By William Mackay: If you’re a fan of 34-year-old Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s), you might not want tune in on April 9th when Morales faces Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Morales may have been a good fighter many years ago but he’s now aged to the point where he’s a B level fighter going up against one of the best punchers in the light welterweight division in the 27-year-old Maidana.

Morales is hoping to beat Maidana and then use the victory to try and get bigger fights and hopefully yet another fight against Manny Pacquiao, who he defeated back in 2005. Morales subsequently was beaten in his two rematches with Pacquiao, however. The chances of Morales beating Maidana are pretty slim, about as good as someone winning the lottery.

The problem the Morales has is that he’s barely beating the 2nd tier opposition he’s been facing since he made his comeback in 2010. Indeed, I had Morales losing two out of his three fights to Jose Alfaro and Francisco Lorenzo. To have any chance against Maidana, Morales would have to be looking good and dominating his opposition. The fact of the matter is Morales is looking pretty horrible and is winning decisions that are incredibly questionable. No doubt it helps being a famous fighter.

However, Morales won’t be able to beat Maidana by another questionable decision. This fight is going to be under a microscope on April 9th, as it’s going to be shown on HBO. If Morales is to win this fight, he’s going to have to out-slug Maidana and hope that his chin can hold up under the big shots that Maidana is going to be hitting him with all night.

Morales won’t be holding and running from Maidana the way that Amir Khan was in his recent narrow decision over Maidana. And there probably won’t be a referee working the fight that separates Maidana and Morales when Morales is taking punishment on the ropes, like the Khan-Maidana fight.