Erik Morales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Erik Morales | |
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Real name | Erik Isaac Morales Elvira |
| Nickname | El Terrible |
| Weight | Super featherweight |
| Nationality |  Mexican |
| Birth date | September 1, 1976 |
| Birth place | Tijuana, Mexico |
| Style | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 53 |
| Wins | 48 |
| Wins by KO | 34 |
| Losses | 5 |
| Draws | 0 |
| No contests | 0 |
Erik Isaac Morales Elvira (born September 1, 1976 in Tijuana, Mexico) is a Mexican professional boxer, eight time WBC, IBF, WBO, IBA world champion and future hall-of-famer. He is widely regarded among boxing cognoscenti and followers as one of the best pugilists currently in practice, while maintaining high popularity due to a very pleasing fighting style throughout his career. He is a former world champion at Super Bantamweight (122 lb), WBC-WBO Featherweight (126 lb), WBC Super Featherweight, International Super Featherweight (130 lb), and most recently the IBF Junior Lightweight (130 lb). Already a legend in the boxing ring and in Mexico, Morales has earned the ominous nickname El Terrible, Erik "The Terrible" due to high knockout percentage in his early career.
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[edit] Pre-championship life
Morales is of indigenous Amerindian ancestry and had a disadvantaged upbringing. He grew up in great poverty on the streets of Tijuana. His father and trainer José (also a former fighter) was a struggling gym-owner in the city's industrial zone, but wanted something better for his sons. At the age of five, Morales donned boxing gloves. It is often said Morales "grew up in a boxing gym". By the age of 16, in 1993, Morales fought his first professional fight.
[edit] Championship history
In 1997 at the age of 21, he became the first fighter to ever stop the acclaimed WBC World Bantamweight Champion and now member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, Daniel Zaragoza via knockout in eleven rounds. As it was the first time the champion had ever been unable to beat the count of ten, the fight was widely hailed as a 'passing of the torch' between the former champion (Zaragoza), and the new one (Morales). In the post fight interview Zaragoza said of Morales, "He's a very intelligent fighter, and a great technician."
In September 1998, in another landmark fight, Morales knocked out former world champion Junior Jones of Brooklyn, New York. Jones went into the battle with a daunting record against Mexican fighters of 35 victories, and no losses, most notably including two victories over the previous champion, Marco Antonio Barrera, in 1996 and 1997. Also noteworthy was that Jones was entering Mexico for the first time to fight, and the fight was held at Morales' home town of Tijuana. The fight was a heatedly contested 3-round affair between both men, with Jones hoping to repeat his performance against Morales' countryman, Barrera, before Morales knocked out Jones with 2 consecutive overhead right crosses in the fourth round.
In October 1999, Morales fought Wayne McCullough of Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of the Naseem Hamed-César Soto undercard in Detroit, Michigan. McCullough is famed for having extremely high resilience to punches, having stopped the unbroken string of knockouts by Hamed, a fighter even more famous, but rather for exceedingly high punching power. Morales outpointed McCullough in a pitched battle in all 12 rounds bar one, the 11th, of which he complained of exhaustion and listlessness. Morales noted that he had wanted to move to the Featherweight division (126 pounds) from the Super-Bantamweight division (122 pounds) prior to this fight, explaining that he was unusually tall (174 cm / 5 ft 8 in) for a Super-Bantamweight, that he had fought at 122 pounds since 1993, and as he moved further from his teen years, he found it increasingly arduous to make the Super-Bantamweight limit.
In February of 2000, Morales defeated his hated rival Marco Antonio Barrera, in a long awaited fight that is considered one of boxing's classic, albeit most vicious and controversial battles. Clearly suffering the ill-effects of weight-drain, a condition of lost strength from fighting below natural weight, Morales nonetheless outlanded Barrera in the final punch counts over 12 rounds. The controversy was due to a slip in the 12th round (replays showed that Morales ducked under a punch, and his head collided with Barrera's hip, causing Morales to take a knee). The knockdown ruling has been generally disregarded as a bad call, but it did put the last round 10-8 in favor of Barrera, who still lost the close fight by split decision (scored 115-112, 114-113 Morales, 114-113 Barrera). Many fans thought Barrera deserved the win, with his punches staggering Morales multiple times. Others favored Morales's tremendous display of heart and sheer workrate, as he built a huge edge in landed power-punches over Barrera and refused to go down despite absorbing tremendous punishment.
By this point in his career, Morales was a staple of the HBO Boxing telecasts. After the fight, a disappointed Barrera said, "They gave it to the HBO fighter. He's not that good." It was the first of many statements Barrera would make that Morales felt were disrespectful, and the two fighters have grown to genuinely hate one another over the course of their classic rivalry.
