Morales recent antics on Pacquiao is contrary to his quite humble self back in the early days following his two most distressing defeats.
Scanning across the pages of Mexican boxing history, it would easily become empirically evident that this South American nation of Mexico is arguably one if not the biggest producers of famous world champions. And lining up these world title holders in a rank, Erik Morales, no doubt would easily make it to the all-time top 10 Mexican greats. In fact in his heyday, he was one of the most beloved fighters across the world; he was well-liked because of his bravery and electrifying style characterized by his inclination at sending leaders flying every now and then which were more often than not hit the target. Morales proficiency and accuracy was extraordinary. And his being attentive to the entertainment value of his performance for the fans while in action added to his being Manny Pacquiao alike as a fighter.
As fate would have it for these two equally real warriors, their trails crossed thrice and those epic ring events now lingers in the memory of contemporary boxing fans as one of the most exciting, dramatic and thrilling pugilistic collisions to have ever taken place. Morales handed Pacquiao his lone defeat since fighting in the US, but the latter being finer in speed and power annihilated the former in their subsequent rematches, via knockout in the 10th round, and Pacquiao in an seemingly effortless manner repeated the victory, via third round knockout in the third and final encounter. Morales was never the same after those well-fought confrontations, and trying yet once more for the WBC lightweight title of David Diaz, he lost via decision to a relatively mediocre fighter. After which he retired for good and became friends with Pacquiao, paving the way for his travels to the Philippines doing a number of television commercials for a couple of times with Manny Pacquiao himself and other who?s who in Philippine sports and film entertainment.
While Morales was enjoying the associated comfort of home in retirement, Pacquiao went on with his rather smooth sail across divisions, ending up winning sever world championships in seven divisions, an unprecedented feat in boxing history. But a little more than two years later, just very recently, Morales came out of retirement to start campaigning at welterweight where Pacquiao is. To test the welterweight waters, Morales elected to fight former lightweight world champion Jose Alfaro, winning it via unanimous decision last March 27 in Monterey, Mexico.
They have been in good terms for a number of years already, but as it is a norm among boxers, Morales prior to the Alfaro clash had already been tipping-off his desire for one last shot at his former Filipino tormentor, permeating all the while a few excuses for his demise in the hands of Pacquiao a few years back. Disposing off Alfaro, Morales went a lot farther. As reported by Ricardo Lois of Examiner.com just lately, while on ESPN studio with Marco Antonio Barrera, Morales without any qualms discredited Pacquiao for being his toughest opponents ever when asked via e-mail by a boxing fan Norberto Zarate. Morales instead attributed his most difficult fights to Barrera, further stating it was not for the reason of the latter being there and insinuated on a weighty issue being the main culprit of his back to back knockout loss, not on Pacquiao being more skillful and talented than he was.
Morales recent antics on Pacquiao is contrary to his quite humble self back in the early days following his two most distressing defeats and in all likelihood he was just being untruthful in that interview. As it may appear plainly, all he wanted was to notify Pacquiao far advance that his return to fighting and his arrival in the welterweight division is chiefly aimed at meeting him for the fourth time in the welterweight battlefield. Most probably, Morales is currently drowning in hopeful belief that in this heavier division, he could duplicate what he did to Pacquiao during the first edition of their highly dramatic and exhilarating trilogy. But the latest version of the Pacman is undeniably an unkind proposition for Morales as in contrast to Pacquiao, his agility and power appears to diminish significantly in the higher weights. Alternatively, Morales must be kind of breathe of his last will to acquire Pacquiao for his last hurrah in the squared ring in order to return home feeling good with millions of dollars to tally up his already heavyweight bank account. Afterwards, enjoy life as comfortable as it can become; he for sure deserves it.
