roach before the second week of September in anticipation of a rematch with Barrera in late November prior to a possible showdown with Morales.
