By Manuel Perez: Former WBA flyweight champion Eric Morel (38-2, 20 KOs), now fighting as a super bantamweight, demolished Jose Garcia Bernal (27-12-1, 18 KOs) tonight, stopping him in the 3rd round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Coliseo Antonio R. Barcelo, in Toa Baja, in Puerto Rico. Morel, a former WBA flyweight champion from 2000 to 2003, dropped a badly over-matched Bernal in the 2nd round and then twice in the 3rd round, at which point referee Roberto Ramirez Jr. moved in and halted the fight following the second knockdown in the 3rd.
Right off the bat, it was clear that the 37 year-old Bernal was going to be in trouble just judging from the size disparity between him and Morel, who was three inches taller than Bernal at 5’6”, but looked much bigger than him that. Morel, 32, wasted little time in attacking Bernal with hard jabs, while making swift charging attacks to land hard body shots and left hands to the head of Bernal. Switching from orthodox to southpaw, Morel attempted to confuse Bernal by switching constantly. Bernal took advantage of some of Morel’s attacks, using the opportunity to land short hooks to the body and head when he’d come in close. When Morel was a distance, however, Bernal had a harder time landing his shots because of his shorter arms, which caused him to come up short on many of his attempts at landing.
In the 2nd round, Morel stalked Bernal slowly around the ring, attempting to land big looping shots but missing initially. It was clear that he had mean intentions with every shot, looking to be thinking knockout. For his part, Bernal landed a number of good body shots early in the round. On one occasion, after a particularly bad miss by Morel, Bernal made him pay with a big right hand to the head. Perhaps realizing that he was trying too hard for a knockout, Morel began to start throwing jabs over and over. At this, Morel found much more success, as he was able to use his taller body and longer arms to connect without being hit by Bernal.
Near the end of the round, Morel suddenly shuffled forward quickly and landed a straight right hand that crashed into the side of Bernal’s head, sending him to the canvas on his hands and knees. He got up slowly, and received a standing eight count from referee Roberto Ramirez Jr. When the action resumed, Morel, now thinking strictly knockout once again, had only enough time to land one left hook to the head before the round ended.
In the third round, Bernal landed a feeble right hand, which did little to slow Morel down as he came forward to land shots of his own. Looking dead serious, Morel unloaded with a left-right, followed by another left-right combination that dropped Bernal to the canvas for the second time in the fight. After getting up, Bernal looked badly hurt, not nearly ready to survive an entire round in his bad condition. Not wanting to waste an opportunity to end things this time, Morel quickly fired off a five-punch combination while Bernal was trapped against the ropes, sending him to the canvas for the final time. Referee Roberto Ramirez Jr. then stopped the bout at 0:45 of the 3rd round.