Morales-Pacquiao: A Fight to Remember | Gatti-Mayweather Update
by
Carl Rice
3/23 - The fight between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao was a sight to behold. Here were two men giving everything they had for the glory of victory. It was reminiscent of what Larry Merchant said during the fight between James Toney and Vassiliy Jirov two years ago when he said "it's hard to believe men can do this."
Pacquiao took everything that Morales had to offer (and there was a lot of it), and Morales took the lightning Pacquiao was throwing his way. There were times during the fight in which I felt someone was about to go down, but that time never came as both men gave and took, neither one wanting to relinquish an inch of the ring. I was so into the fight that although I bet that the fight wouldn't go 12 rounds, when Pacquiao got cut, I was screaming for the fight to continue. The crowd was amped on every punch thrown, whether it was blocked or landed; this was no doubt the most hyped up crowd I have ever been in, which was befitting because this was the best fight I've ever seen live.
It started off with no one doing much of anything but feeling each other out, but the crowd didn't start booing like it was Christmas in Philadelphia, they just patiently waited. But about a minute in the round when the action started, it was exhilarating. Pacquiao seemed to have the early advantage, but then Morales would come back with something of his own. As the fight went on, El Terrible was putting more leather on PacMan, but then Pacquiao would come back with that patented speed and furry to get the crowd louder than it had previously been. Later in the fight, the look of despair could be seen on the face of the Filipino fans, while the Morales fans kept saying that Morales was going to KO Manny in the 10th.
That time came and went, and even as Pacquiao would take a punishing counter right hand from Morales, even as blood poured in his eye, even as his mouth was wide open, he would not surrender. Conversely, even as he was leading in the fight, Morales would still, at time, stand with Pacquiao, even after taking some serious shots from Pacquiao, even while knowing what was on the line, he would not relent. Thus far, this is the fight of the year, bar none.
If there is anything to be said about Pacquiao, it is that he definitely needs to work one something other than his straight left hand. Although it has gotten him this far, and while it is a pretty devastating weapon even when opponents know it's coming, he can be outboxed. Morales did it, Juan Manuel Marquez did it, and to a lesser extent, Agapito Sanchez did it. In his corner is one of the best trainers in the world in Freddie Roach; it's ironic that Roach was a protégé of Eddie Futch, who worked with another heavy handed guy with a powerful left hand named Joe Frazier. The similarities between the two are eerie…both guys usually ended matters in the ring with the left hand, both guys had an abominable will, and both only knew one direction. But the one thing that they share that isn't a positive is that both guys could be beaten by good boxers.
Frazier's fights with Muhammad Ali are legendary; they were the classic boxer versus puncher matchup. The reason Ali was able to win two of the 3 bouts was directly correlated to the fact that Frazier was one dimensional for the most part (truth be told, had Ali not had to have taken off 3 years due to his persecution by the U.S. Government, Ali most likely would have been able to beat Frazier in the first fight). It was his will to win, as well as his hatred for Ali that gave him extra fuel. Roach should have learned from Futch's fights with Ali and tried to implement more fundamentals to Manny's style, which I felt would be the case after the fight with Marquez.
This is not a criticism of Roach because I like the guy; he's a good trainer and he's one of the few nice guys in boxing, and plus there is not much you can do for a guy when he already has his style of boxing intact. But I felt that after the Marquez fight he would try to instill in Manny the fact that he has to use his right hand more and not rely on the jab, jab, and straight left combination so much. I was also disappointed that Manny did not go to the body more. Manny was able to catch Morales with some body shots in the early rounds, but he did not go the body enough not and not at all later in the fight. It was his punching power combined with his speed that even made this fight as close as it was.
As for Morales, he is definitely one of the best fighters in the world, although that much was known before the battle with Pacquiao. He can brawl when he has to brawl and box when he has to box and it is that diversity which has helped him defeat top fighters at featherweight and now super featherweight. He knows what to do with these smaller guys and he would be best served by not attempting to move up another weight class. I personally feel that he has an advantage fighting these smaller guys where he'll most likely have the reach advantage and be able to use his boxing skills when he's not trying to take someone's head off. But he loses those advantages if he moves up to lightweight. There waiting for him are Diego Corrales, Joel Casamayor, Juan and Julio Diaz, and Jose Luis Castillo, all would pose a significant problem from the Tijuana superstar.
