by Daniel Ciminera: With former three-weight world title holder Erik “El Terrible” Morales about to come out of retirement to face Jose Alfaro later this month, what better time to study and celebrate the career of one of boxing’s living legends. One of my favourite fighters of all time, and a fighter who played a major part in cementing the fearsome reputation of Mexican boxers in our generation.

Born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1976, Morales was raised by his father Jose, himself a former professional boxer, above a boxing gym. Despite Jose’s desire for Erik to pursue another, more academic direction in life, Morales began boxing at age 5 and before long it was clear that the boy could fight. He went on to stack up 114 amateur fights (108/6)(most quoted but, varies by source), and won into double figures of major titles on national level in Mexico. No easy task.

Morales made his professional debut at the age of 16, fighting Jose Orejel in March, 1993. He won by KO in the 2nd round. Over the next four years, Morales fought former champions and contenders Kenny Mitchell, Hector Acero Sanchez, Jose Valdez and Armando Castro. Amassing 26 straight career wins with 20 of those coming by way of knockout. Though making excellent progress, Morales had been criticized for not always defending himself properly and perhaps not letting go of his often quite amateurish ringcraft.

Morales silenced these critics when he won his first world title, the WBC world super bantamweight title, in September 1997 against very good veteran southpaw, 39 year old Daniel Zaragoza (now a hall of famer) in El Paso, Texas. Morales started slowly, feeling his way to a rhythm until the 5th round where Zaragoza was able to land several clean, hard overhand rights and lefts to take the lead in the fight. The rounds that followed were a see-saw of momentum, a recurring theme in Morales’ career, until the 8th, where Morales effectively took control of the fight, his more accurate shots starting to have an affect on the ageing Zaragoza, who very nearly didn’t make it to the end of the round. Zaragoza was down in the 10th and 11th rounds after crushing body shots from Morales and chose to take the 10-count in the penultimate round looking exhausted.

Morales had fought a very intelligent fight against a tough, awkward fighter with a vast level of experience. Morales throughout the fight had conserved energy by relaxing in Zaragoza’s clinches instead of trying to wrestle him off and his early patience paid off as Morales found himself becoming stronger by comparison in each round. Especially in the latter half of the fight, Zaragoza’s biggest shots were having no affect on Morales whatsoever.

Erik went on to another 14 victories (10KO) on the bounce including greats Remigio Molina, Jose Luis Bueno, Junior Jones, Wayne McCullough, Marco Antonio Barrera, Kevin Kelley, Guty Espadas Jr, In-Jin Chi. These were not young, inexperienced fighters, on the whole, including the win over Zaragoza, his opponents were guys with 30, 40, and 50+ victories. These were vastly experienced, good fighters. Perhaps the most notable fights among them were Bueno just for the sheer ferocity Morales showed in knocking him out. And Jones, who was incidentally fighting in Mexico for the first time after having beaten 35 Mexican fighters in America including two impressive wins over Barrera, was knocked out in the 4th round by Morales in his hometown of Tijuana.

Among those, I mentioned Marco Antonio Barrera, with whom Erik Morales had three epic, bloody battles between 2000 and 2004. The first of which was named “Fight of the Year 2000”, and rightly so. Morales entered the ring the heavy 6-1 favourite to win but, from the first bell, it was evident that Barrera had not got wind of this script as he set about charging down everything Morales was throwing, closing the gap on Morales and landing clean, hard shots on the inside, particularly the left hook, to easily win the first 4 rounds. In the second third of the fight, Morales tried to use more initiative, but the relentless Barrera would not let him find a decent range to land shots from, and although this section was more even, Barrera was landing the cleaner, more aggressive shots. Then in the final third, despite Morales once again stepping up in aggression and urgency in the face of the beating he was taking, my opinion is that Barrera still won a good 8 rounds of the fight, minimum. However, the judges gave it to Morales via a close split decision and it must be said, most fighters of any era in boxing would have succumbed to Barrera’s onslaught on that night but, while they were the weaker, less effective punches, Morales did in fact land more punches.

