by Cliff Rold
It was a weekend where the scales, the officiating, and the fighting all shared the attention in varying fashion. In the biggest fight of the week, Danny Garcia came on strong in the second half to secure his first title belt against living legend Erik Morales. Morales lost his title on the scales. Another fight scheduled for the weekend, Jose Luis Castillo-Jose Cotto, was cancelled when the former Lightweight Champion Castillo blew weight.
At Flyweight, in another country, Rodel Mayol was so sure his opponent had failed to make weight that he walked out on a title shot against Hernan Marquez.
Officiating was up for debate, again, in the not so great boxing state of Texas. On the Garcia-Morales undercard, Carlos Molina was disqualified in a fight he was winning going away on as ticky-tack a call as can be imagined. One judge had him losing the contest to boot.
But Garcia-Morales almost washed it all away. Good fights can do that, especially when the defeated man is a veteran showing off what made him special once again.
Let’s go the report cards.
Grades
Pre-Fight: Speed – Morales B; Garcia B+/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Power – Morales B; Garcia B/Post: B; B+
Pre-Fight: Defense – Morales C; Garcia B/Post: Same
Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Morales A+; Garcia B+/Post: A+; A
While Garcia’s edge in speed was obvious all night, Morales spent large parts of the early going outboxing him anyways. Morales has always been an excellent combination puncher and he was timing Garcia beautifully.
Garcia answered with big right hands, slowly seizing the momentum with the advantages of power, youth, and more belonging in the Jr. Welterweight division. While Morales may have come in heavier on Friday, he’s still way up for prime years spent between 122 and 130 lbs. 140 is Garcia’s domain.
It didn’t stop Morales from posting an impressive rally late. Battling more with guile and brains than steady legs, Morales dug deep to win the tenth and was winning the eleventh before a knockdown put victory out of reach in viewer terms.
According to the official scores, one of which absurdly had Garcia winning ten rounds at night’s end, it was out of reach before then.
God bless Texas.
Garcia goes forward with a minefield still present at Jr. Welterweight. How long that lasts, with division leaders Timothy Bradley, Amir Khan, and Lamont Peterson all possibly hearing the call at Welterweight overt the next year, remains to be seen. He’s a capable boxer-puncher but he doesn’t look yet to have the superior stuff to compete with those three. The lessons he learned with Morales could make a difference in his growing into the chance to do so, but for now one can be concerned about how close the contest was.
For Morales, retirement may beckon and if it does he’s earned it. There is still a desire in this corner to see him share a ring with Juan Manuel Marquez. In defeat, and without even the paper belt he had at 140 lbs., the chance to entice Marquez for such a clash narrows. The window for the missing link in this era’s ‘fab four’ to draw complete may finally have closed.
It’s unfortunate but, with yet another dramatic clash on his ledger, Morales has more than fulfilled his obligations to the fistic Gods.
Report Card Picks 2012: 12-3
Ratings Update
Jr. Middleweight: Kirkland lost almost every round Saturday and doesn’t merit a rise in the ratings. Conversely, Molina did nothing to drop. They stay as they were.
Jr. Welterweight: Garcia and Zab Judah, also a big winner this weekend with a knockout of rated Vernon Paris, both get a solid bump.
Jr. Featherweight: He’d come close in the past and, finally, Jeffrey Mathebula gets a belt at 122 lbs. His entry to the top ten bumps Victor Terrazas out and everyone else drops a slot including the now former IBF titlist Takalani Ndlovu. There is some chatter of a very close fight in terms of scoring. When the opportunity arises to view it in full, further consideration may be warranted.
Flyweight: After some weigh-in controversy, Hernan Marquez went from a planned defense against Rodel Mayol to a non-title affair with a new foe. That wasn’t all bad, as the foe was one of only two men to defeat Marquez, Richie Mepranum. Marquez got a measure of revenge but it’s not quite enough for a boost.
The full ratings update is a click away.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
