Erik Morales has heard about his imminent demise before.
After he struggled to outpoint Guty Espadas in 2001, some suggested he was slipping. After he was pushed to the limit by unknown Injin Chi in his next fight, the criticism intensified.
Now, after a stunning loss to Zahir Raheem in his most recent fight, the doubters are out in force as he prepares to meet Manny Pacquiao tonight in Las Vegas in a scheduled 12-round rematch of their memorable super featherweight (130 pounds) brawl in September.
Morales won that fight convincingly, yet the oddsmakers say the rematch – a WBC title eliminator – is a toss-up.
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” he said through an interpreter. “It happens after every loss. I have no excuses for what happened against Raheem. I have to move on.
“I just see this as a new opportunity that I’ll try to take advantage of.”
Morales, who is from Tijuana and owns a home in San Diego, has proved his detractors wrong before.
After the Chi fight, he narrowly lost a controversial decision to rival Marco Antonio Barrera that doused any talk of his decline and then went on to win three world titles in two weight classes.
His finest moment might have been his victory over Pacquiao, which came after another disputed loss to Barrera and preceded the loss to Raheem.
This time might be different, for many reasons.
Morales (48-3, with 34 knockouts) will be 30 in September. He has had 51 fights over a 13-year career. And he has never been inclined to take a backward step: Many of his fights have been taxing ones, which are bound to take a toll.
He also has made some important changes for this fight, not the least of which was splitting with his father and career-long trainer, Jose Morales, in favor of countryman Jose Lopez Sr.
How he’ll react to that and a new training-camp site in Mexico – he moved it from the mountains of Toluca to another high-altitude area, Queretaro – will be seen in the ring tonight.
And he has lost two of his last three fights, to Barrera and Raheem.
Against Raheem, a quick-handed former Olympian, Morales seemed flat, even confused as he tried but failed to track down a much faster fighter and lost a unanimous decision.
Of course, Morales, as proud and confident as any fighter, brushes off such logic. And, indeed, he seems to be re-energized with Lopez and swears training camp went extremely well.
He fully expects to bounce back again.
“Losses shouldn’t bring out the best in you, but, you know, somehow they do in me,” he said. “There is nothing you can do about things that are already in the past.
“I know what I’m capable of doing and what I want to do in this fight.”
Pacquiao (40-3-2, 32 KOs) also is confident in spite of the setback in March.
The Filipino icon had built considerable momentum before he met Morales. He overwhelmed Barrera to win an easy decision and knocked down Juan Manuel Marquez three times in the first round before settling for a draw.
Then Morales seemed to do what Marquez did after the knockdowns: expose Pacquiao as having limited boxing skills. In March, Morales fairly easily avoided Pacquiao’s best shots and landed his own punches consistently to control the fight.
Pacquiao, who is coming off a sixth-round TKO of Hector Velazquez the same night Morales lost to Raheem, admits Morales was the toughest of his three big-name Mexican opponents, but he said he had his own distractions.
He was having problems with promoter Murad Muhammad, from whom he has split, and he suffered a deep cut above his right eye in the fifth round that hindered his ability to see for the next several rounds.
“It was a big distraction,” Pacquiao said.
Said his trainer, Freddie Roach: “It took him about four rounds until he really got back into focus of the fight. He came on bravely in the end. It was just a little too late by then.”
So, tonight’s fight provides second chances for both fighters – for Pacquiao to prove he wasn’t at his best against Morales and for Morales to prove the Raheem fight was an aberration, not another sign of decline.
