Erik Morales vs Paulie Ayala

Absolutely. Too much is often made of size differences, Paulie was a top level fighter...and Morales won every round except for one on my card. He was sublime, he often looked like Whitaker in there. There was one particular instances, he was on the ropes and Ayala was swinging with hooks. Erik ducked underneath it, and before Ayala knew what to throw next, he had a left uppercut smacked straight through his guard. Excellent display of timing and accuracy.

 

There is a legitimate argument that Morales can be placed above Barrera, just the other day I was pitching to classic how I think Morales has more of a case than Joe Frazier as being a top 50 entrant. They argued that Morales could never have beaten a Muhammad Ali, whereas I argued that Morales had more impressive longevity at the very top level, and although resume was close, I gave the edge to Erik on depth. I have no need to do this Barrera vs Morales thing every day of the week, because I like and appreciate both of them. Marquez has no case until he starts racking up some signature wins though, I'm afraid.

I was one of those that thought Erik was incapable of running with a gameplan for the full 12 rounds. Erik, as Larry Merchant rightly pointed out, gets so much appreciation because he can stand these fighters on there head with movement and timing, but he would often just give the fans a show...and look for the knockout. He even went for the knockout in the 12th against Paulie, who, too his credit, found someway to stay up. He was getting hit with flush shots...consistently.

 

There was no doubt as to who it was when in the 12th that guy pitching a shutout went for the knockout. Really though, this fight dispels a lot of thoughts I had about Morales.