After a year of strain to continue at Super Bantamweight, Morales moved up to Featherweight. In his second fight at this weight, he fought 33 year-old southpaw former world champion Kevin Kelley, in September 2000. Kelley, who aged nearly 31 had knocked down Hamed three times in their fight at Madison Square Garden, was unable to replicate this performance against Morales. Knocked down in the fifth and seventh rounds, Kelley was finally trapped in that latter round by a flurry of five consecutive uppercuts from Morales. Supported only by the ropes, a sixth uppercut landed, and the fight was stopped. Morales retained his Featherweight title.
Morales fought again in 2000, knocking out Rodney Jones in the 1st round shortly before Christmas, but the strain of the fights against McCullough and Barrera below his rising natural weight, coupled with the overwork from the busy fighting schedule had very clearly taken their toll, and most boxing commentators noted that his performances had degraded somewhat since his move to Featherweight.
In February 2001, he fought Guty Espadas Jr., the WBC World Featherweight Champion with a thirteen fight winning streak, and whose father, Guty Espadas Sr., was also a world champion boxer. Morales won a close twelve round decision to claim his third world title.
In July of 2001 Morales defeated In Jin Chi, a relatively unknown South Korean fighter with an excellent fighting record in his home country. Although none dispute Morales victory on points, the win was hard fought, with Chi showing remarkable resilience to Morales' power, and determination to land punches. Chi subsequently became a highly ranked member of the Featherweight international community, knocking out British champion Michael Brodie early in April, 2004, to capture the vacant WBC World Featherweight title.
Morales then tasted defeat for the first time in his 42nd pro fight when he was awarded a controversial loss on points to Barrera in June 2002, despite seemingly dominating the first half of the fight and punching Barrera to the canvas in the seventh round (ruled a slip; had the ref chosen to call it a knockdown, Morales would have won a majority decision). Many fans feel Morales was the victor, as he had Barrera backing up for the majority of the fight. Pre-fight hype was typically brutal, with Barrera calling Morales a "little Indian" and Morales questioning Barrera's sexuality (all of this resulted in a confrontation outside of the ring). After the fight, however, Barrera made an admission: "I would like to say, Erik Morales is a great fighter."
Morales bounced back with a dominating 12 round decision victory over the acclaimed Paulie Ayala in November of 2002, and subsequent KO victories of Eddie Croft, Fernando Velardez, and, in a rematch of their first close fight, Guty Espadas Jr.. This time Morales knocked him out in three rounds.
The latter fight is significant for two reasons; first, Morales' subsequent victory by knockout was considered to be clear proof that he was, indisputably, the superior fighter. Second, this fight was Morales' debut in the Super Featherweight (130 lb) division.
On February 28, 2004, Morales captured the WBC Super Featherweight title by unanimous decision over Jesús Chávez . Morales twice punched Chávez to the canvas, which Floyd Mayweather Jr. himself had been unable to do. Beginning in the following round, however, Chávez confined himself to using his left hand only, ostensibly the result of an injury. Speculation continues to this day whether Morales or his corner were aware of this, and if so, whether they adjusted their strategy accordingly.
With the victory he became one of only two Mexican boxers to win a title at three separate weight divisions, the other being the acclaimed Julio César Chávez.
On July 31, 2004, Morales unified his WBC Super Featherweight title with the IBF Junior Lightweight version by way of a twelve round unanimous decision over Carlos Hernández (a boxer who had forced Floyd Mayweather's glove to graze the canvas during their fight in 2001, which ended with Mayweather being awarded a victory on points).
On November 27 of that year, he met arch-rival Barrera for the third time. In a bout billed as "Once and for All" in the Super Featherweight division, the judges awarded Morales the loss in a painfully close fight (scores of 114-114,114-115,113-115), 2004's fight of the year according to ring magazine. Morales seemed notably uninterested in the fight (feeling he had won the first two fights) and scoffs to this day at the mention of Barrera's name and a possible 4th match. Before the decision in the third fight was announced, Barrera tried congratulating Morales for three great fights. Morales scoffed and chucked a water bottle at him.
On 19 March 2005, Morales won another big superfight when he defeated the acclaimed power-punching Filipino southpaw Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision. Pacquiao was on a definite hot-streak (having dominated and knocked out Marco Antonio Barrera in November 2003, and coming off a controversial draw with Juan Manuel Márquez after flooring Márquez three times in the opening round), and was looking to dismantle another Mexican fighter, including Morales. Unlike most of his previous fights, Morales entered the contest as a significant underdog with the bookmakers, but he used counter-attacks to tame a grotesquely bloody Pacquiao throughout the majority of a violent fight. Although Pacquiao was much quicker and used rapid-fire combinations, Morales busted him up from the distance with jabs and vicious right-hands that stunned Pacquiao numerous times, outlanding the Filipino boxer, while throwing significantly less punches in all but three rounds.
