Erik Morales in no rush to defend his WBC belt, wants Marquez and DeMarco

By Boxing News - 12/01/2011 - Comments

Image: Erik Morales in no rush to defend his WBC belt, wants Marquez and DeMarcoBy Allen Fox: If you’re a boxing fan hoping to see Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KO’s) defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) light welterweight title in the near future, please don’t hold your breathing waiting for that to happen.

The 35-year-old Morales wants to test the waters at lightweight in his next fight in January 2012, according to the latest boxing news. Morales is eying a fight against WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco, although not necessarily in January.

Morales would also like to fight Juan Manuel Marquez, but that fight is about slim and none because Marquez has bigger fights on the horizon than against a guy that isn’t a huge draw in the United States like Morales. It’s interesting, though, that Morales is interested in facing DeMarco, because I don’t know that he’s even close to being the best fighter in the lightweight division.

Why isn’t Morales looking to fight Brandon Rios? I think he’s worlds better than DeMarco. Even guys like Ricky Burns, Robert Guerrero and Miguel Vazquez are probably better than DeMarco as well. I doubt few boxing fans would argue that. Is Morales just interested in picking up another paper title? He just finished winning the vacant WBC title against the No.12 ranked WBC contender Pablo Cesar Cano in a 10th round TKO last September.

There were so many fighters that Morales could have fought that you could argue that more deserving than Cano, yet that’s who he fought. Morales is pretty much a paper champion, and now he’s targeting another paper champion. Why not defend his title against Ajose Olusegun or Lucas Matthysse and prove that he deserves to be the champion?

Morales says he’ll defend his WBC title, but we could end up waiting until the second part of 2012 before that happens, and it’ll be a voluntary defense, which means Morales can pick and choose whoever he wants to fight in the top 15. Look for a nice safe pick, someone from the bottom of the top 15.



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