Morales will return against AlfaroComment Email Print Share By Dan Rafael ESPN.com Archive NEW YORK -- Former three-division champion Erik Morales will end a 2½ year-retirement and return to the ring in March, Mexican promoter Nacho Huizar told ESPN.com on Sunday. Morales is scheduled to face former lightweight titleholder Jose Alfaro in a welterweight bout March 27 in Monterrey, Mexico, Huizar said. "I think he'll sell pretty good, but not like he did last time," Huizar said, referring to Morales' onetime position as a significant pay-per-view attraction. Morales (48-6, 34 KOs) is a former junior featherweight, featherweight and junior lightweight champion and one of the best fighters in Mexican history. He challenged for a lightweight belt in his last fight, but lost a decision to David Diaz in August 2007 before retiring. There was a steady stream of talk of a possible comeback since then, but nothing ever materialized until now. Huizar said it was Morales who called him and asked him to promote the fight in conjunction with his own company. "After I heard he was going to come back, he called me and begged me to be his partner," Huizar said. "It's an honor to me for him to pick me. If I don't do it, somebody else will." Morales-Alfaro will be televised in the United States via Integrated Sports pay-per-view. Huizar said they signed a six-fight deal for three fights this year and three in 2011. Huizar acknowledged that six more fights for Morales, 33, is a reach at this stage. "We'll see what happens," said Huizar, who said he promoted Morales' first five pro fights before Morales went on to become a major star under the guidance of co-promoters Top Rank and Fernando Beltran's Zanfer Promotions. Even before the loss to Diaz, Morales was a shell of the great fighter who had been in three all-time slugfests with rival Marco Antonio Barrera and several other memorable battles. Morales lost four fights in a row and five of his last six, including two knockout losses to Manny Pacquiao. The one victory Morales notched during his late-career slide came against Pacquiao in the first fight of their trilogy. Their March 2005 fight was the last time Pacquiao lost. Immediately after losing a competitive fight to Diaz, Morales announced his retirement. "That's it," Morales said at the time. "No more fighting. I am done. Too many punches, particularly to the head area." Jose Morales, Erik's father who raised him in a Tijuana apartment above a boxing gym, supported his son's decision to retire, saying after the fight with Diaz, "Erik has taken too many punches. It has to stop." Jose Alfaro (23-5, 20 KOs), 26, of Nicaragua, held a lightweight belt for five months in 2008. His last fight was an interim lightweight title bout in October where Antonio DeMarco stopped him in the 10th round. Dan Rafael is ESPN.com's boxing writer.
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I think the most shocking thing about this article is learning that Jose Alfaro actually held a title at one point. ::
Time off from training and competition does the BODY good. It's a fine balance between over and undertraining. He was losing fights left and right. It was the proper decision to temporarily retire. It's not good to take more than a week off from cardio training when you are active. When you take over 2 years off, plenty of time for body and more importantly your MIND to heal in a healthy way. Loved to watch Morales fight and wish him the best of lUCK...
He's talking about the AlfaroComment Email Print Share. I can't say I've ever heard of him either.</P>
:: I've never heard of him either, but he must have a Thai sponsor. And well, Morales is one of my favourite fighters of all time, but I'd really rather he stayed retired. I guess I wouldn't mind him seeing him whup a couple of bums, but I really don't want to see him take any more punishment.
Does anyone think he'll be in any kind of fit shape at 147? Has anyone heard him talk lately, how does he sound? Sounds like his promoter even has doubts about Erik fulfilling the 6 fight contract.
He´s from Nicaragua and he was involved in one of the most bizzare world title fights of recent memory, when he fought Thai Prawet Singwangcha for the WBA lightweight title in Germany. Neither fighter has any connection to Germany, but it was probably one of those megafights like Pacquiao/Mayweather, where neither fighter wanted to surrender hometown advantage, so they decided to meet in the middle on an undercard 10000 kilometres from either guys home. That was my comment on the comeback of Erik Morales.
Hatton has nothing on Erik. Maybe they could meet in a battle of the Weight-Drained-Formerly-Fat-Men. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ysiGSBflIo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ysiGSBflIo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Whaddyer expect from the elephant who called Corrales and Casamajor a pair of chicken-hearted white guys?
The resemblance is uncanny. Perhaps M.A.B will see the resemblance and proclaim..."You see, you see...I always said he was a Pinchie Indio!!" http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2004-12-29/sports/0412290164_1_barrera-morales-boxing-history
Holy shit, he is barely recognisable. I seriously thought Erik was too lean naturally to be able to get as bloated as that. Especially his face.
hopefully he'll fight some stiffs and then retire w/o getting damaged badly. at his best, he was one of the baddest dudes ever and clearly the most exciting fighter of his generation.
I'd like to see untrained Morales vs untrained Hatton fight, preferably in a pub. Who wins? Hatton has the home advantage so i'd take him.
