By Jason Kim: Former featherweight champion Erik Morales (48-6, 34 KO’s) will be making a comeback in March to take on lightweight contender Jose Alfaro in Monterrey, Mexico. Morales, 33, has been out of boxing for three years since being beaten by David Diaz in 12 round split decision 2007. During his time off from boxing, Morales has ballooned up in weight and looks to be weighing in over 200.

For a fighter that used to be a slender 130 in his prime it’s going to be tough for Morales to take off enough weight to fight effectively against a good fighter like Alfaro. We already saw how poorly a weight drained Morales did in his last two fights against Manny Pacquiao in 2006. Morales was badly weakened in both cases and fought poorly.

Morales can probably take off enough weight to get back down to a fight that will take place at welterweight, but questions remain whether Morales can take off the weight the right way before his March 27th fight against Alfaro. Morales is still reportedly way over weight and he’s only got a little over two months to go before his comeback fight. Morales will be fighting at two divisions higher than he’s ever fought before and that probably won’t help him either.

He’s really setting himself up to fail if he plans on going ahead with the fight if he strips off the weight too quickly. Morales hasn’t fought in ages and Alfaro is a tough opponent under any circumstances, especially for a fighter like Morales who has lost his last four fights before he retired three years ago.

On the surface, it seems like Morales is in a no win situation by going into a fight against a tough opponent like Alfaro not having fought in years and having to take off a great deal of weight to get down low enough to fight him. This looks bad. Morales could very well end up taking another beating and lose his 5th consecutive fight.