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He quit. Erik Morales quit.
The template of a hard-nosed Mexican warrior, Morales made his imprint on the Sweet Science with titles in three weight divisions, triumphs over numerous noteworthy foes and his trilogies with Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao.
If it was the three bouts with Barrera that cemented Morales’ place in the history books, then it was also the three fights with Pacquiao that closed out Morales’ tale with an emphatic “The End.”
The man who turned southpaw to go toe-to-toe with Pacquiao in the final round of their first bout would show no such bravado in the rubber match, not after Pacquiao’s power scarred Morales’ pride in the rematch and especially not after Pacquiao’s trademark left crosses and newfound right hooks reopened the figurative wounds.
Not that Morales wasn’t willing to go to war – flashes of back-and-forth trading in the second and third rounds reminded viewers of the bold Morales who outpointed Pacquiao in March 2005. But this old Morales no longer had the grit to stomach what the Filipino Firebomber was force-feeding him: nonstop aggression from a younger, stronger, hungrier opponent, a seemingly unstoppable machine who, like his videogame namesake, seeks to gobble up whomever is put in his path.
The Pacman who had floored Morales twice in their second tussle – the first times that “El Terrible” had truly tasted canvas, the errantly called knockdown in Morales-Barrera I aside – pummeled Morales to the mat once in Round Two and twice more in the third and final stanza. But even after the second knockdown, a clearly dejected Morales jogged up to referee Vic Drakulich, anticipating the whirling dervish he would need to endure in order to retaliate. [details]
The template of a hard-nosed Mexican warrior, Morales made his imprint on the Sweet Science with titles in three weight divisions, triumphs over numerous noteworthy foes and his trilogies with Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao.
If it was the three bouts with Barrera that cemented Morales’ place in the history books, then it was also the three fights with Pacquiao that closed out Morales’ tale with an emphatic “The End.”
The man who turned southpaw to go toe-to-toe with Pacquiao in the final round of their first bout would show no such bravado in the rubber match, not after Pacquiao’s power scarred Morales’ pride in the rematch and especially not after Pacquiao’s trademark left crosses and newfound right hooks reopened the figurative wounds.
Not that Morales wasn’t willing to go to war – flashes of back-and-forth trading in the second and third rounds reminded viewers of the bold Morales who outpointed Pacquiao in March 2005. But this old Morales no longer had the grit to stomach what the Filipino Firebomber was force-feeding him: nonstop aggression from a younger, stronger, hungrier opponent, a seemingly unstoppable machine who, like his videogame namesake, seeks to gobble up whomever is put in his path.
The Pacman who had floored Morales twice in their second tussle – the first times that “El Terrible” had truly tasted canvas, the errantly called knockdown in Morales-Barrera I aside – pummeled Morales to the mat once in Round Two and twice more in the third and final stanza. But even after the second knockdown, a clearly dejected Morales jogged up to referee Vic Drakulich, anticipating the whirling dervish he would need to endure in order to retaliate. [details]
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