He retired almost four years ago and doesn't seem to get much mention these days. But wow did he have a great career. He was a four division title holder and beat several notables including Daniel Zaragoza, Marco Antonio Barrera, Manny Pacquiao, Junior Jones, Jesus Chavez, Wayne McCullough and a few others.. Was in some exciting fights too.
What even is an ATG? At some point most in the top 100 will be replaced, does their greatness replace also? Morales clearly is a great fighter. You'd never have guessed he would be the one to solve prime Pacquiao but he did. Also beating prime MAB and being a demon at SBW. Definitely a great talent.
ATG = who you would recognise as a Great, not limited to a number i.e Top 50, Top 100. Joe Frazier is not really anywhere near Top 75 in terms of resume etc. but he IS a Great, an ATG. Erik Morales for certain, is an ATG.
He is. Outstanding talent and terrific to watch with a deep resume, he fought the best during 15 years.
Thru his first 50 fights- In his 50th fight he beat Manny Pacquiao... convincingly. He was 48-2 (34) overall and 19-2 (11) in World Title fights. He had won World Title belts at 122, 126, and 130 Lbs. To be honest, a case can be made that he should have been 50-0 (34) at this point. Let's look at his resume. The losses and close wins- Barrera, WSD12 in 2000 Barrera, L12 in 2002 Barrera, LMD12 in 2004 I honestly thought Morales won all 3 of these fights. Guty Espadas, W12 in 2001 Close but I thought Morales won despite having an off night. He stopped Espadas in their rematch, KO3 in 2003. He also beat- Hector Acero-Sanchez W12 Daniel Zaragoza KO11 Junior Jones KO4 Wayne McCullough W12 Kevin Kelley KO7 In-Jin Chi W12 Paulie Ayala W12 Jesus Chavez W12 Carlos Hernandez (he dropped Floyd Mayweather Jr.) W12 These wins, plus wins over Barrera, Espadas, and Pacquiao (especially Pacquiao) make for a great resume. Yes, Morales is an all-time great! After his 50th fight he went just 4-9 (2) and was stopped 3 times but he still was able to keep things close with David Diaz and Marcos Maidana (first fight). He beat Pablo Cano, KO10 in 2011 for a World Title at 140 Lbs.
Morales is absolutely an ATG in my mind. But... ...quite the opposite for me. I actually had MAB winning all 3 fights, with the 1st fight being the widest margin of victory, and the 3rd fight being (as I recall) pretty easy to score for MAB. The one El Terrible had the best case in was the rematch IMHO.
Great fighter. I'm a fan. But I'd pick Gomez(who I really don't like personally) over him at 122, and several featherweights over him in prime for prime match ups.
His performance against Cano, Garcia and Maidana are looking better with time, especially considering his almost comically depleted state at the time of said fights.
