Mexican great Erik Morales is still hoping to land a fight with countryman Juan Manuel Marquez. A few weeks ago, Morales revealed that he spoke with Golden Boy Promotions about staging a fight between him and Marquez for May of 2009. "People have seen Morales-Barrera, Barrera-Pacquiao, Morales-Pacquiao and Barrera-Marquez. The only thing missing is Morales-Marquez," Morales said to NotiMex. Morales said negotiations are still ongoing and he hopes to reach an agreement. "There are talks with Golden Boy for a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. The negotiations will continue for a few more weeks and if we close it [the deal] - I will fight in May," Morales told Notifight. Although Morales has a dream of becoming the first Mexican to win four titles in four weight division, he won't consider a fourth bout with his heated rival, Marco Antonio Barrera, who has the same goal and recently returned to the ring at lightweight. Morales took a shot at Barrera for selecting a very overmatched Sammy Ventura as the return opponent. Barrera stopped him in four rounds. "I don't think it's a good idea. He already had his return against the great, famous Sammy Ventura. The idea in the sport of boxing is to be big and to do it well," Morales said.
Damnit Erik, please stay retired. I love Morales, but he is really, really shot. At this stage he stands little chance against Marquez, who looks sharp as ever.
Not too much of a surprise that he's coming back, he's said he planned on coming back in '09 a while ago. But Marquez for his first fight back? I guess the one positive from this is Morales will lose a little weight in the process.
Id watch it. Morales beat Diaz in that last fight IMO and he's bigger than Juan. And it's the only fight out of the Marquez-Barrera-Pac-Morales series that hasn't been made as well, so it'd be a neat way to tie up the era.
That's what I was going to ask. How could you dislike Morales? He's a fucking warrior, and yes one of the most entertaining fighters ever.
Bullies back down when someone stands up to them. This is an absurd statement Ugo, completely false. Morales never backed down, he's barely taken a backwards step in his whole career. You hit him, he's going to fire back in turn, guaranteed.
That certainly seemed to become the perception among many after the Velardez fight, but I think some of that has to be viewed in the context of the Diego Morales fight. There was history between the two sides in that fight. For whatever reason, though, Barrera - be it because he's seen as "classier", more "educated", or whatever - has always won the PR battle with HBO, and therefore it's English-speaking viewers, and some of his comments/actions seem to get a free pass.
