Boxing Nation: Terrible’s Last Stand

Erik “El Terrible” Morales is a legend, a lock for the Hall of Fame.   Whatever from now on will only add up to his already legendary career.  As a matter of fact, the last time we saw the best version of Erik was when he clearly beat Manny “The Destroyer” Pacquiao.  It was a clinic, an easy night that he complicated when he decided to trade with the Pac Monster in the 12th round.   When asked why he did that in the post fight interview he answered with this:  ”Te Gusto?” (Did you like it?).   That has been Terrible’s way of doing things. Excitement is the name of the game and he has continued with it until today, much against what he should really be doing, box more.    He may have shortened his career by fighting this way but he extended his legendary status forever.    Along with Marco Antonio Barrera, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez he belonged to the most gifted foursome of Featherweights in history.    Yes, I know what some will say, that there were other single fighters who were better, and they’re probably right, but four at the same time?  You know what I mean.

This Saturday he faces Danny Garcia in one of the most anticipated rematches of the year.   Earlier they engaged in a pretty competitive match that saw the younger Garcia drop Erik late to win the vacant title by unanimous decision.  He confirmed his quality when he effectively knocked out Amir Kahn to solidify his status.  The first time around we could see that it was time Danny had ever stepped in the ring in a high profile matchup.  It was safe to say he was star struck with Morales and gave him too much respect early on.  Later in the fight we could see that he was gathering confidence and soon enough he started dominating using his youth and strength.   Maybe he isn’t half the fighter Terrible is at this moment in his career, but he did manage to drop the legend and get out with a win.  It was big and you could tell.

Now that he destroyed Amir Kahn i’m sure he’s become a far better boxer than before.  They used to say that when a boxer won a championship he improved 25% immediately after.  I don’t think this applies anymore but, there are boxers who do improve with the title.  It gives them some sort of invisible force field that makes them invulnerable to certain powers.    I think its safe to say that this is Danny’s case and thats why he’s being favored by most boxing writers to come out swinging and beat the old legend in the rematch with ease.    As for Terrible, he argues that much of his loss has to be blamed to open scoring.  Erik says that after the fourth round when the scores were announced he felt he was at least tied with the younger boxer but after learning that the judges had it 4-0 for Danny he got discouraged and had to change his game plan.  The fight was much closer than the scores suggested and i’m sure it had something to do in how the fight turned out as Terrible clearly pushed the accelerator button and lost some precious stamina in his old body that he should’ve managed better had he stayed in his original fight plan.

Those are the reasons why there is a rematch, and i’m sure Terrible will come out with a better fight plan.  Will it work?  I don’t really think he has it in him to beat a young ferocious fighter who is full of confidence and is more natural at the weight than the blow up Tijuana native.   My prediction is that Terrible will fight a flawless fight for about 4 rounds before being blown away by the younger stronger fighter finishing his career inside of 8.