The newly crowned WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) was impressed with the fighting ability of 34-year-old Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) after beating him by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. So impressed was Maidana that he compared Morales favorably with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, saying “He is on the same level as Amir Khan. The only difference is Khan is faster, but he runs. Erik doesn’t run. He stands and fights. It surprised me that he was able to take those punches. It’s very hard to knock him out. You have to hit him with a stick or a hammer.”
Indeed, Morales didn’t run and looked to be about at the same level as Khan. That kind of tells you that Khan not be as good as people think he is, and it also shows how close all these top fighters are in terms of ability. Morales never backed away from Maidana on Saturday night. He stood his ground and fired back punch after punch. All of this while fighting with only one good eye. Morales right eye was effectively closed from the 2nd round on, making it necessary for him to fight with only his good left eye to see the punches coming at him. Morales fought well until around the last minute of the 10th.
At that point Maidana began to hit him at will with power shot as Morales either tired out or was too hurt to fight back like he had in the earlier rounds of the fight. Maidana’s power and work rate were the telling factors in the fight. The judges had the fight close with the scores 114-114, 116-112 and 116-112. Morales could have tipped the fight in his favor had he been busier, but it looked he didn’t have the stamina needed to throw nonstop punches like he used to be able to do in his prime.
Morales is MUCH TOUGHER then Khan! But Khan is the better boxer...RIGHT NOW! But a PRIME Morales...IT IS NOT EVEN CLOSE!
And who knows how good a prime Khan will be.
Shows how great a win it was for Pac who beat Morales and to think Flomos try saying Morales was shot all the time on the basis of a loss to Raheem?
Well SRR lost to Randolp, and are you saying nobody should have fought SRR from then on, and only fight Randolph instead just cos he beat SRR?
Khan ran and hugged a lot, Morales fought like a real man.
Yeah if real men hit in the back of head and when the ref calls break then he definitely fought like a real man.
He didn't like Khan before the fight buddy, it was obvious when he threw a punch instead of touching gloves.
Maidana lost the fight by two points, and that includes the point taken. He almost had Khan stopped. It was a close fight that Khan dominated in certain rds making it look worse. Maidana finished strong in the championship rds.
All props to Khan though, he is one of my favorite fighters.
No offense but I don't need a recap, thanks though. I saw the fight the day it aired. Khan landed at will, Maidana took the punishment well and dished it back. But Khan landed everything including the kitchen sink and the couch. 45% total punches landed is not a number to laugh at. Maidana only landed 20% on Khan, it's called great offense/defense.
The newly crowned WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) was impressed with the fighting ability of 34-year-old Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) after beating him by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. So impressed was Maidana that he compared Morales favorably with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, saying “He is on the same level as Amir Khan. The only difference is Khan is faster, but he runs. Erik doesn’t run. He stands and fights. It surprised me that he was able to take those punches. It’s very hard to knock him out. You have to hit him with a stick or a hammer.”
Indeed, Morales didn’t run and looked to be about at the same level as Khan. That kind of tells you that Khan not be as good as people think he is, and it also shows how close all these top fighters are in terms of ability. Morales never backed away from Maidana on Saturday night. He stood his ground and fired back punch after punch. All of this while fighting with only one good eye. Morales right eye was effectively closed from the 2nd round on, making it necessary for him to fight with only his good left eye to see the punches coming at him. Morales fought well until around the last minute of the 10th.
At that point Maidana began to hit him at will with power shot as Morales either tired out or was too hurt to fight back like he had in the earlier rounds of the fight. Maidana’s power and work rate were the telling factors in the fight. The judges had the fight close with the scores 114-114, 116-112 and 116-112. Morales could have tipped the fight in his favor had he been busier, but it looked he didn’t have the stamina needed to throw nonstop punches like he used to be able to do in his prime.
I disagree, Maidana never caught him flush because Morales was using very good defense, taking steam off of the punches by rolling with them. Maidana fought sloppy and never got to catch Morales in the chin. Maidana is very powerful and determined but also very sloppy and can ,ale anyone look like they have great defense.
Khan landed 45% of his total punches on Maidana and 53% of his power punches. I am sorry Maidana, but that is not running. That is a statistical ass whooping in my book. When you get that percentage of shots landed on you, you can't call the guy who did that a runner with a straight face. I like Maidana and I don't like Khan very much, but sorry Khan did not run in that fight.