Super
Featherweight
Morales vs. Chavez
Erik Morales vacated his WBC Featherweight
title and moved up to the super featherweight division. On February
28th, 2004, Morales captured the WBC Super Featherweight title by
unanimous decision over Jesus Chavez. Morales twice knocked down Chavez,
which Floyd Mayweather, Jr. had been unable to do. Morales was rocked
midway through the 1st round, but he came back to score two knockdowns
in the 2nd round and managed to cut Chavez over the left eye. Chavez
injured right shoulder eary in the fight and threw very few right
hands, but still fought aggressively for the rest of the fight with
his jab and left hooks which cut Morales over the eye in the 4th round.
With the victory he became the second Mexican boxer to win a itle
at three separate weight divisions, the fist being the acclaimed Julio
Cesar Chavez.
On July 31st, 2004 Morales unifed his WBC Super Featherweight
title with the IBF version by the way of a twelve-round unanimous
decision over Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez constantly pressed forward,
but Morales boxed effectively consistently landing the harder, more
accurate punches that rocked Hernandez several times.
Morales vs. Barrera
III
On November 27th, 2004 Morales fought Barrera for the third time
in a bout for the WBC Super Featherweight title. Their highly anticipated
third battles drew a capacity crowd of over 11,000. Barrera started
fast and rocked Morales late in the first round and bloodied his nose
in the second half of the fight and won four of the last six rounds
on two judges' scorecards. However, the judges scored the bout 114-114,114-115,113-115
in favor of Barrera, in what was justifiably a very, very close but
non-controversial justifiable win for Barrera. Their third meeting
was once again named The Ring Fight of the Year.
Morales vs. Pacquiao
I
On March 19th, 2005 as a betting underdog, Morales defeated then
three-division world champion Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, by a
unanimous decision. During the 12th round, Morales, comfortably ahead
on the scorecards, decided to brawl with the Filipino slugger, even
turning southpaw during the process. In a post fight interview, HBO
broadcaster Larry Merchant, asked Morales, "Why?" Morales replied
by asking a question of his own, "Did you enjoy it? That's why."
Later
that night, at the post-fight press conference, Erik further explained
his reasoning for brawling with the Filipino slugger; "It was a great
pleasure to fight this way. I think I was controlling the fight with
my distance. Sometimes I need to put a little flavor into the ring.
My promoter always says that I make the fights very difficult, but
they're not difficult, theyre fun for the public. I decided to stop
myself in front of him in the twelfth round because I wanted to give
the public what they deserve. It was a great round. I'm very happy
about it."
Lightweight
Morales vs. Raheem
On September 10th, 2005 Erik Morales
moved up to the lightweight division and was defeated by unanimous
decision by Zahir Raheem. Raheem frustrated Morales with constant
lateral movement. Raheem rocked Morales in the 5th round and built
a lead on the scorecards, but Morales rallied in the 11th round and
staggered him with a right hand as Raheem's glove touched the canvas,
but it was not scored a knockdown by referee Jon Schorle.The final
scores were 118-110, 116-112 and 115-112 in favor of Raheem.
Return
to Super featherweight
Morales vs. Pacquiao II & III
On January
22nd, 2006 Morales fought Pacquiao in a rematch from their bout ten
months before and was defeated in ten rounds. Pacquiao knocked down
Morales twice in the final seconds of round ten and the fight was
stopped.
He fought Pacquiao for the third time in a non-championship
title bout, on November 18th, 2006. Morales was defeated by a knockout
in the three rounds. After the fight, Morales said "Maybe it's time
I should no longer be doing this." He sat speechless in his corner
for five minutes afterward. "I did everything in camp necessary to
win this fight. I didn't win it. It wasn't my night...it just wasn't
meant to be." Asked by Larry Merchant whether he would retire from
boxing, Morales offered, "Maybe this is the way to end it. It's a
beautiful night, and there's a lot of good people (here in the audience)...it
was always a pleasure to give the public great fights."