Watching MAB-Morales III, and noting how many big rights MAB got from Erik, a question sneaked up on me: Has Erik really brought with him the punch he packed as a Jr. Feather when he moved up in weight as seems to be widely thought?
Checking Morales' record, one finds that he has not put anyone away at Jr. Light! And at Featherweight, he had four ko victims, the most prominent of whom is Kevin Kelly whom he KOd in the 7th at El Paso in Sept 2000, when Kelly had already lost two of his last 6 fights. Kelly had earlier been trounced in 4 rounds by Naseem Hamed and even lost to a Benito Rodriguez who was 30-29-2 going into their meeting! Kelly had also drawn with an 18-8 Tommy Parks a couple of years before meeting Morales!
Another of Erik's victim was Gutty Espadas, Jr. whom he met twice. Morales failed to put Espadas away in their first bout--that he beat Espadas in the official cards was even widely viewed as controversial! Their second meeting, about two or three years later, had Erik making short work of Guty in 3. But Espadas had been KOd by William Abelyan who took the fight as a replacement on 4 days notice! Espadas fell once in the 6th and again in the 8th to Abelyan. Perhaps an indication of matchmakers' view of Espadas at this stage in his career is his slated fight at Bally's in Atlantic City against the up-and-coming former Olympic star, Rocky Juarez, on Dec. 3. That would be Espadas' 2nd fight after losing to Morales. He had gone up against Ramon Perez, whose record, as far as can be determined is that he is winless. It took Espadas 10 rounds to wrest a win by TKO.
Most of ERik's KO feats were achieved when he was a Superbantam. At that weight, he was a lumberjack!
What do you think?
Note: In another thread, I predicted a Morales win by Majority D, i.e., two judges calling it for Morales and one seeing it a draw. The result: Barrera by Majority D! Whew!
Checking Morales' record, one finds that he has not put anyone away at Jr. Light! And at Featherweight, he had four ko victims, the most prominent of whom is Kevin Kelly whom he KOd in the 7th at El Paso in Sept 2000, when Kelly had already lost two of his last 6 fights. Kelly had earlier been trounced in 4 rounds by Naseem Hamed and even lost to a Benito Rodriguez who was 30-29-2 going into their meeting! Kelly had also drawn with an 18-8 Tommy Parks a couple of years before meeting Morales!
Another of Erik's victim was Gutty Espadas, Jr. whom he met twice. Morales failed to put Espadas away in their first bout--that he beat Espadas in the official cards was even widely viewed as controversial! Their second meeting, about two or three years later, had Erik making short work of Guty in 3. But Espadas had been KOd by William Abelyan who took the fight as a replacement on 4 days notice! Espadas fell once in the 6th and again in the 8th to Abelyan. Perhaps an indication of matchmakers' view of Espadas at this stage in his career is his slated fight at Bally's in Atlantic City against the up-and-coming former Olympic star, Rocky Juarez, on Dec. 3. That would be Espadas' 2nd fight after losing to Morales. He had gone up against Ramon Perez, whose record, as far as can be determined is that he is winless. It took Espadas 10 rounds to wrest a win by TKO.
Most of ERik's KO feats were achieved when he was a Superbantam. At that weight, he was a lumberjack!
What do you think?
Note: In another thread, I predicted a Morales win by Majority D, i.e., two judges calling it for Morales and one seeing it a draw. The result: Barrera by Majority D! Whew!
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