The news came this week about the specific weight clause for the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales fight November 18th at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This hotly anticipated third matchup has the opportunity to be a financial boon to all those involved due to the ever growing legion of fans for both participants.
Pacquiao is worshipped in his native Philippines and the pay per view numbers in that country should do outstanding business. In addition, thousands of his fans are expected to make the trip to Las Vegas for this fight.
Morales is seen among many boxing fans as a modern day Julio Cesar Chavez. Turning pro as a sixteen year old in his native Tijuana, Mexico, “El Terrible” resonates as being seemingly capable of willing his heart to turn around any debilitating situation in a battle into his favor. His three fight trilogy with junior lightweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera is of legendary status.
Morales, although just 29 years old, is also on a JC Superstar pace as this will be his 53rd professional bout.
The clause in the contract for this rubber match with “Pac Man” calls for both combatants to weigh in at 130. Failure to do so will cost either participant $500,000 per pound. You read that right, either man could lose up to $1,000,000 if they cannot weigh in at 130. There are additional stipulations for the fight to go on, but it seems apparent that it will be very costly for either fighter not to make weight.
In an interview with Lisa Scott of Fightnews.com, Shelly Finkel is quoted as using the Corrales/Castillo 3 non-fight as his reasoning for this move. Few men in boxing are as astute as Finkel, and as Steve Kim would say, I agree and disagree with this move.
As I wrote after the Corrales/Castillo 3 debacle at the scales on June 2nd, Jose Luis Castillo did not make weight due to his David Tua/James Toney-like work at the buffet. On this day, Jose Luis was even unable to initially sit or stand on the stage in which the the weigh-in was taking place. His walk into the ballroom that afternoon was not one of a champion but one of someone who was physically and mentally defeated.
While the party line is that Morales has had no problem making weight in his career, after his upset win over the Mexican legend last summer, Zahir Raheem stated on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights that Morales didn’t make the contracted weight of 135 and may have been over by more than a pound or two. His weight on boxrec.com for that fight, one in which he tired badly, is listed at 134.
In the second bout with Pacquiao, Morales faded badly down the stretch and admitted at the press conference “that the weight was killing him and he would never fight at 130 again.”
I have to take Morales at his word here and this is where it gets dicey. At this point he has signed a contract saying he will give up major portions of his purse if he can’t make 130. Forget about training for the pound for pound #1 fighter in the world on my list and many others’, Morales will also have to train to make a weight which he admits is killing him.
Many fighters will tell you that they don’t train so much for the opposition, they train to make weight for the fight.
Maybe I’m not too smart, but there are some simple solutions here. Make the fight at a weight Morales can make in a healthy manner or have the fighters make fights with other warriors.
Maybe we get this “Cold War” between Golden Boy and Top Rank to thaw out and Morales faces Barrera for the fourth time. Seems like a disservice to Barrera to have him fight the younger, bigger Rocky Juarez again on September 16th when he was close to being dominated in the second half of their fight earlier this year.
For “Pac Man”, maybe we get a rematch with him and Juan Manuel Marquez or maybe he fights Barrera. Both would be very popular fights and ensure huge box office and PPV numbers.
The bottom line is that these warriors are only human, and besides MONEY, there is no reason for this fight and these kinds of stipulations. Let’s have fighters fight at the weight they can comfortably make, not ones in which they endanger their lives.
What I learned at the Corrales/Castillo 3 weigh-in was that Castillo should be fighting at 140 or more, not that we should be fining him or suspending him. Anyone else who was standing five feet away from him that afternoon as he laid down on the stage would tell you the same thing.
These are human beings and professional athletes we’re talking about here. The least we can do is treat them as such and not as pieces of meat for us to slap on a scale.
A couple of other things…
Yes, it was against a faded, smaller Stevie Johnston, but Vivian Harris looked like a potential boss at 140 on Saturday night. A fight with Ricky Hatton at this point makes sense for HBO, which is why Hatton may instead fight the sorely one dimensional Juan Urango on December 2nd. What happened to Hatton coming here, signing with HBO and “wanting to fight the best?”
Speaking of Urango, did Richard Gutierrez seem like a very similar fighter in style and skills? Joshua Clottey looked okay in the win, but I’d like to see Antonio Margarito in with Carlos Quintana or Paul Williams on December 2nd, although it seems like Williams has some sort of deal going with HBO in which he can fight punching bags and faded former titlists on Boxing After Dark for a while. Hey Paul, if you’re going to call out Margarito, just have Dan Goossen call Bob Arum and make the fight happen.
David Tua-Ed Gutierrez—that’s called a SHOWCASE fight, ESPN. Putting on those types of fights continues to call into question your supposed “Boxing Authority” status.
Outstanding story by Thomas Hauser at Seconds Out in regards to the current status of HBO’s Boxing After Dark series and some serious production business at Showtime.
Did Jean Paul Mendy look like a smaller version of Antonio Tarver last Friday night in the super middleweight tournament? I like the idea of the tournament; we’ll see how the rest of it plays out.
In regards to a potential Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Carlos Baldomir fight, let’s see what PBF’s guarantee looks like. Probably a “little” short of the $8,000,000 Bob Arum was going to pay him to fight Margarito on November 4th.
Isn’t there a huge PPV on November 18th with Morales and Pacquiao? Ah, I’m sure Floyd and his people already have that figured into the equation.
One final note, many are still not sold on Baldomir, but if PBF fights him at 147, this will be a war. Mayweather is going to have real trouble hurting Carlos and at some point is going to get smacked by someone who also “isn’t a household name.”
Good luck PBF. And don’t watch the Glen Johnson-Roy Jones Jr. tape anytime soon.
Enjoy the fights.
