Erik Morales: Heart or Head?

It is a mouthwatering clash. Every so often, the boxing world is treated to the kind of match up that has “classic” branded firmly into it from the get go. When Erik “El Terrible” Morales and Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao cross paths this Saturday night,

we will have a potential classic on our hands. This fight could well be something special; all of the ingredients are there so to speak, we just need the oven to cook. That said, how often do these two men disappoint? Anyway, I would be more than a tad surprised if this one merely cooks, I have a gut feeling that it is going to explode. At heart, Morales is the quintessential Mexican warrior; he possesses that innate lust for battle. The Mexican boxing culture being what it is, Morales knows what is expected of him by his legion of fans and countrymen, thus I suspect he fights to please them as much as for himself. At times, this mentality has been to his detriment. It has to be said that he sometimes makes fights a whole lot harder than they need to be; Morales is a fantastic boxer, when he wants to be. He has so many tools at his disposal, yet stubbornly refuses to make full use of them.

It seems like he cannot resist a good old-fashioned shootout; it must be the Mexican in him. He can box as well as anyone, technically, he is very gifted but instead of utilizing the boxing skills that he has, Morales more often than not chooses to go to war. The key word being “chooses,” he chooses to be in life-and-death struggles, he allows himself to be dragged into the trenches. I am not complaining, he makes great fights and has shown himself to be a true warrior in every sense of the word, but if he just embraced his advantages (boxing ability, height, reach) a touch more, his life would be so much easier.

That’s not who he is though, well, not up to this point anyway. In Pacquiao, he will be facing a man with legitimate one-punch knockout power who not too long ago annihilated the man responsible for his lone defeats, Marco Antonio Barrera. He has certainly never been in the ring with anyone as dangerous as Pacquiao, so I think the relevant question here is dare he trade with him? On the one hand, Morales is the naturally larger man, a fact that may encourage him to engage Pacquiao in close quarters and attempt to simply out-muscle the Filipino terror.

But, as history has shown us many times, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean stronger, or more importantly, more powerful. Morales probably believes that he is the harder puncher, but the evidence we have clearly points to the contrary. One need only look at their common opponent (Barrera) to decipher who has the superior firepower. I know styles make fights, but I think in this case the comparison offers a very good demographic of their respective punching power. Morales only managed to stun Barrera with his best shots, Pacquiao hurt him with every punch he threw; from what I’ve seen, Pacquiao has a distinct advantage in both the speed and power departments, and so a phone booth type of war would definitely benefit him in my estimation.

For that reason, I think Morales’ best bet is to keep him at the end of his jab. He can then bring his right uppercut into play as Pacquiao lunges in, and nail him with straight right hands as he moves back. Basically, everything needs to come off the jab. Morales will have a considerable height and reach advantage over Pacquiao, giving that up would be nothing less than foolish in my eyes.

The main strike against Pacquiao is that he is somewhat one-dimensional, or I should say, he has been in the past. As with most big punchers, he does have a tendency to overly rely on his power. Pacquiao goes left hand crazy sometimes, though never to good effect. He can become predictable and subsequently less effective; if he fights Morales the way he fought Marquez, he will lose. Had it not been for his huge opening round, Pacman would have walked away that night with loss number three on his record. Hopefully, that near calamitous miss served as a wake up call; a much-needed slap in the face to bring him back down to earth after his overwhelming triumph over Barrera.

I’m almost certain that we will see a much-improved Pacquiao on Saturday, fully focused and with a solid fight plan. He will try to get inside as much as he can and unleash his lightening fast combinations to the head and body. In fact, I think Morales’ body will be his main target, especially in the early rounds. It really depends on how close Morales wants to get to him, that is how it could all boil down.

Pacquiao has the power to hurt Morales, perhaps even knock him out, but I want to just remind everyone that it is a two way street. It could just as easily be Pacquiao losing this fight by knockout, he has after all been stopped before. If Morales fights with his head instead of his heart, I can see him methodically dissecting the smaller Pacquiao from long range en route to a late round stoppage or a dominant point’s victory. He just needs to fight a disciplined, intelligent fight. I question though whether he has the temperament needed to pull it off, my instincts are telling me that at some point he is going to be drawn into a slugfest. If that happens, if Morales lets that happen, Pacquiao will eventually overwhelm him.

I’m picking Morales, but only because it’s his fight to lose. He just needs to decide, heart or head?