By Dan Ambrose: Rather than step it up and face one of the top welterweights or light welterweight champions, it’s looking like WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO’s) will be taking on 34-year-old three-time world champion Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s) on April 16th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to fight news. It’s a fight that is about five years too late because Morales looks totally shot now and not the same fighter he once was years ago.

Although Morales is currently ranked at number #2 by the World Boxing Council in the light welterweight division, he doesn’t look like he’s worthy of that inflated ranking in his last three comeback fights against Jose Alfaro, Willie Limond and Francisco Lorenzo. Morales won each of these fights but looked horrible in each one of them. Morales appeared to badly lose to Alfaro.

I had him losing 9 rounds to 3, but for some reason the judges scored it 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112. It was as if they were watching a completely different fight because Morales was hammered all night long. In Morales’ fight against the 2nd tier fighter Willie Limond, Morales was totally dominated for five rounds before stopping Limond with some body shots in the 6th. It’s great that Morales got the win, but this is someone that he should have been able to dominate from start to finish and not struggle as badly as he did. In his recent bout against the little known B level fighter Lorenzo, Morales barely beat the guy, winning by a narrow 12 round decision by the scores of 116-111, 114-113 and 115-112. Morales looked terrible once again with visible fat around his once thin midsection. His defense was nonexistent and his reflexes looked shot.

Morales stands no chance against Marquez, and it’s going to be a hopeless mismatch. I wouldn’t mind seeing this fight if it had any meaning, but as of now, it’s like watching someone beat up on an old timer, even though Marquez is older than Morales by three years. Morales seems much older in terms of ring wear. Morales has lost five out of his last nine fights, and just doesn’t belong in the same ring with Marquez. Hopefully, this fight won’t be a pay-per-view bout because it’s not worthy of it in my view. Morales is far too gone for it to be even a remotely interesting bout. I see Morales as a 2nd tier fighter at this point in his career and he doesn’t belong ranked in the top 15, let alone at number #2 where the WBC currently has him ranked.