By Frank Livingstone: There have been a number of comments made about the upcoming fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales on April 9. Some say that if the Pacquiao/Mosley match was bad, this one was even worse. I would say that this fight should have happened six years ago when both fighters were at their top of their game.

In 2005, Erik Morales won a decision against Manny Pacquiao which has now been associated with the controversial missing blood test. That was the last time that Pacquiao has tasted defeat. After his win against Pacquiao, Erik Morales suffered four consecutive defeats to Zahir Raheem, Manny Pacquiao twice and David Diaz.

On the other hand, Juan Manuel Marquez had a controversial split draw against Manny Pacquiao in 2004 but had two successful defence of his world featherweight title after that. A rematch with Pacquiao was turned down by Marquez in 2006 and instead fought Chris John in Indonesia where Marquez lost his WBA featherweight title.

Erik Morales had won The Ring Fight of the year twice in his career. The first one was in 2000 in the first Morales and Barrera fight which Morales won and the second one in 2004 with the third Morales/Barrera fight this time won by Barrera. Juan Manuel Marquez won a Fight of the year award with his fight with Juan Diaz in 2009.

Prior to 2006, Juan Manuel Marquez was playing second fiddle to his Mexican counterpart of Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. This may be one of the reasons Morales was not interested in fighting Marquez at that time. It was only when Marquez won the WBC super featherweight title against Barrera in 2007 that JMM’s popularity has really taken off. You can say that there was a changing of the guard with his victory. Morales’ career meanwhile went downhill after his victory over Pacquiao in 2005.

So a Morales and Marquez fight in 2005 would have been a great fight to watch. Erik Morales was on top of his career while Juan Manuel Marquez was on his way up. But now, we can only wonder in despair with the fight finally happening in April 9.

But what can the fighters gain on this fight? In Morales case, this is a fight to resurrect his career as time is still on his side being three years younger than Marquez. In Marquez case, if he beats Morales, then he would have beaten the man who last gave his nemesis Pacquiao his last defeat. A consolation prize if I may say so.

The upcoming fight may still have a touch of nostalgia or is it an omen for future dream fights. So there may still be hope for a Pacquiao/Mayweather fight to happen…… six years from now perhaps.