Erik Morales is the epitome of the old-school prize fighter, the type that is not shy about fighting one mean hombre after another.
It was just Nov. 27 when Morales engaged Marco Antonio Barrera over 12 grueling rounds in a fight won narrowly by Barrera, a fight that probably will be selected fight of the year by most boxing publications.
Will he now take some time off? Or perhaps fight a lesser opponent, so he can gather himself? No way.
Morales, of Tijuana, was in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. He and his promoter, Bob Arum, were there for a news conference to announce that Morales has decided to go from the frying pan to the fire.
He will take on Manny Pacquiao on March 19 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas in a 12-round super featherweight fight televised on pay-per-view. It is being billed as a world-championship fight by promoters, but there are no titles on the line.
Morales lost his World Boxing Council super featherweight title to Barrera, to whom he has lost two of three epic fights.
Pacquiao will be making his first appearance in the 130-pound division. He is the former International Boxing Federation super bantamweight (122 pounds) champion. He also owns a vicious 11th-round technical knockout over Barrera in November 2003, in San Antonio. That was billed as the “people’s” featherweight championship.
“My thinking is that that is the kind of fighter Erik Morales is: Morales is a warrior,” said Arum, regarding the decision to fight Pacquiao. “He only wants to do big fights. He doesn’t want to do lesser fights.
“He feels he let a lot of people down in the Barrera fight. And he wanted the biggest fight out there, and clearly the biggest fight out there for him was Pacquiao.”
Many ringside experts believed Morales deserved no worse than a draw for his rubber-match fight with Barrera. A common score among veteran boxing writers was 114-114.
Morales was very good, but he wasn’t great. He admitted that afterward, saying he didn’t feel like he was heavily into the fight into the middle rounds.
That was a motivating factor in signing to fight Pacquiao. Morales knows he could have done more against Barrera, and now he wants to try and recoup that by getting after another monster.
“I have another opportunity to show that, in boxing, you need to be explosive,” Morales said. “Boxing needs explosive fights. Don’t be surprised if this is one of my best performances.
“I gave the public three great fights last year. Even though I’m disappointed that I didn’t close it out (with a victory), beginning the year by fighting a great warrior like Pacquiao is exciting.”
Morales, 28, is 47-2 with 34 knockouts. He has won championships in the super bantamweight, featherweight and super featherweight divisions.
Pacquiao, 26, of the Philippines, is 39-2-2 with 30 knockouts. He stopped Fahsan Thawatchai in the fourth round Dec. 11 in the Philippines, his most recent bout.
Before that, last May in Las Vegas, Pacquiao knocked down Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round. Marquez was gallant in coming back to earn a draw and retain his WBC and World Boxing Association featherweight belts.
“I am ready to fight Erik Morales,” Pacquiao said. “I will give him a good fight. Don’t miss this fight because it will be one of the most memorable fights in boxing history.”
Could have been: A rematch between Mexico City’s Marquez and Pacquiao was in the works before Arum and Pacquiao’s promoter, Murad Muhammad, switched gears. Arum, also promotes Marquez, was asked what happened.
“Remember, Pacquiao-Marquez was going to be an HBO fight, and their budget’s limited,” Arum said. “And while we were trying to see if we could make that fight with a limited HBO budget and were having difficulty, it occurred to us that the pay-per-view fight out there was Morales and Pacquiao.
“So we went the other way and made the pay-per-view fight.”
Arum said although Marquez is a world champion and a very talented fighter, he is not a big enough draw to be a main event on pay-per-view. He and Pacquiao both were offered $750,000 to fight on HBO, but Arum said Marquez wanted more.
“On pay-per-view, you can offer a lot more money, so we decided to make it pay-per-view,” Arum said. “Pacquiao-Marquez was not going to be big enough yet for a pay-per-view fight. Marquez is a very good fighter, but he is not a pay-per-view draw. The two Mexicans who are pay-per-view draws are Morales and Barrera.”
Arum said he could not yet divulge details of the Morales-Pacquiao contract, but he said Pacquiao was going to be paid more than $1 million and that Morales was going to be “very well paid.”
Morales and Barrera each made $2.25 million for their third fight.
Pac Man favored: Pacquiao has opened as a 6-5 betting favorite at the MGM Mirage Race & Sports Book in Las Vegas.
Robert Morales covers boxing for the Daily News. His column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2213, or [email protected] .
