On December 18th, Erik “El Terrible” Morales will continue his comeback against Francisco Lorenzo in a junior welterweight fight. Will Morales slip up on his way to another potential big fight? His next fight was supposed to be against Jorge Barrios, but he was forced to pull out due to legal problems in his native Argentina.
The Mexican future Hall of Famer Morales is 50-6 with 35 knockouts. He has put together an extremely impressive resume over the course of his career. He has won world titles in 3 weight divisions. More impressively is the number of great fighters he has faced. From Daniel Zaragoza to the Barrera trilogy, to Manny Pacquiao, Morales has always fought the best. If you really wanted to get picky, you could say his resume is missing Juan Manuel Marquez and Prince Naseem Hamed. In the early part of the last decade, fans dreamed of a fight between Morales and Floyd Mayweather.
Currently, Morales is far from his prime. After Manny Pacquiao knocked him out in their 2nd and 3rd fights, Morales continued to fight on, losing a decision to David Diaz. Morales “retired,” but has come back looking for one more big fight. He has won a couple of fights in a row against low level fighters during his comeback.
Francisco Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic has taken Barrios’s place in the fight. His record is 35-8 with 16 knockouts and 1 no-contest. His biggest career win is probably over Nate Campbell, even though Humberto Soto was disqualified in their first fight. Lorenzo lost the second fight to Soto and his also faced Cristobal Cruz, Juan Diaz, and young stars like Roman Martinez and Jorge Linares. Lorenzo has come up short in most of his fights when he has faced talented fighters.
This is a fight Morales must win. Lorenzo is 39 years old, taking the fight on short notice, and hasn’t been effective past 130 lbs. Morales seems to have lost all of his speed. Morales tries to move side-to-side and use head movement, but he’s still pretty easy to hit. Despite this, Morales still has the pop to take out ordinary fighters.
Morales vs. Lorenzo Prediction
Expect a clash of heads. Lorenzo leans in with his head a lot, and can be dirty. He will apply pressure, but it won’t bother Morales because Lorenzo won’t have much sting behind his punches. Morales has a decision to make… he could probably take out Lorenzo within 6 rounds, or he could box and win a lopsided decision. In order to try to get that big fight, I expect the former will happen. Morales will win by 6th round knockout.
