<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbGM71w6DnE&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jbGM71w6DnE&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Sucks watchin the last part of that video though bein a Morales fan... But man what a warrior.
A true legend. Morales played his part in a lot of my favourite fights. Also the only guy to beat this new beast known as Manny Pacquiao.
Just curious, Does anyone think the outcome would have been different (vs Pac) if it werent for the Barrera wars?
Well, he won the Pacman fight. I think if you look at that fight, then the subseqent Pacquaio fights, it is quite clear that everything had taken its toll.
I've always been a huge Morales fan, one of my favourite fighters. One of the most exciting fighter ever too. When he was active, I was a proper Erik groupie, I would have picked him over Godzilla.
hate to sound like my brother, but the only reason he ever beat pacquiao was the brutal headbutt cut in the beginning of the fight. one of the all time greats at 122 and 126 though. big time warrior.
pacquiao came along at the right time, as far as morales was concerned. all the hard fights and all the hard drinking had certainly caught up to him by march 05
In all seriousness, I do think the Winning gloves took a lot of the sting out of Pacquiao's punches. They took the sting out of Morales' too, I'm sure. But whereas he tried to flat out KO pacquiao in the third fight, he genuinely out-boxed him in the first. In the second he tried to out-box him too I think. But as in the third fight, he couldn't handle Pacquiao's power.
The thing I hated about the Morales era was how nearly everyone hated MAB during that period. For some reason it was like nobody could like both guys but I remember scores of posters just hated MAB but loved them some Morales.
Nobody wants to see that. Morales is the type of guy who will always test himself against top fighters. Simply put he is finished. I dont want to see the guy rack up more L's on his record.
I never particularly liked his style nor him as a person, but he did have a great career and some solid fights
I have always contended that the "greatness" of a boxer's career is in LARGE part determined by when he retires. When someone gets out of the game can have almost as big an impact on their legacy as who they've beaten. Roy Jones retires after Tarver 1, or maybe after Ruiz.... wow. Only one loss, which frankly was a fight he would have won anyway. Won the heavyweight title. Retires virtually undefeated, unparalleled in his time. Morales is another classic case of this. After beating Pac, he should have gotten out. His career and record at that point were astonishing, and you could make a case that his 2 losses shouldn't have been losses at all. But all it takes is clinging to the glory too long, and in a pretty short time your losses start to wash away at your wins, even when unfairly so in the twilight of your career. Why can't anyone take a hint from Marciano or Hagler and know when to hang em' up? Erik Morales was the shit. One can only hope he comes to his senses and stays retired.
Morales was amazing and he beat Pacquiao head on. It was the last great performance before he turned old in his next fight. Still, he was great and proved it throughout his amazing career. His last two Pacquiao fights were cash out fights. C
I think it's incumbant upon fans and historians to take these things into account in evaluating the careers of fighters. I agree with you that fighters who fight too long ultimately blemish their careers, but keep in mind, they're fighters, and most of them, as long as they can get fights, can't change their spots. Also, some fighters manage to add to their legacy by staying in the game, even past their primes. Look at Mosley. Duran. Hopkins. McCallum. Toney. RJJ. These guys fought or are fighting well past their primes and though they lost fights, many in devastating fashion (Duran's KO loss to Hearns, Mosley's one-sided loss to Wright, RJJ's KO loss to Johnson), they all returned to record significant wins subsequently. When we talk about Duran, nobody refers to his days as a super-middleweight as evidence that he wasn't the fighter we thought he was as a light-weight. And even recently, you hear people claim that in his prime, RJJ would've easily defeated Johnson and Calzaghe. I don't think anything Morales does or does not do at this point can erase from the memories the achievements he had in his prime. And if he does come back and somehow wins a title in a fight he'll no doubt be expected to lose, he'll have added to his legacy IMO. And then there's plenty of examples of guys who didn't hit their peak until late in their careers, many times when fighters would normally have retired. Hopkins is a good example of this. Verno Phillips. Barrera. Guys that have used their smarts and skill to get even better even as they've passed their physical primes. I just don't think it's reasonable to expect a fighter who's trained and fought all of his life to retire just because he lost a fight. The best fighters in history have come back from losses when it seemed they were finished and gone on to fulfill what's their own personal goals. Some fail at it. But I don't think it's foolish of them or that we should expect them not to try.
Yeah, nobody really wanted to see him in the ring again after the third Pac fight, but if he had gotten the decision over Diaz, he'd certainly have added something to legacy (even if it's only window-dressing to his real accomlpishments)...and maybe wouldn't thinking about a comeback now.
See, I think that although there is some truth to the fact that fighters can indeed return to the ring (or continue fighting past their prime) and add to their legacy by surprising you with big victories - the odds are FAR, FAR greater that they will simply lose and look bad doing so. For every fighter who comes back and manages to do something great, there are 100 who just get beat up and embarrass themselves. Also, I have found that a fighter's legacy depends on multiple generations of fans, not just the "prime" generation (this is true to a lesser degree when a fighter has a very short career or prime). So for all the people like myself who watched Roy Jones Jr. from the Olympics on, there are other groups who started watching at the Hops fight or at the Griffin fights or at the 2nd Tarver fight. And herein lies my point. Continuing to fight on, losing, getting KO'd, getting cut, beaten up, embarrassed is the MAIN impression a fighter makes on the latter generation of fans. As you go back to the long-time fans, they can of course put it all in perspective better. They know the difference between a true loss and a "I'm shot" loss. But as you sort of average out the general concensus over time, the losses really do hurt a fighter's legacy. After all, in 50 years, who is really going to know when exactly a given fighter fought on too long as opposed to just getting BEAT. You can argue primes forever even in current fighters, imagine doing it 20, 30, 50 years later when hardly anyone is around anymore that really saw the fighter to a large extent and got a true sense of how good they were. I am not advocating fighters retiring because of a loss, or quitting in the middle of their prime. And certainly some fighters have a very good sense of what they have left, and continue fighting on successfully. But I am saying that continuing to fight on after the skills begin degrading is a net negative for the career/legacy of the vast majority of fighters, many times unfairly so.
I've always respected Morales but not anymore. Both him and Barrera are fucking jealous of Marquez. Not to long ago they were both asked who was the best fighter right now from Mexico and neither one mentioned JMM :dunno: Morales said that guys like Margarito and Arce were the best but they were on their way out. As if JMM doesn't exist :atu: I always thought JMM was better than both of them at any weight and now he is doing shit they never did. JMM is clearly the best fighter from Mexico and has been for a while.
