By Gerardo Granados: Humberto Soto vacated his World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight title and moved up to the light welterweight division in order to obtain his third division title and by doing so he is opening a door for Erik Morales to obtain his fourth division title.

According to the Mexican network TELEVISA Deportes long time WBC President Jose Sulaiman was interviewed and he stated that the WBC would not have any objections to authorize Erik Morales as one of the contenders to dispute the organization lightweight title that was recently vacated if Erik is able to make weight.

This is great news for Morales who is scheduled to fight against the young prospect Anthony Crolla next September 17th on the undercard of Mayweather vs. Ortiz. But the only problem is if Morales will be able to make 135 pounds, on his last fight he was able to make 140 pounds without too much trouble but some times five pounds can be too much weight to take off and still be competitive at fight night.

Once you get a chance like this you better make the best out of it because it might not repeat itself. If Erik wants to challenge Bradley, Khan or Judah to dispute any of the light welterweight titles then he would have to wait a while, even more after turning down an offer to face Khan. Also his chances of success would not be really big.

Morales has tried twice and lost, both David Diaz at lightweight and Marcos Maidana at light welterweight defeated Morales in a close combat that could have been ruled a draw or even a victory for Erik. If he wants to win he may need a knockout to avoid any controversy and assure he will end the fight with his hand raised as the winner.

If “El Terrible” is able to comfortably make the lightweight division limit then he could end up fighting against the top ranked fighter available to dispute the title. From first to fifth the ranked are: 25 years old Antonio DeMarco (25-2-1, 18 KO’s) former interim champion, lost to the late Edwin Valero RTD9 when he disputed the regular belt, currently holds the WBC silver lightweight title and is the number one contender to the title, unbeaten 26 years old John Murray (31-0, 18 KO’s), who has proved to be a good fighter at European level, former WBC featherweight and WBA World super featherweight champion 25 years old Jorge Linares (31-1, 20 KO’s), 26 years old Reyes Sanchez (20-4-1, 11 KO’s) who lost to Antonio DeMarco on February 26th and might have lost any chance to dispute the title on his next fight, and the fifth ranked 26 years old Daniel Estrada (25-2-1, 19 KO’s) who lost by SD12 to Reyes Sanchez last September when they disputed the vacant WBC silver lightweight title. All of these contenders are younger than Morales but they don’t have the experience or even have faced the quality of opposition that Erik has faced in the past, and also are not considered to be as powerful as Marcos Maidana is.

This opportunity is just what Morales was looking for and he better make the best out of it if he is able to make the division weight limit, if not then he will have to wait until a light welterweight champion decide to give him a chance.