[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=083skkw1t-Q[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TztWz8fp0wQ&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsVxPQwYd_Q&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh1ni64bVt8&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pin0O67EbzQ&feature=related[/ame] This is a great fight, a true passing of the torch fight. A fight we should remember as its a great last performance from a proud old champion who eventually sucumbs to the inevitable (ironically like Morales did aganst Pacquiao in the 3rd fight). Pretty interesting fight. Over the first 6 Zaragoza has plenty of good moments- his wild swinging right makes Morales slightly tentative. Morales takes over in the second half with a accurate uppercut and crunching body shots. Such a impressive finish by a 21 year old, who had less than half the number of fights the champ did, defeating a 3 time world champ who while past his best and 39 was making his 6th defence in a row (which included a win over Wayne McCulough). What do you make of this fight?
Erik Morales didn't really look like a future three-weight world champion at the age of 21, in my opinion. He was very raw. He stood in front of Zaragoza, flat-footed, and would get tagged repeatedly with the looping over-hand right. We didn't really see any inside work from Morales at this time either. When distance was closed, he'd willingly fall into a clinch instead of fighting his hands three and throwing hooks downstairs. I think this was a mistake, and made the fight a lot harder than it should have been. Zaragoza, although he fought valiantly, clearly didn't have the legs he had in his prime, and didn't look very strong physically. The later rounds were always going to be undoing, Erik's body assault just put an exclamation point on the win. Entertaining fight.
I thought it was a good performance by Morales... he got caught with a few too many clean right hands if Im being critical but overall I thought he showed very good composure & boxed pretty well in slowly breaking down the more experienced Zaragoza. As Zaragoza told Merchant after the fight, it was Morales technique more than anything that was the deciding factor.
Fenech and Lora showed how it was done 500 years before this.When zaragoza was actually capable of throwing nice punches. Good fight though.
He got this fight off an excellent performance against Wayne McCullogh. That fight is well worth watching. The old war horse figuring out a way to beat the young volume puncher.
Just finished watching it, great fight. It's really Morales' heart & technique that won him the fight. He got caught by too many wild punches but eventually he boxed more to win him rounds with the jab and smart punch placement. Zaragoza was taking a beating in the later rounds but never let go though he did get dropped by bodyshots in the 10th & 11th. Those rounds helped Morales take the lead with two 10-8 rounds against the beaten yet still game Zaragoza. Bodyshots REALLY helped Morales towards the later part of the fight and he eventually stopped him with a straight right to the body.
