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Ayala Takes on 'El Terrible'
By Steve Kim (November 10, 2002)
Photo © HoganPhotos.com
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It's as if all the big-name featherweights are swapping dance partners this month. Just a week or so ago, Johnny Tapia — best known for his controversial two bout series with Paulie Ayala — faced Marco Antonio
Barrera, who will forever be remembered for his two fights against Erik Morales.
This Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay on HBO Pay-Per-View, Ayala and Morales get it on. And while Barrera-Tapia was cordial and respectful, so much so that some have insinuated that Barrera 'carried' the naturally smaller Tapia over their 12 rounds, don't expect the same from these two.
At the early stages of their press tour to promote this bout, both Ayala and Morales sung each others praises often, just stopping short it seemed of
holding hands and singing 'Cumbaya' in unison. As the fight has gotten closer both fighters are heated with their comments and have gone back-and-forth verbally with each other.
"Yeah, yeah, I sense it," admits Ayala. "Even though he never said anything on stage and everything, just reading the articles. I was just talking about facts, what I felt were my responses to his reply."
And judging by those comments it's clear that Morales looks at the gritty Ayala as nothing more than a blown-up bantamweight.
"Oh, yeah, definitely," concurred Ayala, on how his opponent view him. "He thinks he's going to be the bigger guy, stronger guy and obviously he does have a bigger punch. I'm not sayin' that he doesn't but I'm going to carry this weight a lot better. Just like the Bones Adams fight, Bones thought he was way bigger and it showed in the second fight, especially. I built up
into that weight division pretty good and I just feel I'm adapted to this featherweight division as well."
After getting a very disputed and controversial decision over Adams in their first bout last year, Ayala bulked himself up and then systematically cut
his body to acclimate himself to a higher weight class.
"And not necessarily to bulk-up or blow-up to get out of proportion," he explains. "But to build up to be able to absorb the shots that I'm going to be taking and to strengthen myself for the shots I'm going to be giving, too. It was all for a reason and a purpose and I felt it came right on time."
He has done a similiar training regimen for the bout with Morales, which included weight training three times a week up until a month before the fight.
Ayala has readily admitted that Morales is the naturally bigger fighter and possesses a stronger punch. With his aggressive, combination punching
style, is it safe to assume that his plan will be to neutralize Morales' advantage in reach, crowd him and then out-work him on the inside?
"Oh, no doubt," Ayala admits. I will out-point him, out-score him and I'll win the fight. That's no problem. But he's saying that he going to knock me out and I don't see that happening. I've already fought some tough guys and even though I look easier to him from outside of the ring, he's going to find out that I'm not that easy from the inside."
He does have a point, while he's no Pernell Whitaker, Ayala doesn't just eat punches while walking into his opponents. Also, Morales, in spite of his lanky reach and build often-times gives that up for hard in-fighting like he did against In Jin Chi. We could see something similiar to that from Ayala.
"Kinda," explains the Ft. Worth, Texas native. "The main thing I'm going to do is utilize my speed. I feel I'm going to be a lot faster than Erik. And as far as In Jin Chi, even though he was Erik's same height, he only had a 63-inch reach and he utilized that too. Erik allowed him to come inside and land a lot of punches. I watched that tape and even though mine and Chi's style aren't that similiar, I've seen some things. Erik gets kinda lazy and you can take advantage of him."
And while there are some similiarities to his bout and that of Barrera-Tapia, Ayala says that the two aren't comparable but Tapia did show a few chinks in Barrera'a armour.
"I think that even though Johnny was too small, I think he did exploit a lot of weaknesses about Barrera because the second half of the fight, Tapia did push the pressure," Ayala said. "He started landing punches, and even at that he dropped his hands, he got caught. I mean, they were good shots but he was never fazed by Barrera's attack. I just felt that a lot of things were
exploited. Barrera was slower than Tapia.
"But I think the way Tapia moved up in weight and the way I'm doing it is completely different. Even from my second fight with Bones, I'm completely stronger in that fight."
And in that rematch with Adams in February, Ayala would swarm Adams over 12 round to win the decision going away for a change. Usually his bouts go down to the wire and are mired in controversy. This time there
was no such thing and Ayala wouldn't have to answer questions about the judging or the influence of his promoter, Bob Arum.
"It feels good," Ayala admits, "but as far as the critisism and everything else, it comes with the game. I just roll with the punches, everybody's not going
to agree with a certain decision especially with good fights — you're always going to have controversy. Because people like this guy or the other guy and
unfortunately a lot of people like the other fighters that I fight because I only fight the best guys out there.
"I mean, when I make a fight with one of them big fighters, I make it close but not only close, I do enough to win. It's of course going to add controversy."
And perhaps it's because of his close and controversial decisions against the likes of Tapia, Hugo Dianzo and then his first bout with Adams, combined with his classy personality and gentlemanly-like demeanor that is devoid of any flash or swagger that seems to help fighters market themselves these days, that Ayala is largely ignored when talking about the game's best fighters. Despite his impressive credentials, you never see his name on
any 'pound-for-pound' listings. Perhaps a win over Morales gets him that respect?
"I'd like to see it up there but those kind of titles and recognition, I don't know how they go about seeing them," says Ayala, who will be earning his first million dollar payday this weekend. Ayala gives an example of why those lists leave him scratching his head.
"Timmy Austin, he's been on the 'pound-for-pound' lists for awhile for some years. Y'know, I can't see any credible fighters that he's actually fought. I mean a lot of the guys he's fought are past their primes or I've never heard of them. Not to knock Timmy but I haven't seen him fight any tough opposition.
"But that stuff doesn't really effect me, making that list. As long as you know I've accomplished what I wanted. Being 'Fighter of the Year' not very many small fighters have done that — Barrera, Morales, 'the Prince', Tapia — none of them have accomplished that."
And besides, 'pound-for-pound' listings are good and all, but what's really important in this game of prizefighting is just how many digits are showing on your fight purses.
"Yeah," agreed Ayala. "The more zeros that the wins bring, that's all that matters. Unless the 'pound-for-pound' list brings another zero, yeah, then
I would need that, too."
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