By Jhonny Gonzalez

One of Mexico's most famous trainers, Rudy Perez, said he was pleased to learn that a record number of Mexican fans were watching Marcos Maidana's fight with Erik Morales on April 9th. After twelve emotional rounds, the judges gave the majority decision win to Maidana. Before the fight, Morales was overlooked by almost every boxing expert. Many of them expected an early knockout win for Maidana. Perez and Maidana expected a hard fight. Even Perez was surprised by Morales' performance and told Maidana that he needed to win the last two rounds to win the fight.

"I trained Maidana not to go for the knockout," Perez said. "I wanted Maidana to concentrate on winning by decision, because I knew that Erik would do the same. I knew Maidana would have to start hitting the body from the beginning and this type of tactic would give us results in the later rounds. But I was wrong about the rounds, because I sensed that Morales was going to be exhausted after nine rounds, and yes, I saw him look tired as he went back to his corner, but he drew strength from his greatness and after 10 rounds the fight was even. Marcos won the fight because he won the last two rounds, which were decisive."