After the first fight against Barrera, Morales stepped up to featherweight and continued winning, though he never looked the same as before Barrera. The two would meet again in June, 2002. This time, sporting a more orthodox boxing style and a vastly improved jab, and after dethroning Prince Naseem Hamed, Barrera, to the surprise of many, began to fight at a distance with Morales, which as the superior boxer, is what made Morales the favourite to win their first meeting. Perhaps after the rigours of the first outing, neither wanted to get into the same style of war with each other again but, Morales was the one who tried more to force the fight and at times was chasing Barrera who came on strong in the middle rounds and also won the final round, however, I think Morales won by 7 rounds to 5 but, Barrera was given the unanimous decision, evening out the wrong decision from their first encounter two years previously.

After another two years when Morales had stepped up in weight again and captured the WBC super-featherweight title, and Manny Pacquiao had taken some of the sheen and limelight away from Barrera, they would meet for the third and final time. Barrera won the majority decision, I feel he won by clear water this time. While it was yet another bloody battle between these two warriors of the sport, I feel that mentally, Morales knew from the beginning that he could not win this time out. At the beginning, while Barrera was staring him down, he was looking around the crowd and just was not focussed. Having said that, Morales was in the ring, so he was “in” the fight, and once again fought with all his heart until the final bell and the bout was declared “Fight of the Year 2004” by Ring Magazine.

As Cus D’Amato famously said, “every great fighter has one great fight left in him”. Erik Morales proved this when he fought Manny Pacquiao just 4 months later and beat him by a decent margin. This went some way to showing that perhaps Barrera’s edge over Morales was a solely mental one. Pacquiao and Roach were convinced that Morales, who had not looked the same since the first fight with Barrera, was shot and that they could knock him out. They underestimated the chin, speed, and skill of Morales and Pacquiao paid for it. In fact Morales was so comfortable with Pacquiao that he showboated by fighting most of the final round southpaw. Pacquiao won the round well, landing huge shots to the chin and temple of Morales but, as always, Morales stood firm. This, was Morales’ “one more”. After the fight it was reported that more fighters like Morales and Pacquiao were exactly what the sport of boxing needed, and that the “Tijuana bred” Morales was “the single toughest, roughest man in boxing.”

After his win over Manny Pacquiao, Morales stepped up in weight again to lightweight to fight Zahir Raheem who heavily outpointed a shadow of Morales. He then came back down to super-featherweight for two rematches against Pacquiao which he lost by devastating knockouts in first the 10th round and then the 3rd. Pacquiao had done what he said he could do and was the first, and to this day the only, man to stop Erik Morales who then took almost a year out before returning in August 2007 to face David Diaz who also outpointed him after 12 rounds. After the fight, Morales announced his retirement saying that he had taken too many punches to the head and that was it, “no more fighting”. His father, and trainer Jose Morales agreed with this sentiment saying “it has to stop”.

What made Erik Morales so special inside the ring was a combination of his indomitable spirit, fast and accurate combination punches which were technically superb. He had the power to hurt anybody and knock out most. His ring generalship was second to none and he could adapt to a range of circumstances within a fight. One particular thing you will notice with Morales is that he was always quick to his stool and stayed on it as long as possible, absorbing as much tactical information between rounds as he could. A lot of fighters lose their heads and game plans when drawn into a war of a fight but, the ever professional Morales for the main part, kept a cool, clear head and through good tactics, a formidable boxing brain, and controlled aggression was able to fight his way into the hearts of his fans.

Things he didn’t do so well were defend when moving away from his opponent after an attack and also on the back-foot at any time. He was always open to a counter puncher. Morales also had a tendency to carry his hands pretty low and his back very straight upright. This made it difficult for him to effectively evade punches. This very upright posture was highlighted a number of times during his career as a hindrance to him using body punching, particularly so against Barrera. What Barrera also highlighted in Morales, was that his inside game was not what it could have been. He was unable, time and again, to shorten his punches against Barrera, which was most evident in their first battle.

For me as a young boxing fan, Erik Morales was one of the greatest to ever step into the ring. Regardless of the fact that in most of his many famous wars, he lost, Morales always showed the true heart of a warrior. He always put his body on the line and gave the fans what they wanted. A real fighter, not afraid to get in the ring with anyone and not afraid to take the best they had right on the chin. The sport desperately needs more of his calibre to excite the public and capture their hearts in the manner which Morales did in years gone by.

I cannot wait to once again hear the introduction of Erik “EL TERRIBLE” Morales when he comes out of retirement to face Jose Alfaro on the 27th of March in the first fight of a six-fight deal with his former promoter Nacho Huizar. Good luck to Morales, a true champion.