By Mark Hepplestall: In the eyes of many Erik Morales shocked the world turning back the hands of time and pulled off the upset of the century. This can be verified as the fight was not even supposed to be competitive, never mind have Morales the winner, but Morales showed that speed and movement may decrease with age but class in permanent. So why did Morales lose a controversial points decision? It’s all politics.
Firstly the World Boxing Association (WBA) are known for wanting to make the most money off their name, e.g. having a WBA Super World champion, as well as a World champion and WBA interim champion. What is the point in having three belts that represent a world title when one would be sufficient? Because they make money off those belts, and they use those belts to make the holders of those belts fight each other, so they get paid even more money.
Secondly the WBA are known for picking their champions depending on who can make them the most money, e.g. David Haye Vs Nikolay Valuev, similar to the Morales Vs Maidana fight but the only difference is that David Haye is a bigger marketing personality then Valuev, similar with Morales and Maidana; Maidana is a bigger marketing power then the well past it Morales, Maidana will hold the belt for longer than Morales, as Morales is truly on his last stand in boxing. Having the most talked about boxers holding their belts is great publicity for the boxing organization.
Thirdly all of the prospective belt organizations and promoters agree to use once great fighters as stepping stones in order to make a fighter a household name. E.g. in his prime Morales would have schooled and knocked out Maidana at any weight of Maidana’s choice, in the eyes of many he is a good fighter but extremely one dimensional and slightly overrated, but now he was taken to a decision and given a controversial win, it is clear to all that Maidana on his coming to fame party couldn’t deliver the goods and therefore had to be bailed out by the judges, sorry but there is no way that Maidana beat Morales by 4 rounds, this can be seen by Maidana’s changes in urgency throughout the fight. By round 6 it is agreed that Morales won rounds 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 adding the 7th and 9th later undoubtedly give or take a round or two.
But why would the WBA do this? Easy because it’s a win/win situation for them. WBA know that all the money is in the rematch, after the huge amount of publicity the WBA got from the Khan Vs Maidana fight they want to set it up again. A large amount of people agree that Khan will win his next two matches and hold the majority of the belts and then the WBA want Khan to fight Maidana again. Think it through, the WBA interim champion is basically the number one contender to the WBA world title, why would Maidana try to build up to the number one contender spot when he can likely get a fight with IBF champion Jab Judah after one or two fights? Because the WBA agreed with Maidana that he will have a huge name fight with low chances of losing which will propel him back up the rankings to a shot with Khan again. But what happens if Morales spoils the show like he did? Easy they have a rematch, hope Maidana takes training seriously and finds a way to beat the older, slower Morales and most importantly the WBA get paid the sanctioning fee. What happens if Morales gets the decision in a rematch? Also easy they let go of Maidana and make him fight from the bottom back to the top and move Morales, a huge name in boxing to fight Khan for the WBA world title, and in this part also most importantly the WBA get paid.
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