Well, how long ago does Erik Morales’s soul-destroying second defeat to despised rival Marco Antonio Barrera suddenly seem?
Was it really only last November when El Terrible wore that crestfallen expression as he watched his Mexico City nemesis revel at winning one of the all time greatest boxing trilogies? It seems a lifetime ago and, after defeating the man who knocked out Barrera in November 2003, for Morales it seems like a lifetime ago.
Following his breathtaking win over much fancied puncher Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Saturday night, Morales has eradicated any notion he is washed up at age 28 and that the wars have caught up with him.
Already established at 130lbs, Morales fought the third fight with Barrera as though he believed the talk that ‘the Baby-Faced Assassin’ wasn’t comfortable as a super-featherweight and, indeed, had been exposed by the 11th round KO to Pacquiao as damaged goods.
Despite splitting 24 of the hardest rounds of his career, Morales actually looked surprised at how good Barrera was last November and didn’t seem able to make the necessary tactical adjustments after falling behind early on.
But last Saturday, he did. After getting hurt to the body in the first and having some difficultly negating the flyweight champion’s speed advantage, Morales began to impose his jab in the middle rounds and mixed just the right amounts of boxing and brawling to formulate a powerful cocktail to which the Pac-Man, as aggressively determined as he was, could not match.
Afterwards Morales said: “think I was controlled the fight with my distance and jab. But Sometimes I need to put a little excitement into the fight. My promoter (Bob Arum) always says that I make the fights very difficult, but they’re not difficult, they’re fun for the public. It is a great pleasure to fight this way.”
The 12th round – where Morales risked throwing away a career-resurrecting victory in a breathtaking show of macho madness – will surely be voted SecondsOut Round of the Year in December.
Morales said: “”I decided to stop myself (stand) in front of him in the 12th round because I wanted to give the public what they deserve. It was a great round. I’m very happy about it.”
Another man who was very happy was Top Rank boss Bob Arum, who enjoyed Barrera (promoted by former fighter turned business rival Oscar De La Hoya) v Morales III about as much as El Terrible did.
Arum aimed some subtle but effected blows on Barrera and Golden Boy Promotions.
In a calculated swipe at Barrera’s upcoming mismatch against unknown Mzonke Fana on April 9, Arum said: “I think this is the most satisfying win of his career because Erik instead going for an easy fight or a mismatch, he wanted the toughest guy out there. All the great ones after suffering a defeat – and I still don’t believe he lost that (third) fight to Barrera – come back strong like a Muhammad Ali. They don’t putz around fighting inferior opponents.”
Whether Arum and Oscar are willing to sit down and co-promote Morales v Barrera IV remains to be seen but Arum was keen to send his former No.1 signee the message that Morales doesn’t need to get his win back off Barrera.
“There’s a lot of other fights for Erik,” he began. “There’s Pacquiao again, there’s the winner of Jesus Chavez v Carlos Hernandez, then there’s Joel Casamayor -which would be a very interesting fight – there’s Robbie Peden, who just had a great victory. We’re not waiting for anybody, anybody.”
And now Morales can say to Barrera “You took a decision off me but I beat up the guy who knocked you out.”
