Erik "Terrible" Morales
“This is a fight against a real opponent, a fighter who wants to win, who has the tools to beat me,” Morales stated about Jose Alfaro who he faces on March 27th, in Monterrey, MX. “He is strong, young and he is an former world champion.”
“Terrible” does not hide the fact that he is coming back from a two year hiatus and the effects the rest will take on his body and preparation.
“I am coming back from a two year recess. This is a fight against the youth and power of Alfaro,” Morales said from the Otomi Mountains in central Mexico where he is currently training and has been for the last two months. “I think it is a very even fight and we won’t know what will happen until people see me inside the ring and they see if I am back with the will and the tools necessary.”
Running with the full risk that if he loses Morales will some way take the some of the shine off his illustrious career, the Zona Norte of Tijuana native is willing to take that chance.
“I think one needs to take a risk. In this life you must fight for your dreams,” Morales said introspectivally. “I always wanted to fight in a higher division where I could feel strong, comfortable, where I wouldn’t be worried about the weight.”
“People always used to say that after 6 or 7 rounds I would look tired. I think that is what made many of my fights more even, against Barrera and Pacquiao. Now I think that at 142 or 144 pounds, I will look stronger, more calm, people are going to see a different Erik Morales. I want people to meet him. We must follow our dreams, I expect to look good and strong, I will try and if I fail, I will go home satisfied knowing that I don’t have it anymore.”
With being the only man to defeat Manny Pacquiao in the Filipino’s last 13 fights and since Pacquiao was knocked out at flyweight years ago, Morales knows very well what is so difficult about the Asian superstar.
“His best weapon is his attack, very awkward and the fact that he is a southpaw. I think he takes his opponents by surprise,” Morales shares. “What I remember is that I threw punches when we fought, I don’t think he hits that hard. When he knocked me down in the second fight is because I was dead and the third was an error listening to Top Rank, accepting to train with people that they sent. That was one of the prerequisites for me to get that third fight. I accepted things that were against my favor like fighting at 130 lbs.”
“I think Manny is a fighter like any other, one who his opponents don’t throw punches against. I can’t say his opponents go in the ring to lose but they don’t throw punches, they stand in front of him. Even in our third fight, in the little that I lasted, I still landed punches but I had no power. He would hurt me in the exchanges, something that hadn’t happened before, even in our second fight which I was very weak for. I practically trained to make weight, I accepted to train with Velocity, a company in Los Angeles, Top Rank made me use them and who later represented Manny Pacquiao. Once I figured out that they weren’t helping me, it was too late.”
With his pending return to the squared circle almost upon him, Tijuana’s Erik “Terrible” Morales reflects on his training, his next opponent and his former opponent, Manny Pacquiao.
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