|
 Leap Year Means War for Jesus Chavez and Erik Morales
by David A. Avila (February 28, 2004)
 Send this page to friend Give us your feedback
During the last leap year Las Vegas shook when two Mexicans unleashed a furious assault against each other in a title fight.
It's leap year again.
Mexico's dynamic featherweight champion Erik Morales moves up to the 130-pound division to challenge Jesus Chavez for the WBC junior lightweight title at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino tonight. The fight will be shown on HBO.
Last leap year, Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera put an incredible display of Mexican fury at its best when they collided for 12 rounds in the 2000 Fight of the Year. It left the audience breathless.
Now we again have Morales but this time he is facing Chavez who may not have the name recognition but hype does not make a fight. The Austin-based fighter can bring the heat just as well as any other Mexican fighter.
"I'm going to surprise a lot of people," said Chavez (40-2, 28 KOs). "I'm going to win."
Morales, a veteran of numerous mega fights, expects another affair where he does his usual samba and takes his opponent out with his vast array of offensive weapons including that awesome uppercut.
"I think he will be aggressive with me but once he finds out what I can do against him he's going to do the same thing he did against (Floyd) Mayweather, that's quit," said Morales (45-1, 34 KOs) almost yawning with boredom.
Despite moving up to a heavier weight division Morales feels that his skill and experience will be too much of an advantage for Chavez though he considers him a tough fighter.
"I've been through many of these big fights. He doesn't know what it's like, it's his first time," said Morales, 27, about Chavez's first big Las Vegas fight. "It's an advantage because you have to deal with all of the press. He hasn't done that. I don't even think about it any more."
Though Chavez lacks the big fight experience of Morales, his life story would break any normal person.
"I'm stronger, mentally and physically, than him," said Chavez, 31, who was convicted of robbery in Chicago as a teen then deported to Mexico where he remained for several years until an appeal allowed him back into the country.
Last August, Chavez finally achieved his dream of capturing the world title. It's his first title defense and he does not want to lose it. Even to a future Hall of Fame fighter like Morales.
"I've been through a lot. He's not going to beat me, believe me," said Chavez, by cell phone. "I have a lot of people I owe this to."
Chavez has only two losses on his record, one to Mayweather and the other to Carlos Gerena who beat him in 1995, the second year of his professional career. Last year he avenged that loss with a blithering assault that stopped the tough Puerto Rican in six rounds.
The intensity of the attack proved too much for Gerena.
"I learned a lot from the Mayweather fight," said Chavez, who opened up with a non-stop attack but blew his load by the eighth round that allowed the slippery Mayweather to pot-shot his way to a ninth round technical knockout. "I'm a smarter fighter because of him."
In Chavez's fight against Thailand's Sirimonghal Singmanassak (43-1), the Mexican born champion chased down the slick counter-puncher with a vicious body and head assault that only intensified in the latter rounds. It was a blowout victory for Chavez before his many Texan fans and the Thai boxer's first loss.
Morales, calmly lounging on a vinyl couch in a Pasadena restaurant, said he expects Chavez to fold like a wooden chair.
"There's not going to be any excuses, if he's better than me he is going to beat me. There's not going to be any excuses," Morales said. "But I'm going to win."
Morales is kind of an enigma. A few years back it looked like he was slowing down such as his first fight against Guty Espadas. Many felt Morales lost to the tall boxer from Yucatan. But in the last three years, Tijuana's favorite son has distanced himself from the pack with a series of dominating victories over Eddie Croft, Fernando "Bobby Boy" Velardez and Espadas in a rematch last October where he stopped him in a mere three rounds.
"Erik Morales is a great great fighter," said Armando Velardez Sr. trainer and father to Bobby Boy. "He's definitely one of the greatest fighters today. He knows so much in the ring. It's like taking a boxing class. I was amazed just watching him in the ring."
Chavez doesn't care about Morales. He sees him as a featherweight entering uncharted territory.
"He's going to know there's definitely a difference up here with the junior lightweights," Chavez said. "This is going to be a total war. He better be ready for it."
It's that time again. Leap Year means time to war.
Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums
David Avila's Archives - Click Here
|
