El Terrible Eager to Fight Pacquiao (Again), JMM

For some reasons, Erik “El Terrible” Morales believes he has what it takes to compete on a higher level. After a very imposing victory over former lightweight titlist Jose Alfaro of Nicaragua, one has to ask, can he really take on the top welterweights out there?

After one fight, no matter how impressive his win was, one cannot certainly say that Morales can contend with even the top five welterweight marquees. At 36 years old, he is in an age where boxers are already in the winter of their careers. Sadly, the Morales victory only fuels the Mexican legend’s drive to push his very much ill-advised comeback.


Already an icon of the sport with three division championships to his name, Morales, as stated by this writer in a different article, has got nothing more to prove. His wars are worth to be noted in the record books of the sport and his resume consists of fights against the best there is.

A Fourth Match With Pacman

Morales takes pride in being the last boxer to beat Pacquiao. And he deserves every bragging rights to such claim.

Watching Morales dismantle former nemesis Manny Pacquiao in their first encounter was a thing of beauty. What Pacquiao’s previous opponents failed to do, Morales did so with relative ease, outboxing and totally outclassing the then one-dimensional, or rather, a one-handed Pacquiao. The Filipino back then was the bane of the lower weight classes, steamrolling the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera, Jorge Solis, and other Mexican pugilists.

Virtually, Morales exposed Pacquiao as a boxer with only a powerful left-hand in his arsenal. However, their second and third meeting showed the world how fast the Filipino champion can learn and develop and fine tune the essentials to become a complete boxer.

In a devastating fashion, Pacquiao decked the canvass with the legendary Morales’ and finally dealt the Mexican his first knockdown and knockout loss in the 10th round in Pacquiao-Morales II. In Pacquiao-Morales III, the Filipino punctuated his superiority over the Mexican in three rounds with speed, power, and an unrelenting will.

Since their last encounter, Pacquiao went on to a meteoric climb northward the scales. And in the wake of his ascent are legends and big names who are merely overwhelmed with what the Filipino can dish. The scary thing is that the Filipino may not have peaked yet.

A fourth encounter between the two may tragically end a glorious comeback to the squared circle of the famed El Terrible. In all honesty, brutal as it may seem, Morales cannot beat Pacquaio. Period.

A Bout With Juan Manuel Marquez

If there is a fight that would probably make the Mexicans (and some boxing pundits all over the world) drool, Morales-Marquez is one of those bouts. That said, this is a fight that should have happened when both guys are still in the peak of their boxing run.

Both in their mid-30s there is little wonder whether they can produce a fight that can shape, or at the very least, build so much excitement. There is no question to both of these men’s hearts and will. But rather, it is a question whether their bodies can still answer the call to action.

Marquez’s entry to the welterweight level against former pound-for-pound best Floyd Mayweather basically showed him as slow and sluggish. In that fight, Marquez was almost virtually ineffective. On the other hand, Morales, while victorious against Figueroa, also displayed certain amount of slow and sluggishness.

If these two future Hall-of-Famers meet, it will be a fight that will certainly generate a great deal of anticipation and hype. And while this writer believes that such match will not be as good if they have met years before, it might possibly an epic clash that could serve as a worthy ending to both men’s chapters of their lives inside the ring.