However, in the last round, Morales turned southpaw against his corner's advice in order to slug it out with the dangerous Pacquiao. With the crowd roaring, the two featherweights traded powerful punches until the bell. Morales finished the round battered, but on his feet. It was a career-defining win for the Tijuana native. Afterwards he said, "He was a tough guy, and I hit him with everything. We knew this guy was tough coming in, and we had to work hard to beat him. I could have taken it easy in the 12th because I was ahead, but you can see by the crowd here, and the way the fight went, that this is what the people want."
Many questioned whether his style of fighting would catch up with him, and on 10th September, 2005, Morales moved up to the Lightweight division and was unexpectedly defeated on points by Zahir Raheem, a little known but very flashy fighter from the North East USA. Though it was seen as a tune-up for a rematch with Pacquiao, Raheem entered into the bout "essentially" undefeated (his one loss being a controversial "hometown" decision loss to Rocky Juarez). Raheem boxed with caution, using footwork to avoid Morales's power punches. In the 11th and 12th Morales knew he was behind and tried to knock Raheem out, staggering the former U.S. Olympian multiple times (Raheem's glove grazed the canvas twice in the 11th), but Raheem made it through and won an upset unanimous decision.
On January 21, 2006, Morales faced Manny Pacquiao in a rematch from their bout 10 months before, and was defeated by TKO in the 10th round (the first knock-out loss of his career). Morales controlled the fight early, and was ahead on all three scorecards midway through, but shockingly opted to brawl with Pacquiao very early. In Round 6, Morales began to lose his legs from Pacquiao's body assault. By Round 9, Morales was visibly exhausted. Pacquiao floored Morales twice in the final seconds of Round 10 and the fight was stopped. Afterwards, Morales embraced Pacquiao in a show of sportsmanship and remarked in the post-fight interview, "I've been tired of boxing for a while. I need a vacation."
Following the back-to-back losses, boxing fans and experts alike wonder if Morales's long years of fighting top-rated boxers ever since defeating Zaragoza in 1997 have finally taken a toll on his physical condition. At 29 years of age, Morales had been through a lot of brutal wars in the ring.
His yearning for a vacation quickly subsided, as Bob Arum announced the third fight between Morales and Pacquiao in a none-championship title bout, scheduled for November 18, 2006. Many didn't think Morales should still be fighting at 130 lbs., as his power had been sapped and speed diminished by the time he met Barrera for a third time. However, going into the third fight with Pacquiao, Morales hired a team of nutritionists in order to offset the weight problem.
The plan didn't work, as Morales was seen un-interested in the fight and ditched his game-plan in order to brawl with Pacquiao toe-to-toe. After three rounds, Morales was defeated by a knock-out, and said afterwards, "Maybe it's time I should no longer be doing this." Morales raised Pacquiao's hand after the fight as a sign of sportmanship and declared him "Number One".
[edit] Current record, Fight History and Fighter Profile
48 wins, 34 of these by knockout, and 5 losses, three of which were by judicial decision, with two losses to Manny Pacquiao by TKO.
Morales is called by his fans a people's champion while critics accuse him of fighting down to his opponents, because he often goes to war with lesser opponents to please the crowd, instead of utilizing his boxing skills to win a less exciting fight. One of Erik's trainers remarked, "Put him in the ring with a taxi driver, and he'll make a war out of it."
On Saturday, November 18, 2006, Morales lost to Pacquiao in three rounds. It was his third lost in a row, in his career.
[edit] Future plans/personal life
Morales has expressed his desire to surpass Julio César Chávez's record of five championship titles at 3 weight classes by campaigning at the Lightweight class of 135lbs. After his loss to Pacquiao, Morales suggested that he was going to take some time off before deciding on his future in boxing (though only 29 at the time of the Pacquiao loss, he had fought for 13 years).
Morales is managed and promoted by Bob Arum, although he has recently opened his own promotional company to assist fellow young Mexicans into the sport. He separated from his wife due to her opposition to Boxing, and has 3 children with her. Currently he is dating Sandra Mora, a model and ardent Boxing follower. His younger brother, Diego, is also a successful Boxer, campaigning at 126lbs. Although no longer resident in Tijuana, Morales retains nonetheless a fierce loyalty to it, is considered a 'son' of the city and often trains there. Given his aggressiveness and success in the ring, many commentators have been surprised that this vocational combativeness belies a thoughtful, soft-spoken persona in his private life.
[edit] See also
- Barrera versus Morales trilogy
- List of male boxers
- List of notable boxing rivalries
- List of WBC world champions
- The Boxing Times - World Rankings
- Fight Night Round 3
[edit] External links
- Erik Morales Fight-by-Fight Career Record
- (Spanish) Erik Morales Article
- HBO: Fighters: Erik Morales Article
- Erik Morales Career Record
- Erik Morales Unofficial Website
- The Boxing Times
- Fight Beat
