Comments Thread For: Tijuana Sunset? Garcia Likely Closes Final Morales Chapter

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

by Cliff Rold - It was a thinking man’s bruiser on Saturday night at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas as 24-year old Danny Garcia (23-0, 14 KO) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, scored a late knockdown en route to a unanimous decision over 35-year old Mexican legend and former four division titlist Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO) of Tijuana, Mexico. Garcia wins the WBC belt at 140 lbs.

Morales lost the belt on the scales of Friday, scaling 142 lbs. Under WBC rules, the title can be won by the challenger in such circumstance but cannot be defended. Garcia came in at a ready 139 ½. The referee was Laurence Cole.

Garcia initiated the action with a soft, looping left hook. Moments later, an attempted Garcia jab was countered with a hard right hand to the face. Morales struck again with a stiff jab and just missed with a left hook as he pressed the younger man. At the midway point of the round, Garcia answered with a jab and stiff, landing right. At the minute mark, he connected with another right and blocked a Morales flurry. A countering Garcia combination ended with a landing left hook and Morales struggled to land clean down the stretch with power shots while landing jabs to the body and head.

Morales was calm and deliberate in the second, popping the jab and throwing in combination. Garcia countered with good single shots, rights to the body and some swift left hooks, but it was Morales coming forward. The veteran was consistent with short right hands and managed a wily triple uppercut while cuffing the back of Garcia’s head. [Click Here To Read More]

[spoonwars]

Molina must be proud of his corner man.

[mistermartin]

Two young fighters talked up their ********* last night w/ a lotta smack....unimpressed by both. Garcia almost looked like Rocky from the movie mask. & this was a waaaay past it el terrible who was outboxing him. & Vernon Paris just looked totally out of depth vs zab....nothing new tho....zab will find a way to lose vs better comp...same ole song & dance. I did like the HW kid a lil bit on the judah undercard. Not to bigg on the jean pascal slide around the ring then jump in & flurry impersonation. But his coordination was good.

[nycsmooth]

bad call by ref & worse scoring by Van Hoy, he now qulifies 4 the club that includes CJ Ross, both frm Vegas, Garcia of TX & a few more from PR, TX & 1 frm Fl (these guys know who they are)...great win by Garcia & hope he defends as Erik did in his prime...retire Erik, you did it all. and have a promotion company & boxers to train in MX...good luck to both...

[M Bison]

Danny Garcia got this decision only because he is with Golden Boy promotion!
How do you think he is going to fare with someone like Amir Khan?
He is going to get absolutely dominated and I don't even like Khan, this fight was a joke Garcia ahead by 9rounds on what planet was that judge watching this?
Morales was behind 6rounds from the start of this fight and alot of people are denying that but last night was a BAD day for boxing so much corruptness on display makes me sick!

[JoelRa79]

I thought ledermans scores were very precise last night , which is rare, Kirkland is still as overrated as they come, another bad ko waiting to happen. A discusting DQ win. In the other hand I was more impress by Morales gutsy performance than garcias win. If it hadn't been for the knockdown which gave garcia a lot of confidence and clearly slowed down Morales, I think Danny would've gotten the same beating cano took last year. Danny needs to be more confident and let his hands go if he wants to hold on to that title, he let Morales establish the pace of the fight even tho he clearly had the speed, power and size advantage.

[mshap]

Garcia clearly won the fight -- after the 6th round, Morales began looking old, tired and slow as molasses -- BUT Garcia fought a TERRIBLE fight -- should have been able to hit Morales at will and stop him -- but he just refused to throw punches and was way too 'strategic' in there -- gave Morales way too much respect, especially after the 8th round when it was clear that Morales was basically done -- Garcia need to become more aggressive and stop winging wild roundhouse shots that only create a breeze -- he needs to learn how to effectively engage in exhanges and how to throw effective lead pucches -- he needs to do a better job when he has someone hurt and hanging on the ropes-- he has a good skill set but needs to develop a different style of fighting to move to the next level

[dnut17]

That should definitely be Morales' last hurah. He doesn't want be another Castillo. He proved that even well past his prime, and above his natural weight he can compete at a high level. I almost shed a tear watching how poorly he reacted to shots in the second half of the fight. A prime Morales would've shook them off and landed a flurry. It's been a great career. As for Garcia he's alright nothing special. If he fights Maidana he might be in trouble and I think Maidana is over rated as hell. They are both very limited fighters.

[emhoffk]

Contrary to what Michael Buffer announced at the end of the fight, neither the Texas Rules, the ABC Unified Rules nor the WBC Rules addresses head on what happened in the Molina-Kirkland fight. In fact, the closest thing to being on point is the Texas rule 61.41(k)(6) which states that "When a round ends before a contestant who was knocked down rises, the bell shall not ring, and the count shall continue. If the contestant rises before the count of ten, the bell shall ring ending the round."

Therefore, Molina beat the count, the Timekeeper rang the bell - there's no reason for the DQ. Yes, the ref needs to finish the 8-count but, according to the above rule - the round was over when the bell rang. There is at least some ambiguity here. As the Mayweather-Judah fight showed - it's not an automatic DQ when the corner enters the ring and in that fight the corner's entry was much more intrusive than Molina's corner (I remember Roger actually choking Judah). Under the unified rules, the referee is the sole arbiter in the ring - but again, neither the Texas, ABC or WBC rules has something on point for this situation. There is precedent for a DQ when the corner enters during the count of a knockdown (MAB-Junior Jones I, Arreola-Witherspoon) but there is also precedent the other way (Mayweather-Judah, JCC-Meldrick Taylor I). I think Molina should appeal to at least get the loss off of his record. Texas needs to clarify their rules.

[jcamarena79]

A real boring fight, Morales just does not have it anymore and as for this Danny Garcia he just looks so darn easy to beat by any of the top ranked fighters. Amir Khan will destroy this kid who just doesn't convince me....who knows what's going on with boxing anymore !!