By Jim Dower: 34-year-old former three division world champion Eric Morales (51-6. 35 KO’s) was one of the best fighters in the world until around September 2005. At that point, it’s been downhill ever since for Morales. He’s lost four out of his last seven fights, and who knows how many more loses Morales would have suffered if he had taken on really good fighters in his last two fights instead of weaker opposition.

Morales likely would be 0-7 for his last seven fights had he taken on some good light welterweights in his last three fights. Morales will be fighting light welterweight contender Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) on April 9th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a bad fight for someone like Morales, who is struggling to beat 2nd tier fighters.

Maidana hits hard and can really bring it for 12 rounds. He’s not someone that Morales can count on fading in the later rounds so that he can squeeze out a controversial 12 round decision against. Maidana won’t fade and he won’t be beaten by a narrow decision. If Morales has any hope of beating Maidana, he’s going to have to try and go to the body and try to take him out. Maidana proved to be vulnerable in his last fight against WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, who dropped Maidana with a hard body shot in the 1st round in their bout last December. To his credit, Maidana got up off the deck and took the fight to Khan and made it close at the end. But Morales is going to be having a lot more problems because he doesn’t have the speed or the size that Khan had going for him in his fight with Maidana. Morales is going to be getting hit way too much, and against a fighter with the power of Maidana, it’s not wise to let him hit you.