But nothing can be taken away from Morales; he has beaten someone whom I considered to be in the top 10 pound for pound and he enhances his status as a gladiator in the ring with each fight. But now he is faced with a dilemma…who can he fight next? I'm willing to bet that Barrera wants Pacquiao again to avenge his KO loss so those two will be tied up. After that is…no one really. He's either going to have to take on Marquez at 126, the class he had to leave because making weight was a problem, wait for Pacquiao and Barrera to finish their business, or fight a few meaningless fights while he waits. But I'm sure that all of the boxing world cannot wait to see this action fighter back in the ring again.
Combinations
* So many people like to say how boxing is tarnished, boxing has another black eye every time something happens (if this is the case, then baseball at the moment has enough black eyes to render spiders blind), and how boxing is a dying sport. Well, here's reason #4,080 as to why boxing is not going anywhere: I had pretty good seats for the fight and there were fans of all races and ethnicities surrounding me, the house was sold out, and everyone I talked to felt this would be a fight of the year candidate. But moreover, I was seated 2 rows in front of former baseball star Dave Justice, a few rows behind Cedric the Entertainer, and a section or two away from Jim Brown, and this for a super-featherweight fight between a Mexican and a Filipino. This fight proves that if you have good fighters in the ring, the people will always come.
* While in Vegas for the fight I heard that Pacquiao's trainer, Murad Muhammad, took away the luxury suite that was reserved for the former champ for reasons unknown. I also heard from these same people that Manny got roughly half of what Morales got, even though Erik was coming of a loss and brought no championships in the ring. I don't know how true any of those statements were, but Muhammad does not seem very trustworthy to me. For the Barrera fight, Pacquiao only earned $100,000 and I'm willing to bet the Muhammad go that much himself or close.
Furthermore, it's always interesting to hear a man of God constantly saying "we're in this business for 3 reasons: to make money, make money, and make more money." No wonder Roy Jones decided to leave this guy. Promoters should NEVER make anything close to what the fighter makes and it seems that this is the case for Muhammad with Pacquiao. Hopefully Pacquiao will do what's best for himself and get a new promoter, something that almost happened early last year.
* Speaking of Roy, there are many in the boxing world who like to say that Jones is a fraud who's never fought anyone, talks too much, is looked upon indifferently by the boxing public, and other yaketty yak yak. I saw none of this for boxing fans. As soon as the lights shined on the HBO crew, fans were screaming out to Roy, and these weren't women, they were grown men. Hell, I was one of them! I wanted to let Roy know that still thought of him as the fest, perhaps not in the ring right now, but one of the best ever. The number of fighters that Jones has fought that was or became champs makes this obvious. But the master of the boxing universe is still Mike Tyson. Even without being announced, the second he entered the arena, a buzz went through the crowd, flash bulbs were going off, people started calling his name and applauding and saying how much they loved him. ESPN and other networks like to portray Mike as some crazy idiot and never even talk about boxing until they have something negative to say about him, all the while never talking about his charitable contributions. But the fans are in his corner and no number of Sportcenter smart guy comments cane take away from the allure of Tyson, and fans still love and respect what he's done for boxing.
* GATTI V MAYWEATHER UPDATE: The press conference for the fight should be today and I'm heading rumblings that the fight will be held on Gatti's turf in Atlantic City. So it seems that the fight with Floyd Mayweather and Arturo Gatti is on, and I have to give props to Gatti for (reluctantly) accepting the fight. But this was a situation where it wasn't Gatti that made the choice, the WBC did. Mayweather is the #1 contender, and unlike other champions who have had manditories that were suspect at best, Gatti is seeing the other side of that coin, where the #1 contender is more like a #1 contender. So the props really have to be given to the WBC in this ONE instance for making a good fight. But, of course, there is another side to that, as Mayweather has been a strong advocate for the WBC and has been their champion in every weigh class he's been in. Sot it would make sense that they would want one of the two best fighters in the world to hold their championship; it'll bring in more sanction fees for the organization. Gatti then had a choice to make: Either surrender the belt and be labeled a coward by many in the boxing world, or defend the belt and head face first (literally) into what seems like certain doom. Being the warrior he is, he (finally) took the bout and it's scheduled for June 25. As I said before, Gatti was put into this position without actually wanting to be there and the countdown toward his being called a former champion has begun.
And before anyone calls me a Gatti hater, I like the guy, I really do. But lately he's been acting like he's some big shot when all he did is beat Micky Ward. Truth be told, I rooted for Ward in all those fights because he kept it real. Ward knew that he was a good, not great, fighter. Gatti beats Ward and suddenly he's the man at 140 and he's calling all the shots....WHAT?!? Then his beats a small lightweight in Leo Dorin moving up and suddenly, he's supposed to have a chance against the top of the class, oh word? Gatti has had an exciting career, but let's not make more of it than what it has been.
Please send all comments and questions to crice@talkingboxing.com.
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