By Miguel Rivera
Juan Manuel Márquez believes his countryman, Erik Morales, may have stuggled in his recent training camp because of a gallbladder operation in December. Morales had to break his camp in December to get emergency gallblader surgery. The boxer's scheduled clash with Danny Garcia was pushed from a date in January to last Saturday night. For the fight with Garcia, Morales failed to make weight, coming in two pounds over the junior welterweight limit and his body was flabby. He lost a twelve round unanimous decision.
Marquez feels Morales could have won the fight - if the Mexican veteran would have been in shape. He also says Morales can still be a force if he dedicates himself in the gym.
"Erik Morales can still return to the forefront. I thought that he could have won [against Garcia] if he would have been in good condition. He almost fractured Danny Garcia's nose and if he would been in good condition he would have won. But definitely it is possible for [Morales to get back to the top]," Marquez said.
"'It was seen that Morales was not quite prepared by the [evidence of the] excess pounds, and of course he had problems in his training sessions after the gallbladder operation in December....that could have affected him."