Who's the toughest fighter Morales has ever faced?
At the top of his game back at the millennium mark, few were better than Mexican warrior Erik Morales. Through his 13-year tenure, he’s consistently been one of the most entertaining guys to watch, and has done his share to produce a number of fight-of-the-year wars and instant trilogies with guys like Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao.
In March 2010 Morales came back to the ring after two and a half years and challenged Jose Alfaro in a welterweight bout. While he was able to secure the victory after a hard-fought 12 rounds, the reflexes and power that helped “El Terrible” gain a 41-0 record before his first defeat were gone.
That withstanding, Morales’ pride and spirit remain, and he is hoping that that combined with the physical assets he still has, he’ll be able to cause a bit of a stir in the welterweight division. The Mexican superstar recently announced that he’ll be taking on Willie Limond (33-2, 8 KOs) in his second comeback bout, a fight scheduled for this Saturday.
Morales recently agreed to take part in RingTV.com’s Best I’ve Faced series, a feature that asks notable fighters to list the best that they’ve fought in 10 categories. Think of it as a fan’s delight, a kind of exclusive, otherwise impossible questionnaire. Morales, a three division title holder, had an extremely hard time with the first question, the best fighter he’s ever faced.
“What do you mean by that question, ‘Who’s the best fighter?’” Morales pondered through his interpreter Ricardo Jimenez. “Are you talking about the most complete fighter? The best skilled?”
During the press luncheon in which the interview was given, a fan in attendance shouted out at that point in Spanish: “Come on, Terrible! You know it’s Barrera!” to which Morales replied: “Nah, [expletive] him!"
Morales was clear to explain that the animosity between the two was not a marketing gag to sell tickets. Finally Morales requested that other questions be asked and that he would return to the one in question.
For the category of best boxer and puncher, Morales bestowed Junior Jones. Jones is remembered most for the successive times he dismantled Marco Antonio Barrera. “I faced a lot of good boxers in my career, but I think Jones might be the best,” Morales said. “He had very good technique. He threw straight, accurate punches. He could punch too. He hurt me in our fight. I really felt it when he connected. I remember freezing for a second in the second round of our fight when he caught me with a right hand.”
On the question of the fighter with the quickest hands he’s ever fought, Morales said that undoubtedly Manny Pacquiao took the cake. Morales and Pacquiao fought three wars, the first of which Morales took in a close decision.
“Pacquiao had the quickest hands. Jones was faster with single punches from the outside, but Pacquiao could deliver four or five quick, short punches in combination in the blink of an eye. Both guys had the kind of speed that you couldn’t see,” Morales confirmed.
Finally returning to the question of who is the hands down best fighter he’s ever been in the ring with Morales gave a characteristically wise answer. “If you’re talking about the toughest opponent I’ve faced, to be honest, his name was Erik Morales,” he said seriously. “When I did things the right way and had proper training, boxing was easy for me, but all too often I did not do that. So, as you know, I had a lot of struggles.”
Morales went on to say that although he knows fans want him to say his toughest fights were against Barrera and Pacquiao respective, he “doesn’t see it that way.” He explained: “My fights with Barrera and Pacquiao are among those tough fights, but I don’t see them as being any more special than my tough fights with (Wayne) McCullough, (Guty) Espadas, In-Jin Chi, (Jesus) Chavez, (Carlos) Hernandez and (David) Diaz. I’ve had so many wars I forget some of them. You or anyone else can probably put together a Top 20 list of my toughest fights.”
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