Erik Morales vs. Marcos Maidana is now signed, sealed and waiting to be delivered to the world by HBO PPV on April 9th. This match-up is exactly what I have feared for Morales since he began his comeback in March 2010. The bout has potential disaster written all over it for the Mexican legend.
Morales won a few fights in his comeback (with meaningless WBC “International” and “Silver” titles thrown into the bargain to boot), he is 34 years old, lost four big fights in a row leading up to his first retirement, and is now campaigning a full 10 to 15 pounds above his best weight. In his prime, “El Terrible” was a skilled, technically sound boxer-puncher with a tall, lanky frame. However, he often abandoned boxing and pot-shotting from the outside in favor of mixing it up, producing the thrilling trench wars that boxing fans around the world (excepting the Philippines) know and love him for. However, Morales could always choose to box his way to victory when he felt like it, as he did in his landmark win over Manny Pacquiao. I am sure Morales is thinking he can play the matador to Maidana’s bull.
I might share that conviction if Morales had tried himself out against a lower-ranked contender first, but he hasn’t fought anyone who could be realistically considered even a Top 15 fighter, and Marcos Maidana is ranked #3. While both Amir Khan and Andrey Kotelnik were able to out-box Maidana, they both have assets that Erik Morales lacks. Khan is faster and a bigger puncher at 140 than Morales, while Kotelnik is a more durable customer than the shopworn Morales. Basically, I don’t think Morales can take a punch like Kotelnik or minimize the number of punches he will take as Khan did. Morales is getting in the ring with a younger, bigger, stronger guy who just happens to be the biggest puncher in the division, and everything about him is suspect at this point.
Increasing the sad, freak show aspect of the night is the rest of the fight card. Robert Guerrero vs. Michael Katsidis is a worthy co-feature, and the comeback of James Kirkland isn’t a bad preliminary, but can someone tell me what Winky Wright is doing on this card? The April fight will be the 39 year old’s first bout in two years, when he dropped a lopsided decision to Paul Williams. A year and a half before that, Wright was thumped by Bernard Hopkins. Wright was once a great fighter, but now he is old, rusty, and has little prospects of even becoming a gatekeeper given his awkwardness. Golden Boy Promotions should be ashamed of itself putting on a PPV like this, since the sheer ugliness of Morales vs. Maidana outweighs any entertainment value derived from Guerrero vs. Katsidis, while the Wright fight is a meaningless snooze and Kirkland is just a footnote.
