By Jason Kim: Former three division world champion Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s) isn’t very old in terms of years at only 34. However, Morales has had a lot of fights and boxed 387 rounds as a pro compared to only 114 for his next opponent Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s), whom he fights on April 9th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It might not seem like a big deal, but many of those rounds that Morales has fought have been grueling ones where he took a lot of punishment in fights against Manny Pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera, David Diaz, Zahir Raheem, Carlos Hernandez, Jesus Chavez, Paulie Ayala, In-Jin Chi, Guty Espadas Jr and Wayne McCullough.
Those were all very tough fights for Morales, with him taking a massive amount of punishment. It’s perhaps for this reason that Morales seems to have aged to the point where he resembles more of a shot fighter than a true #1 WBC light welterweight contender. Frankly, that ranking that the WBC has given Morales is laughable. Morales is more of 2nd tier guy now with a famous name.
Like a lot of aging fighters, Morales doesn’t seem to realize how average he’s become since coming back in 2010. He’s not fighting anything like he used to. It’s like he’s fighting in slow motion now when you watch some of his old fights. The things that he used to be able to do, he can’t do anymore and he’s facing the biggest puncher and perhaps the toughest fighter in the light welterweight division in Maidana. This is the kind of fighter that a prime Morales would have had problems with, but now that he’s 34 going on 40, he’s really going to have a lot of problems in this fight and I can’t see him surviving for long.
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