Erik Morales, up until two years ago, was sailing along in fine fashion. He was 47-1 with 34 knockouts, winner of world titles in three weight classes and a resident in everyone’s top 10 pound-for-pound poll. In some, he was in the top 5.
He has gone 1-3 since and is no longer considered a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter. The decline started with a decision loss to hated rival Marco Antonio Barrera in their rubber match two years ago this month. Morales rebounded from that and won a decision over Manny Pacquiao, but then Morales moved up to lightweight for one fight and lost a decision to solid, yet unheralded, Zahir Raheem.
And in Morales’ last fight, he was taken apart by Pacquiao and stopped in the 10th round last January.
Morales and Pacquiao will get it on a third time Saturday in the super featherweight main event at Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas.
Morales, of Tijuana, is fully aware that another loss will make it nearly impossible for him to regain his status as a top-level fighter.
“It’s the biggest fight of my career for a lot of reasons,” said Morales. “I have not done well my last few fights and I need to prove to a lot of people that I still belong at the elite level of
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——————————————————————————– the sport.” Morales believes he will be able to accomplish his goal for two reasons: He has undergone personal velocity training the past two months, and he brought his father Jose back into his corner as trainer. He fired Jose Morales after his lackluster performance against Raheem in September 2005 at Staples Center.
Although Morales has always made weight in every division in which he has fought, he has always had difficulty doing so. Making the 130-pound super featherweight
Manny Pacquiao, who KOs Erik Morales in their most recent fight in January, will fight Morales for the third time on Saturday night in Las Vegas. (Jed Jacobsohn / Getty Images)limit for his rematch with Pacquiao 10 months ago was a more arduous task than usual. And it showed in the fight.
“I was doing fine in the first five rounds, but then I got tired and my legs were gone,” Morales said recently from his training camp in the Otomi Mountains north of Mexico City. “If you see the fight you see that my legs were gone after six rounds and that I fought the last four rounds on heart alone, looking to land one big punch. But I never did.”
Enter personal velocity training, which is designed to boost muscle and joint strength as well as speed and stamina. It’s also supposed to improve one’s balance, agility, flexibility and power.
“It has been a real eye-opener for me,” Morales said of the personal velocity training he began taking in L.A. more than two months ago; trainers from the company at which he was training also went with him to Mexico.
“They have done some things that have really rejuvenated my body, from healing some old injuries to getting me in the shape that I need be in to get ready for a fight and not worry about the weight.
“When I won my first title at 21 all I needed was six weeks to get ready. But now at 30 I know that it takes more time for me to get ready and it (personal velocity) is something that I need to do to stay at the top level of competition.”
Bob Arum, who promotes Morales, raves about personal velocity. He has put two of his other fighters – Jose Luis Castillo and Miguel Cotto – on it. He said that it helps a fighter lose weight properly instead of losing it in a way that causes loss of muscle, which is what happens when one starves oneself.
But Freddie Roach, who trains Pacquiao, is not convinced that this relatively new training regimen helps boxers the way it helps other athletes.
“Boxing is such a different sport than any other conditioning sport,” Roach said. “Most conditioners wrap themselves around football and they do all these programs that are football related. But it’s not boxing. The velocity guys, I’m sure they are a good outfit. But how many fights have they had?” I’m betting zero.”
Time will tell if personal velocity makes a difference in Morales. But Jose Morales is certain it will.
“I felt that Erik lost most of his strength and conditioning while making the weight for his second fight with Pacquiao,” Jose Morales said. “So I was very happy that he went to velocity for two months so he could be ready to train properly.”
On that father note, Erik Morales admitted he should not have gotten rid of his for one fight.
Changing trainers to Jose Luis Lopez Sr. for the rematch with Pacquiao also meant changing training sites from the Otomi Mountains to Queretaro, Mexico.
“I probably made too many changes for my second fight with Pacquiao, from changing training sites to changing trainers, when all I needed to do was take more time to prepare and to make weight at a slower pace,” Morales said. “I’m very happy to have my father back in camp and in the corner with me. Not having him there for my last fight was a mistake. He just knows me so well that it makes me feel more relaxed and confident when he’s with me.”
Morales is 48-4 with 34 knockouts. Pacquiao, 27, is 42-3-2 with 33 knockouts. Their fight will be available on HBO pay-per-view.
Not so Golden
Over the past few months, Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has announced the signing of three current star fighters – Juan Diaz, Pacquiao and Diego Corrales.
Alas, Golden Boy might not end up with any of them. Diaz apparently never signed with Golden Boy and ended up signing with Don King. Pacquiao had a clause in the contract he signed with Arum to fight Morales that said he could not sign with any other promoter until after the Morales fight.
And Gary Shaw, Corrales’ most recent promoter, is challenging the contract Corrales recently signed with Golden Boy.
“The problem is, it exposes the fact that they have no ability to develop their own fighters,” Arum said of Golden Boy. “They don’t know how to do it, they can’t do it, they don’t have the patience to do it. So, their Modus operandi is to poach other people’s fighters and when they do that, they run into these kinds of problems.”
Arum, who has an ongoing feud with De La Hoya, said he put the aforementioned clause in Pacquiao’s contract so as to be afforded the opportunity to sign Pacquiao to a long-term contract. Arum said Pacquiao and Golden Boy violated that contract when they signed their contract in late September.
Golden Boy has denied any wrongdoing. But Arum suggested last Thursday, during a Pacquiao workout at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, that Pacquiao would be with Top Rank, not with Golden Boy, after Saturday’s fight.
Arum said everything would be taken care of after the fight.
Asked if he would offer a hint as to what might transpire, he said no, “Except that I have a smile on my face and I’m confident.”
Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, had his say during an interview with this newspaper last Friday. He said that it was Diaz’s manager, Willie Savannah, who was responsible for the jumping of that gun when he told members of the media about Diaz signing with Golden Boy before he went with King.
Schaefer also said that his contract with Pacquiao is valid and that Arum has been warned by Golden Boy’s attorneys that if he doesn’t back off, he will be sued for interfering with Pacquiao’s contract with Golden Boy.
“Bob Arum was told we would move swiftly to sue him,” Schaefer said.
As for Corrales, Schaefer said that before he signed him he told Shaw that although he didn’t want to go after one of his fighters, Golden Boy was one of many promotional companies that had interest in Corrales, thought to be a free agent. He said that at no time during their conversation did Shaw tell him Corrales was still under contract to him.
Schaefer also said that at no time during his dealings with Corrales’ legal team, or Corrales’ manager, rap mogul James Prince, was he told that there was anything left between Shaw and Corrales.
“We have done nothing wrong,” Schaefer said. “And I’m sick and tired of these bunch of promoters trying to make us out like we are poaching fighters. This is a bunch of jealous guys who are suddenly seeing their kingdom threatened and they don’t like it.”
Soliman-Ornelas
Sam Soliman (32-8, 13 KOs), a top 10 middleweight from Australia, will take on Enrique Ornelas (25-2, 15 KOs) of La Habra in the main event Friday at Soboba Casino in San Jacinto.
Showtime will televise the Goossen Tutor Promotions event.
Jason Estrada (7-0, 1 KO), a 2004 U.S. Olympian out of Providence, R.I., will take on Travis Walker (21-0-1, 17 KOs) in the heavyweight semi-main event.
