Nothing Terrible About “El Terrible”!

I am five months older than Erik Morales. We grew up about two miles away but in completely different circumstances. I, on the north side of the border, in a working class neighborhood full of Mexican, Filipinos, African-Americans and Caucasians. He in one of the worst neighborhoods of TIjuana if not the western hemisphere, the Zona Norte, where crime, drugs and violence is an every day occurrence. Despite of that, Morales became a three time world champion while I became a fan who just happens to write about him. By pure faith our circumstances could have been reversed. It could have been me whose parents weren’t able to come across the border and work in the United States and it could have been he who grew up going to American schools and learn how to speak two languages fluently. That is where I think the fantasy lives would end their somewhat similarities since not in a million years do I have what Morales has pumping in his chest which he proved yet again this past Saturday night in Las Vegas versus Marcos Maidana, a huge warrior heart.

Despite being a die hard “Terrible” fan, I am not going to lie and say that I knew that Morales was going to put together this performance. If anything, I kept repeating to those who asked that if Morales could take Maidana’s punch, he had a good chance in out boxing the Argentinean KO artist. I didn’t really believe that he would. Like every Tijuana boxing fan, I have been following the return of Morales since he announced the end of his two and a half year hiatus. I was impressed when he beat former lightweight champion via unanimous decision in early 2010 in a welterweight bout. I didn’t expect him to go twelve rounds with all the visible weight on his 5’8″ frame. I was skeptical of WIllie Limond when he got stopped by Morales last September since I had never heard of him and I was excited when I heard that Morales would fight once again in his hometown of TIjuana last December after ten years since the last time he did in 2000. Since then, Morales had taken on and defeated a number of world champions the featherweight and super featherweight divisions such as Guty Espadas Jr, Paulie Ayala, Jesus Chavez, Carlos Hernandez, Marco Antonio Barrera and none other than the current #1 pound for pound fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao.

As I took my place along the biggest group of photographers I have ever seen ringside last December 18th at the Caliente Stadium in Tijuana, I was pretty excited to be able to shoot the Mexican legend so up close as he took on late sub Francisco Lorenzo. Originally slated to take on Argentinean heavy hitter Rodrigo “Hyena” Barrios, Morales had to settle with a lackadaisical unanimous decision over former title challenger Lorenzo after Barrios’ visa was denied due to legal issues. Despite the win, many were not impressed with Morales that night as he seemed sluggish and at times struggled with the veteran Lorenzo. Rays of greatness did shine at times through out the twelve rounds as Morales put together combinations in hopes of stopping the tough Lorenzo who in a fluke actually held the interim WBC super featherweight title for a short spell when he defeated via disqualification former Morales’ sparring partner Humberto “Zorrita” Soto back in ’08.

When the Maidana-Morales bout was originally announced, I thought it was going to be the Tijuana fighter’s funeral. The twenty-seven year old Maidana is hard hitting fighter in his prime with 27 out of 30 wins coming via cold blooded knock outs. In what Maidana lacks in technicality or talent, he makes up for in brute force and courage and has only only suffered two losses in world title bids, one to Andriy Kotelnik and the other to quick fisted Amir Khan seven days prior to Morales’ December fight. The Khan-Maidana was voted as the 2010 Fight of the Year. As the fight promotion kicked started, Morales began to take umbrage at the media’s and the hard core fans insistence that only the worse awaited him at the MGM Grand. He made it a point to remind everybody that after his initial choice for an opponent, Juan Manuel Marquez, refused to meet him in the gym, that he had chosen Maidana as his next opponent because he felt he had the tools and skills to beat the Argentinean power puncher.

As the first round ended last Saturday night and it seemed that Morales was in for a short night ending with a devastating knock out not in his favor, those around me at my favorite Tijuana haunt El Perro Salado were as silent as me as we awaited the second round. What we saw was not only all of the skill that a eighteen year pro veteran and former three time world champion can amass but also something that can not be measured by a calendar or leather and cheap plastic belts can measure.

We saw courage, heart and a balls to the walls attitude that Morales has carried all of his career. An attitude that awarded him his first world title at the tender age of twenty-one when he defeated veteran Daniel Zaragoza. An attitude that gave us one of the best trilogies in the last twenty years when he and Marco Antonio Barrera battled for thirty-six rounds and and attitude that with the fight won, he switched over to southpaw against lefty Manny Pacquiao in their first fight and almost getting knocked out. When asked why he did it by Larry Merchant in the post fight interview, a joyous Morales only stated to give the fans what they wanted, action.

Now with a majority decision loss which many believed he won, Morales and many of his fans look towards the future. A rematch with Maidana? The original proposed opponent, Marquez? Or a fourth battle with arch-nemesis Barrera?

It will be up to Morales and at the end, isn’t it always?