By Scott Gilfoid: For all the boxing fans out there who felt that 34-year-old Erik Morales (51-7, 35 KO’s) should have been given the decision over Argentinian knockout artist Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) last Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, I say no way. The right fighter was given the decision. Maidana landed more punches and threw the harder shots. That’s how you win. If anything, the scores should have been lopsided in Maidana’s favor.
The judges’ scored the fight 114-114, 116-112 and 116-112. Maidana won at least nine of the rounds. He won no less than nine rounds, and that’s because Morales wasn’t busy enough, and missed a lot of punches when he would let his hands go. The judges were perhaps influenced by the pro-Morales crowd, who cheered like mad when Morales would even hint at throwing a punch.
Maidana was clubbing Morales to the head 24/7 in this fight. It was only rarely that Morales would let hands go in the fight, and even then he missed much of the time. His lack of power was a big factor in him losing. Most of the time his punches looked weak, lacking the power needed to hurt Maidana. I do admit that Morales threw a few decent punches in the fight like when he landed a nice left hook in the 8th round that backed Maidana up. But other than a few good shots from Morales, he was throwing weaker puncher and it cost him the fight.
I had Maidana winning rounds 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 11 and 12. There was no doubt in my mind that he won those rounds. But I thought Maidana won at least two more rounds on top of that. I also gave him the 4th and the 10th. Morales only looked good in the 5th and 8th. He just wasn’t strong enough or busy enough to win the fight. Maybe next time he’ll work on his flaws and will more rounds, but this time he didn’t have the needed stuff to get the win. I don’t think Maidana should waste his time beating up on Morales again. The fight won’t be any different next time other than Morales taking more of a beating.
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