Erik Morales back in action In December, doesn’t want Maidana rematch

By Boxing News - 09/26/2011 - Comments

Image: Erik Morales back in action In December, doesn't want Maidana rematchBy Allen Fox: WBC light welterweight champion Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his World Boxing Council title in December in a fight that will likely take place in Morales’ home country of Mexico.

Although WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana had expressed in interest in facing Morales in December, Maidana doesn’t want to fight him in December and it’s unclear when he will want to fight him. Morales isn’t happy that Maidana turned him down for a fight on September 17th, which Morales wanted Maidana to take with only one weeks notice.

There’s talk of the 35-year-old Morales instead targeting the winner of the October 15th lightweight clash between Jorge Linares vs. Antonio DeMarco for his next fight. Linares and DeMarco are fighting for the vacant WBC lightweight title. Facing the winner of that fight will no doubt increase Morales’ chances of winning, because he’d likely lose against a good light welterweight contender.

It’s not a big deal for Morales to be fighting a lightweight, because he doesn’t look suited for the light welterweight division. He’s fighting at this weight because it’s too hard for him to shed the extra pounds to get back down to his old weight class of super bantamweight. Even fighting at lightweight is too low for Morales, so you would have to assume that Morales would want the Linares-DeMarco winner to either fight him at a catchweight or come all the way up to 140 to take the fight.

I think Linares would beat Morales, but DeMarco is someone that Morales can probably beat if he turns it into a war. It wouldn’t be easy and I imagine Morales would take a lot of punishment like he did in beating little known 21-year-old fringe contender Pablo Cesar Cano for the vacant WBC title on September 17th. But it’s probably better for Morales to fight the Linares vs. DeMarco winner than it would be for him to fight Maidana again, because I don’t think Morales would win that fight and would likely get both of his eyes swollen shut.



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