Is this win a little underrated ? It was only 6 months after he beat Pac up. It was a masterful display from Zahir Raheem
Good win but I'm of the opinion that the first Pacquiao fight took a considerable amount of Erik and he was not really close to being at his best. Weight issues, and the fact he'd never win another prize fight would indicate to me that he was all but done. Of course, he put up valiant efforts against Manny and Diaz, but that was Morales and his big heart coming to the fore.
Morales underestimated Raheem and also the move up to lightweight. that's why even after Morales lost to Raheem he was still in the top10 p4p while Raheem wasn't.
Masterful performance, he looked like he was fighting within himself the whole fight. Kudos to Morales for taking the fight because he openly said he wanted to test himself against a fighter who's style was different from the opponents he'd been facing at the time.
I call that an excuse. Morales is a type of fighter that trains hard for everyfights. It just that Morales never fought the slick style like Raheem before.
Yes, he did. I remember the fight being at a catchweight around 133, and Erik came in over the limit, while he had been previously campaigning at 130. Clearly he looked past Raheem.
I don't think it was a catchweight at all. It was at 135 pounds. Raheem last fight before this fight with Morales weigh in at 133 pounds in which he weigh that same pounds 2 times in a row.
After coming off the biggest victory of his career, I don't think fighting Zaheer really got Morales' blood boiling. + its a big style adjustment for which he should have developped a solid gameplan in training camp.
Great win for Raheem though he didn't make much out of it which confirms that Morales didn't belong in that weight division.
It was a terrible choice from Arum for a first fight at that weight. Raheem's style was all wrong for Morales who clearly took it as a tune-up in the new weight division.