THE REPORT was right. Erik Morales has won the first round.
But it’s in no way similar to Mayor Jojo Binay’s Round 1 triumph against the desperate, hard-pressing Arroyo government.
Morales, a future Hall-of-Famer, passed the initial test in Saturday’s public weigh-in conducted by the WBC in Mexico City.
The 30-year-old Mexican boxing great tipped the scales at 142 lb, one under the limit stipulated by the world boxing body a month before his forthcoming showdown with Manny Pacquiao.
Actually, Morales could have weighed another pound more and still gotten the nod.
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But here’s the harsh truth.
It was just a minor battle won by Morales. Or, to score it strictly, it was no win at all — an empty victory.
Why? Well, Morales next has to go to war.
No. Not immediately against Pacquiao, whom he fights for the third time in Las Vegas on Nov. 18.
The war Morales has to next wage will be against himself and the terrible weighing scales.
This war promises to be a bitter one.
For one, Morales, already famished, will have to cruelly drain his body in order to make the 130-lb limit for his third encounter with Pacquiao.
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OK, Morales, as he would claim, may have felt truly strong after making 142 lb Saturday.
Forget the suspicion that Morales, after having reportedly ballooned to 162 lb, must’ve skipped dinner to score big during the morning public weigh-in.
The central problem: how to shed 12 lb more after having already undergone a special weight-reducing regimen for nearly three months?
If Morales had, say, gone at least a pound below 140 after the series of conditioning workouts, he would have still been on target.
The big, intriguing question now is how much would still remain of the tough, tested warrior once Morales has been painfully squeezed down to 130 lb for the official weigh-in on Nov. 17?
How much of the old, original juice would be left?
Yes, he may again be able to make the limit as he had done last January in his rematch with Pacquiao, who proceeded to stop him in the 10th round.
But will Morales again turn to some artificial agent, or seek abnormal intervention, in order to make the official super featherweight limit?
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This brings to mind what veteran international matchmaker Rafael Mendoza had said in Manila last July that Morales would’ve to cut off both legs in order to make 130 lb for his Grand Finale meeting with Pacquiao.
Well, that may be a bit exaggerated, but Mendoza was readily acquitted by the massive poundage Morales had to submit after having undergone what his camp claimed was the toughest reducing regimen for El Terrible.
Se?or Mendoza, whose fighter Oscar Larios provided Pacquiao a fitting 12-round preparatory workout for the third fight with Morales, must’ve meant El Terrible was bound to lose his legs early in his forthcoming encounter with Pacman.
Mendoza did not say it. But it’s no secret how the legs of an over-drained fighter sag and behave queerly like soaked spaghetti in the heat of battle.
Morales, inactive, has less than a month to find a cure for this lurking disease.
