NO WONDER Erik Morales is pushing himself too hard.
The US and Mexican media reported on Saturday that the Mexican stands to lose as much as $ 1 million in the event he fails to make the agreed super-featherweight limit of 130 lbs against Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 18 in Las Vegas.
According to Dan Rafael, formerly the lead fight scribe for USA Today, Morales will have to shell out $ 500,00 in the event he weighs in between 130.1 to 131 lbs. But if Morales tips the scales at 131.1 and 132 lbs, “he will have to fork over $ 1 million.”
What worse is that Pacquiao won’t be prevented from getting the money and running away from the scheduled 12-rounder at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Shelley Finkel, Pacquiao’s New York-based chief handler, is making sure the Filipino southpaw would be well-protected in the event Morales fails to shed off excess poundage.
Finkel told Rafael: “We didn’t want a (Jose Luis) Castillo. Manny is not a big 130-pounder and he doesn’t want to fight above that. So if you make a deal to fight at 130, you should be penalized if you don’t make it.”
Castillo is best remembered by boxing fans as the Mexican lightweight who failed to make the limit of 135 lbs last June against arch-rival Diego Corrales. The fight did not materialize because Castillo came in way above the limit and Corrales went home empty-handed.
Morales was badly beaten by Pacquiao in their Jan. 21 rematch but has vowed to prepare harder with the help of a team of nutritionists and a conditioning coach tapped to supervise his pre-training camp workout in Los Angeles.
“Esta bien. Lo vamos a firmar. No hay problema (It is well. We are going to sign. No problem),” Morales told Esto En Linea’s Ernesto Castellanos.
Morales, who will turn 29 in September, is so confident of making 130 lbs because of the supervision by the seven-man team hired by Top Rank big boss Bob Arum to help him manage his weight.
“I have been doing things in the gym that I have never done before,” added Morales.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is taking it nice and easy the past few days with his family in General Santos City.
After hosting a dinner for sportswriters who covered his last fight – a dramatic win over Oscar Larios – Pacquiao spent two days in Bacolod, and one day in Cebu, before heading back to GenSan to be with his pregnant wife Jinkee and sons Emmnauel Jr. and Michael Stephen.
Yesterday, Pacquiao was said to have hit the beaches of Glan, Sarangani, with his loved ones, according to his long-time bodyguard Erning Madidis.
“Manny went to the beach with his family,” said Madidis, who is only a handful of trusted men who had known Pacquiao at a time when the current boxing sensation, penniless and unheard of, was still roaming the streets of GenSan.
Pacquiao is said to be flying to the US sometime between Aug. 8 or 10 to attend a press conference announcing his rubber match with Morales.
The trip will also be used to formalize the Nov. 18 fight since Morales has also not yet signed the contract, like Pacquiao.
