By Sean McDaniel: Willie Limond (33-3, 8 KO’s) has reportedly been offered a rematch by Erik Morales (50-6, 35 KO’s) after losing to the former Mexican champion by a 6th round TKO last Saturday night at the Monumental Plaza de Toros, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Morales dropped Limond three times in the 6th round with left hooks to the body to get the stoppage win. According to Sport.sev.tv, Limond said he had problems breathing from the 4th round on due not being fully acclimated to fighting to the location of the fight.

Limond totally dominated the action in the first rounds of the fight, landing at will as he peppered Morales with mostly unanswered punches and had him looking really old. However, in the 5th round, Limond suddenly looked exhausted as he seemed to be gasping for air. In the meantime, Morales began to slowly take over the fight with some decent work. The round was still very close but you could see the tide of the fight was turning.

In the 6th round, Morales stopped head hunting and went to the body with a left hand to Limond’s midsection. Immediately upon being hit, Limond sank to the canvas in pain. Morales then went back to the same punch twice more to score two more knockdowns in the round. After the 3rd knockdown, the fight was stopped at 2;46 of the 6th by referee Jay Nady.

Morales will fight once more and then he’ll possibly be giving Limond a rematch. It’s hard to see why Morales would want to go over old ground and fight Limond again, other than perhaps Morales wants to improve on his performance by going to the body much earlier in the fight next time out. Morales did look really bad in the first four rounds of the fight and was clearly trailing as he entered the 5th round.

Limond is the kind of opponent that Morales should have been able to beat with ease, since Limond isn’t a 1st tier fighter. It’s worrisome that Morales was struggling against this type of fighter, because Morales is being talked about as a potential opponent for WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez in 2011. If the fight were to take place right now, I’d give Morales zero chance of winning any rounds in that fight and I think he would get embarrassed by Marquez.

Morales needs to lose some more weight around his midsection because he was sporting some jelly rolls around his middle and he’s too heavy at 143 to take on the 135 pound Marquez. Given that the once slender Morales was weighing as much as 200 pounds during his three year retirement form 2007 to 2010, it’s quite an accomplishment that he’s been able to trim off that much fat from his hide.

However, he’s still got fat he needs to lose and he needs to improve on his work rate and timing if he wants to compete with a legend like Marquez. If he had faced someone a little bit better than Limond last Saturday night, Morales would have likely been beaten badly. It’s not a good sign when you’re losing all the rounds against a fighter like Limond, who has never won a major title before.