By Jason Kim: Former three division world champion Erik Morales (50-6, 36 KO’s) will see action once again coming up on December 18th against a still to be determined opponent at the Caliente Racetrack, in Tijuana, Mexico. The fight will likely be shown on Showtime in a split event card with the WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins. Morales, 34, then, if successful in the 12/18 fight, would like to fight WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez in 2011. The World Boxing Council currently has Morales ranked at number #2 in the light welterweight division, which an incredibly good ranking given that Morales has looked positively horrible in his two fights since coming off of a three year retirement in 2010.

Morales beaten Jose Alfaro and Willie Limond. I saw his fight with Alfaro, and I thought Morales lost that fight by a landslide nine rounds to three. Morales clearly was losing the fight to Limond up the 5th round when he was able to hurt him with body shots. He finished him in the 6th, it wasn’t an impressive fight for Morales. He looked old, slow and feeble against Limond. Luckily for Morales that Limond had no ability take body shots and he quickly succumbed once Morales aimed a few shots at his body.

But Morales honestly doesn’t look good enough to beat anyone but 2nd tier opposition at this point in his careers. He’s not the same fighter that lost to David Diaz three years ago, and that version of Morales was totally shot. This version is far worse. I’m sure Morales will win his next fight on December 18th, because he’s obviously going to be matched against someone he can beat.

But a fight between him and Marquez would be a joke, because, who’s fading badly himself, still has a lot more left in the tank than Morales. I see this fight as a huge mismatch with Morales getting badly beaten and boxing fans seeing a non-competitive fight. If you look at the fight as an old timers’ fight, then I can ignore the fact that this will be a huge mismatch. But if you were hoping to see a competitive fight between them, then you can forget it because Morales looks totally shot as a fighter.