By Dr. Peter Edwards
One has to wonder what Erik Morales sees in a potential bout with Manny Pacquiao, other than money. When have we ever seen the Mexican warrior rematch a fighter unless he felt there was controversy lingering over the initial bout or he felt the fighter was ready to get knocked off?
In February on '01, Morales took on a relatively unknown Guty Espadas Jr. Maybe Morales took the kid lightly or maybe Espadas fought the fight of his life, whatever the case was, Espadas appeared to have outworked Morales after twelve rounds of action. In a decision which raised questions about the scoring, Morales won the bout by unanimous decision.
The question marks surrounding the scoring had to do with judges Jerry Roth and David Harris scoring the bout in favor of Morales by an 8 rounds to 4 margin (116-112). A rematch was immediately demanded, but Morales would not rematch Espadas until October of 2003, over two years later. By then, Espadas had already lost two decisions and was starting to look more like a fringe contender, rather than a possible threat. On the other hand, Morales had lost a decision in his rematch to Marco Antonio Barrera, but just about everybody thought he should of been the winner. Morales would dominate the rematch and knockout Espadas in only three rounds.
Marco Antonio Barrera is another fighter that comes to mind. In their classic first meeting, Barrera appeared to have won the fight after twelve rounds, but Morales walked away the winner by grabbing a close split decision. Again, the demand for a rematch was huge, but would not happen until over two years later. This time, money was the motive for Morales.
Following the loss to Morales, Barrera was thrown in with Prince Naseem Hamed as a lamb being sent to the slaughter, but the unthinkable happened. Barrera, a decent underdog in the fight, turned the tables around on Hamed and dominated the self proclaimed Prince on route to a unanimous decision victory. The dominating performance was so big that Barrera became an overnight superstar in the sport, even bigger than Morales.
Morales knew that if he did not act on a Barrera rematch, he would be living in the shadow of Barrera in America and Mexico. Let's not forget the millions of dollars that were split between both men. This time around, Morales appeared to dominate Barrera for most of the early rounds and appeared to be the victor after twelve rounds. Lady Luck was not on Morales' side this time and Barrera was awarded a twelve round unanimous decision victory.
The two men would meet again, but not until another two year plus wait. Morales saw Barrera as easy prey in their third meeting and an easy payday. Why would he think of Barrera as anything other than easy prey? Marco was dominated a year prior to the third meeting with Morales. Manny Pacquiao threw Barrera a one-sided pounding that was bad enough to force Marco's corner to throw in the towel in order to prevent him from being subjected to any further punishment. Most boxing scribes said that Barrera got old and should quickly retire before he gets hurt.
While Barrera's career was declining, Morales' career was at an all-time high and he was regarded as the number 2 or 3 pound for pound fighter in the world. Morales moved up to 130 pounds and pounded out exciting victories over Jesus Chavez and Carlos Hernandez. Morales appeared to be stronger and better at the new weight. Marco had never fought a single bout at 130 and admitted that 130 pounds was dangerous territory for him. The machismo of Morales got the better of him in this bout as he underestimated Barrera and it cost him dearly.
In a fight for the ages, Barrera fought like his life was on the line and won a majority decision over his Mexican rival. As a result of the win, Barrera also gained the bragging rights of winning two of their three meetings. Morales, never one to just sit back and take it easy, took on the most dangerous fighter he could find, Manny Pacquiao. What better way to bring back your career than taking on the man that dominated the fighter who just beat you.
In the Pacquiao bout, Morales was actually the heavy underdog for the first time in his career and most picked Pacquiao to knock him out. This time, Morales fought like his life was on the line and won a unanimous decision over Pacquiao, bringing his career back to an all-time high in the process.
The sky was the limit for Morales after defeated Pacquiao, why take another gamble so quickly? Does Morales have Pacquiao figured out? Going into the bout with Morales, Pacquiao was to unveil a major weapon called "Manilla Ice", the nickname given to his right hand. Morales took the best Manilla Ice that Pacquiao had to offer and was never in any serious trouble in the bout. The feared left hand of Pacquiao would land flush on many occasions as well, but Morales more or less shook the punches off and kept moving forward.
The history mapped out earlier was to prove my point that Morales never gives any fighter an immediate rematch, whether he wins or loses. I know that Morales and Pacquiao have to get past their opponents on September 10 in order to solidify the slated rematch at the end of the year, but we all know that their "light punching" opponents stand little to no chance of upsetting the betting favorites.
One would think that Morales thinks he has Pacquiao figured out. The two things Morales feared prior to their initial meeting was Pacquiao's speed and power. After they met, Morales said that neither Pacquiao's power or speed bothered him in the bout. Although Morales has fought many wars at the tender age of 28, he only plays his hand if he feels the situation is a winning one. And Morales must very well think a Pacquaio rematch is a winning hand.
We have to wait and see if Morales scores another winning hand or does he flop because of another miscalculated career move.