Who at Top Rank decided to use Raheem as a "tune up" for Morales?atsch Let's remember back to the day September 10th, 2005. They had a doubleheader on HBO to showcase Morales & Pacquaio before their second fight. The give Pacquaio a made to order guy in Hector Velazquez, a guy that had been knocked out several times in his career prior to the Pac fight. Top Rank matches Morales up against Zahir Raheem, a former olympian with an amateur career of 213-4. Just the year before, he badly outclassed Rocky Juarez and was robbed. I remember thinking at the time what kind of tuneup is? Morales is gonna move up in weight and fight one of the most skilled guys in the division? This is not a tuneup. I picked Raheem to win that fight. Stylistically the fight was just all wrong for Morales. Unfortunately, Top Rank treated Raheem like **** after that fight. He was inactive & fought Freitas in what was an extremely ugly fight not worth watching. He was KO'd by Funeka a couple years back, a beast at lightweight that uses diuretics to make 135 & gain a huge size advantage.
Yeah, putting Morales in there with a quick lightweight was not exactly a good move. Pacquiao and Morales fought again anyway, it was a good fight and successful promotion, so I guess it didn't hurt that much anyway. Meldrick Taylor's management putting Taylor in there with Terry Norris, right after Taylor had been dropped twice and rocked several times in a title defense against Glenwood Brown, should be up there.
Its Morales he kinda reminds you of Mosley sometimes he didnt give a crap who he fought as long as the guy was especially difficult style wise. I remember before that fight got signed there was actual talks of a rematch with Kevin Kelly as a tuneup. I guess either way it wouldnt have saved Morales but the beatdown in the Pacquiao rematch.
The fact that after all those wars Morales went up in weight, and then came back down, and looked like a friggin walking corpse played a huge part in his defeat.
Yeah. But it doesn't change the fact that a prime Morales (2002 version) beats Pacquiao 10 times out of 10 fights.
I dont agree. Morales was very highly regarded at that point. His team and himself would expect to overcome some one like Raheem.
Pacquiao beats him more often than not. Pac wins at least 7 out of 10. I'm talking Pac who went undefeated at 122 with all his wins by KO and then moved up to 126 to destroy Barrera and draw with Marquez. He beats Morales 7 or 8 times out of 10.
I am sad to remind you that the version of Pac you mentioned lost fair and square in 2005 against a way past-his-prime Morales. Morales is skillwise superior over Pac and had the stamina and workrate to keep Pac out of range. 2002 version of Morales vs. 2005 version of Pacquiao => 116-112 for Morales (at least).
You keep throwing out excuses for Morales but when people say excuses for Pacquiao, you laugh them off. Just another example of the double-standards that Pacquiao is confronted with by boxing fans. sorry to tell you that Morales won only 115-113 against a Pacquiao who was fighting at 130 for the first time in his entire career, and who had fought only 3 times in his career at 126. To top it off Pacquiao was cut badly by an accidental headbutt right above the eye early in the fight. Add to that that he was contractually not allowed to wear his preffered gloves. At the end of the day, Pacquiao won 2 out of 3 against Morales. If you wanna use excuses for Morales, you better be prepared to use them for Pacquiao too.
it doesn't sound like much but you add up all these things and in a fight where a guy loses 115-113, they do make a difference. - Fighting at 130 for the first time ever - Cut above the eye by an accidental headbutt early in the fight. - Contractually not allowed to wear his preffered brand of gloves. - Blood tested very close to the fight. But the haters just dismiss all these as excuses, and in the very next sentence say "Pacquiao only knocked out Morales twice cause Morales was shot and weight-drained." totally disregarding the fact that Pacquiao wasn't faced with any of the disadvantages of the first fight in the rematch and rubbermatch.