when morales fought pacquiao (1st time), morales was already slipping badly and past his prime. the raheem loss was a good indicator of that. in the second morales/pacquiao fight, i felt morales was doing great until his legs started tightening up on him. it was also the first time he was without his father (trainer). one of the announcers said that massaging a boxer's legs was the wrong thing to do during a fight because it weakens them.

morales was also coming off a loss to barrera when he faced pacquiao and he still had enough to beat him handily. morales' problem was that he didn't take care of himself in-between fights. he would balloon 30-40 lbs. or more, then kill himself trying to make weight. i believe his career was shortened drastically because of his aggressive style of fighting, his bout with weight issues, and the fact that his body wasn't made to withstand the damage it received due to his aggressive style. he should have adopted barrera's boxing style but that wasn't in his makeup. he was a warrior inside the wrong body.