By Michael Lieberman: On April 16th, WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5, 38 KO’s) will be facing former three time world champion Erik Morales (51-6, 25 KO’s) in a bout that will be taking place at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. If this fight had taken place six years ago or more, it would have been huge, and easily one of the most competitive fights that you could ever expect to see. However, has aged badly, and before retiring from boxing in 2007, Morales has lost five out of his last six fights.

Morales didn’t have it anymore. Now after a three year retirement, Morales came back in 2010 and has picked up three quick wins over Jose Alfaro, Willie Limond and Franciso Lorenzo. The problem is Morales now looks much worse than he did before retiring. It’s shocking how bad Morales looks and he should consider himself very fortunate that he was able to beat these three fighters, because he looked horrible in each one of these fights.

Morales will now be facing Marquez, who may not be the same fighter he once either, but he’s still fighting at a very high level. This fight is likely going to be a terrible mismatch unless Marquez carries Morales and doesn’t go all out. It’s going to be a mismatch, there’s no question about it, but the only real question is whether Marquez will carry Morales for nine or ten rounds so that boxing fans don’t get upset and feel like they’ve been ripped off for their money.

This fight reminds me much of what Manny Pacquiao is doing by facing 39-year-old Shane Mosley in May. Mosley looks to be a totally shot fighter at this late stage in his career and doesn’t really stand much of a chance at all in this fight. Next to no one is giving Mosley much of a chance at winning the fight, and it seems pretty clear that the only reason he was selected by Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, was to get more money from the boxing public. It’s a sad fight and the opposite of anything that resembles and interesting or competitive fight. It does remind me of what Marquez is doing with Morales, only Marquez has got a fighter that’s a little more shot that Mosley.