By Jason Kim: Former four division world champion Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO’s) didn’t look in good shape last weekend in losing a 12 round unanimous decision to Danny Garcia (23-0, 14 KO’s) in their fight in Houston, Texas.

You could see that Morales wasn’t in top shape the day before on Friday when he lost his WBC light welterweight title on the scales after coming in two pounds over the limit at 142. But in looking at Morales’ thick waistline with flab hanging over his boxing trunks on both sides, it’s pretty clear that something went wrong in training camp for Morales.

Why did he look so flabby for this fight compared to his bout against Marcos Maidana a year ago? Did Morales just go through the motions because he didn’t feel he could win anyway? Those are important questions that only Morales knows that answer to. But he clearly didn’t look in full fighting shape for the Garcia bout.

To his credit, Morales still fought reasonably well in losing a 12 round decision, but it looked like he wasn’t able to push his body hard enough to make the fight more competitive due to his lack of conditioning. Just looking at Morales’ body, he looked like a skinny middle-aged man with flabby midsection. He didn’t look trained and seemed stiff in the upper body, as if the fat on his stomach kept him from bending over the way he needed to in order to get maximum power on his shots.

It would be sad if the loss to Garcia winds up being Morales’ last fight of his career because I think he could have done a lot better had he come into the fight in 100% condition. Coming in flabby was an indication that something broke down in training camp that prevented Morales from pushing hard enough to get the last 10 or so pounds of fat off of his waist.