Erik Morales

Érik Morales
Data
Birth Name	Érik Isaac Morales Elvira
Fight name	El Terrible
Weight class	Light welterweight
nationality	Mexican
birthday	September 1, 1976
place of birth	Tijuana
style	Left delivery
size	1.73 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	61
Victories	52
Knockout victories	36
Defeats	9

Érik Morales (born September 1, 1976 in Tijuana ) is a Mexican professional boxer, former WBC and WBO world champion in super bantamweight, two-time WBC world champion in featherweight, IBF and WBC world champion in super featherweight, as well as former world champion of the WBC light welterweight.

His three fights against Marco Barrera and his three duels against Manny Pacquiao are considered rivalry classics and some of the best fights in this weight class.

Boxing career

Erik Morales was trained and managed by his father, Jose Morales, and promoted by Fernando Beltran and Bob Arum . From 2004 he was promoting boxing matches in Mexico himself. He made his professional debut on March 29, 1993.

He won 41 fights in a row, including 31 prematurely, and was Mexican champion, WBC Mundo Hispano champion and NABF super bantamweight title holder. He also won the WBC World Superbantamweight Championship in El Paso on September 6, 1997 by knocking out Daniel Zaragoza in the eleventh round (match record: 55-7). Until October 1999 he successfully defended the title against John Lowey (25-1), Remigio Molina (31-1), José Bueno (30-8), Junior Jones (44-3), Ángel Chacón (24-2), Juan Ramirez (17-1), Reynante Jamili (39-4) and Wayne McCullough (23-2). Seven of the eight title defenses ended prematurely, only against McCullough Morales went through the rounds and won unanimously on points. Meanwhile, Morales was listed as one of the best boxers regardless of weight class .

On February 19, 2000, he boxed in Las Vegas against the WBO world champion Marco Barrera (49-2) and won after a tough duel, which was voted Ring Magazine fight of the year , by majority decision of the judges. He was thus world champion of the WBC and WBO, but did not defend the title, but rose to featherweight, where he won his first fight on June 17, 2000. At that time the WBO was not yet one of the major associations.

On September 2, 2000, he defeated Kevin Kelley (51-4) prematurely in the seventh round and was interim world champion of the WBC in featherweight. The actual WBC world champion at that time was Guty Espadas , who, however, had taken a break from fighting due to injury. After a knockout win in the first round against Rodney Jones (24-1), Morales finally boxed on February 17, 2001 against Guty Espadas (33-2) for the regular WBC title and won unanimously on points. In July 2001 he won a title defense unanimously against Chi In-jin (24-1).

On June 22, 2002 Morales lost in his second title defense on points against Marco Barrera (54-3), who was also switched to featherweight and was then recognized by Ring Magazine as number 1 in this weight class. Since Morales rejected the WBC title, this became vacant. Then a new fight for the title between Erik Morales and Paulie Ayala (34-1) was agreed, which took place on November 16, 2002 in Las Vegas. Morales won unanimously on points and became WBC featherweight champion for the second time. He then won two title defense fights early against Eddie Croft (23-6) and Fernando Velárdez (24-4).

After these fights he rose to super featherweight and defeated in his first fight in this weight class on October 4, 2003 again Guty Espadas (37-5) by knockout in the third round. Since it was also a World Championship elimination match, Morales was able to compete in his second fight in this weight class on February 28, 2004 in Las Vegas against the reigning WBC world champion Jesus Chavez (40-2) and defeated this unanimously on points.

On July 31, 2004, he also beat the IBF title holder Carlos Hernandez (40-3) unanimously in Las Vegas , which he combined the titles of the WBC and IBF in super featherweight. Thus he was already six times world champion in three weight classes. However, since he did not take on the IBF mandatory challenger Robbie Peden , but was preparing for another rematch with Marco Barrera, the IBF title was withdrawn from him in the same year.

The meanwhile third fight against Barrera he then lost on November 27, 2004 in Las Vegas by majority decision. The fight was again extremely spectacular and was again voted fight of the year by Ring Magazine and the BWAA .

In his next fight on March 19, 2005, Morales was able to defeat the Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao (39-2) unanimously on points. Pacquiao was a favorite prior to the fight and was listed as the number 1 super featherweight division by Ring Magazine.

On September 10, 2005, Morales was surprisingly defeated on points against Zahir Raheem (26-1) and in 2006 lost in two return matches prematurely against Manny Pacquiao. In August 2007 he had to accept another point defeat against WBC world champion David Díaz (32-1) in the lightweight . After this fight, Morales announced his retirement from boxing.

On March 27, 2010, however, he made his comeback with a unanimous welterweight win over José Alfaro (23-5), followed by a knockout win in September of the same year in the light welterweight division against Willie Limond (33-2). In December 2010 he still beat Francisco Lorenzo (35-8) unanimously and then received a title fight for the interim world championship of the WBA in the light welterweight division, but lost this duel on April 9, 2011 just on points against Marcos Maidana (29-2). Morales had fought almost the entire fight with a swollen eye and nevertheless brought the Argentine, who was ranked third by Ring Magazine, into trouble several times, which earned him a lot of popularity and another World Cup chance.

On September 17, 2011 in Las Vegas he defeated his undefeated compatriot Pablo Cano (23-0) prematurely in the tenth round and thus won the vacant WBC world light welterweight title. In 2012 he lost two fights against Danny García (22-0, 24-0) and then ended his career again.

successes

• Amateur record: 108 wins - 6 losses
• Professional balance: 52 wins - 9 losses

World title

• 0September 6, 1997: WBC World Champion in Superbantamweight (9 title defenses)
• February 19, 2000: WBO World Superbantamweight Champion
• February 17, 2001: WBC Featherweight Champion (1 title defense)
• November 16, 2002: WBC Featherweight Champion (2 title defenses)
• February 28, 2004: WBC Super Featherweight Champion (1 title defense)
• July 31, 2004: IBF Super Featherweight Champion
• September 17, 2011: WBC light welterweight champion

more titles

• December 19, 1994: Mundo-Hispano-Champion of the WBC in super bantamweight (2 title defenses)
• April 21, 1995: Mexican Superbantamweight Champion (2 defenses)
• July 14, 1995: North America Superbantamweight Champion (5 title defenses)
• March 19, 2005: WBC international super featherweight champion
• March 27, 2010: WBC international welterweight champion
• September 11, 2010: WBC Silver Light Welterweight Champion (1 title defense)

Web links

• Erik Morales in the BoxRec database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joshua's compatriot owned the belts of WBA, IBF and WBC, at that time the WBO was not yet part of the illustrious circle. She has only been there since 2007. Since then, the undisputed champion has had four titles.

predecessor	Office	successor
Daniel Zaragoza	World Superbantamweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) September 6, 1997 - 2000	Willie Jorrin
Marco Antonio Barrera	World Superbantamweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) February 19, 2000 - February 2000	Marco Antonio Barrera
Guty Espadas Jr.	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) February 17, 2001 - June 22, 2002	Marco Antonio Barrera
Marco Antonio Barrera	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) November 16, 2002 - 2003	Chi In-jin
Jesús Chavez	Super featherweight boxing champion ( WBC ) February 28, 2004 - November 27, 2004	Marco Antonio Barrera
Carlos Alberto Hernandez	Super featherweight boxing world champion ( IBF ) July 31, 2004 - 2004	Robbie Peden
Timothy Bradley	Light welterweight boxing champion ( WBC ) September 17, 2011 - March 23, 2012	Danny García