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MaxBoxing’s Head to Head – Manny Pacquiao vs Erik Morales
By Angel Rodriguez & Jason Probst (Nov 18, 2006)

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JASON PROBST: Old dogs don't learn new tricks, especially not Mexican fighting dogs, Angel. Erik Morales has one shot, from the looks of it, against Manny Pacquiao. And that's to come out early and hard and let the leather fly in the hopes that he can make something happen.

I say that because after watching both fights a couple times recently, it's obvious that when Morales comes forward and gets off first he can be really effective, while Manny loses much of his mojo moving back and covering up. Let Pac Man come at you, and he outpunches, outworks, and out-everythings you. Certainly for Morales things probably aren't gonna change after their brutal second match, where he simply couldn't hang with the younger, more vigorous man. That equation isn't likely to change unless Morales comes to the realization that he may have to put everything he has into starting fast and risking a savage firefight to make something happen.

Blood, a knockdown, or a big round can be life to an aging fighter. If Morales doesn't create something of interest early to suggest he's got the seeds for an upset planted, I'm not sure there's any other way he can win. Because Pacquiao gave him an awful pounding last time and figures to do everything this time around -- maybe worse. So why not jump on him and back the little terror up? Morales has nothing to lose.

ANGEL RODRIGUEZ : There is no dog in Morales and tricks are for kids. I think that the biggest problems that Erik Morales has been facing are the ones that haunted his icon, Julio Cesar Chavez, late into J.C. Superstar’s career - weight problems as well as not respecting his opponent and the game enough. Morales blew up too much in weight before his rematch with Manny Pacquiao to reasonably make weight AND be fresh for the fight. Chavez did it with Willy Wise and David Kamau late in his career and they both gave Julio the business for half stepping on them and the hardest sport.

Whoever starts fastest is not of prime importance in this fight, just as it wasn’t in their first two fights. Morales started fast in the rematch then faded in the end for the KO loss, yet started and finished fast in their first fight. The first real key to success for “El Terrible” as I see it is whether or not he killed himself to make weight or did he put in the work, discipline, and sacrifice needed to preserve one’s mojo?

The second key to success is whether or not the battle-scarred warrior has that famed “one last great fight left in him.” While Erik does have more mileage on him than a Tijuana taxi cab bringing in Californians for Cinco de Mayo weekend, he also has an ego that is as wide as the Rio Grande river. “El Terrible” refuses to go out looking and feeling like the bald old man that Benny Hill ritually slapped up and ran out of the big room.

O contraire mon’ frer, Morales doesn’t have to blitz the Filipino to get his attention. Excellent ring generalship and footwork powered by a steady stream of piston jabs followed up with needle straight right hands down the pipe could cause “Pac-Man” to eat one-twos like yellow dots.

PROBST: Well, I got to go ahead and disagree there, El Rodriguez. That's because it's apparent the writing is on the wall after the rematch. Morales' string of taxing brawls and crowd-pleasing style has finally caught up to him. It was apparent -- weight problems not helping a bit, mind you -- that he just didn't have the same gas tank and ability to fight at an intense level with Pac Man on him. Pacquiao pretty much took over the fight after
Morales' last stand in the seventh, where you could see the life seep out of him after he threw one final glorious bolt and Pacquiao just kept coming.

Freddie Roach deserves a lot of the credit for Pacquiao's performance. He really seems to have transformed Manny from a left-cross-dependent bomber into a virtuoso whirlwind. Pac Man used the right hook to good effect, and punished the body so brutally that Morales was bent over a couple times. I've always believed that a good body beating can drain a fighter as much as a hail of chin shots over the long haul and kill the legs even with recovery time, and that pounding will come into play Saturday when Pacquiao digs to the belly early.

It's not going to get easier for Morales unless he digs in and takes it all out in the opening couple rounds. What's he going to do if he plays it the same way he did the first two times, depending on reduced skills, reflexes and ammunition? What will happen when he throws his best shots and Pac Man just keeps bobbing, countering, and firing back after taking the big punches and not backing up? Because that's what going to happen if Morales tries to win this over the distance and doesn't go for broke early. He doesn't have the ammunition anymore, it seems. Of course, he could indeed have one great fight in him. But against a great fighter like Pacquiao that rarely happens. Morales has been one of the game's best for nearly a decade and this is going to be one hell of a beating, because he's also one of the game's proudest.

RODRIGUEZ : If Erik has truly aged, and as old as he looked in his last two fights (Zahir Raheem and Pacquiao), then Ruben Olivares has a better chance of beating Manny tonight than Morales does. Let’s be clear, to pull of the win “El Terrible” will have to summon the kind of resurrection that is usually reserved for Clint Eastwood’s gritty gringo gunslinger of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western fame.

Heart won’t be enough to pull off the victory either. Morales will have had to have honestly committed himself to the Velocity training regimen that his promoter, Bob Arum, secured for him to be fresh on fight night. I have never heard of this personal fitness company before but if they are as good as has been advertised by Arum and Co., then Morales will have used the entire training camp to work on his stamina and strategy for the first time in a long time.

Yet and still, I don’t like the way that Morales was packing middleweight bulk during the pre-fight press conferences a few months ago, knowing that he is getting ready for a do-or-die fight tonight. The indifference to sacrificing at this stage of his career once again reminds me of J.C. Chavez’s arrogance. It’s as if this pair of warriors make an excuse for why they lost this fight in their minds to provide psychological comfort for themselves instead of breaking down the deficiencies that had them doing the cabbage patch on all fours in their last fights.