By Gerardo Granados: After seen several news reports and read sports columns that state that it was regrettable or even sad to see how Erik Morales was knocked out, I could do nothing else but to disagree. How can there be shame when losing against a fighter that most sports writers consider to be the best light welterweight?

In a Boxing era in which most of the organization champions avoid the top contenders and instead cherry pick their opponents picking the ones who are tailor made for them in order to look good, I can only thank Erik Morales for having the stones to face dangerous fighters through his entire boxing career. How can it be important that he was knocked out in his last fight when he gave fans so many epic battles, let´s not forget that it was Morales who gave the first title shot to Danny Garcia.

Maybe “kronos” did his job, but the destructive job of Danny Garcia was definitive last Saturday night, that left hook can do the same job on any light welterweight or even welterweight top ten fighter. Morales has a good chin but it was the same left hook that floored him in the first fight the one that finished him off this time.

Don´t get me wrong, the knockout was beautiful and it might be awarded the knockout of the year by the media; but the referee should have called off the fight at the moment Morales was down, it was not necessary to count or to the corner to step in to the ring to stop the fight because Erik never recover from the first knock down.

Morales lost to a young lion king and he lost fighting so how can it be regretable to lost? It would have been regrettable to see him lost against a low ranked unknown boxer or to see him cherry pick in order to look good.

Most of the greatest fighters will go as they arrived, as the old say sings “the one who by the sword kills by the sword will die”. Young boxing fans won´t remember an Erik Morales knock out veteran Daniel Zaragoza; Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. was a monster but he was finally retired from the important fights by Kotzya Tsziu who also suffered the same fate by Ricky Hatton who also was brutally knocked out by Manny Pacquiao; Oscar De la Hoya was humiliated by both Kronos and Pacquiao. The reader must remember other names as Mike Tyson or Arturo Gatti.

Hurra for Erik “Terrible” Morales who gave boxing fans their money worth when they watched his fights. Undoubtedly many will miss a genuine champion like Morales who pleased the crowd by fighting instead of running or clowning inside the ring. I wish the best for Erik, maybe now he can be on the corner of his younger sibling Ivan as a trainer.