Prime Prince Naseem Hamed VS Prime Erik Morales at 126, Who wins?

Naz could probably beat any FW in history if he caught them with enough of his bombs or the right sequence of them. He had freakish power. :deal

I was actually a big fan of his back in his heyday, although only as a fighter. Personality wise I never liked him at all. Horrible little man.

Wayne McCullough reckons Morales hit harder though. Rates him very highly as a fighter too

'BEST SKILLS
Erik Morales: He came out to knock you out and when he fought me he’d knocked nine guys out in a row. He listened to his corner after the first round when they said back off and box. He could punch, he could fight and he could also adapt and box as well. He could change in a fight if he had to and win a fight on points. Other guys have one plan and if plan ‘A’ doesn’t work they don’t have plan ‘B.‘

BEST JAB
Morales: Morales had a good jab, he was the type of guy who would set everything up with a jab. He’d jab, jab and bang to the body, jab, jab and right hand to the head and then a jab to keep the distance. So it probably has to go to Morales.

BEST DEFENSE
Naseem Hamed: I think Naseem Hamed was the type of guy who depended on his defense. Against me he said he was going to knock me out and couldn’t do it and he ran. He’s hard to hit so you have to consider that good defense because you couldn’t really hit him. If a guy’s running away from you how can you hit him? You can’t really tell if it’s his defense or not. Out of everybody he probably did have the best defense.

BEST CHIN
Victor Rab****es: That’s a hard one too. Some of the Mexicans have tough chins, you hit them and they look at you so you hit them again and they look at you and then you hit them with a body shot and they crumble.

I know Morales stopped (Daniel Zaragoza) with a body shot. I believe to this day I won the fight. I remember hitting Zaragoza with a body shot in the second round and he cried like he was crying for his mommy! I thought I had him. He just grunted and I thought it was over and then the bell came. I reckon if there was another 30 seconds I could have stopped him.

The Mexicans, they’re all tough – Zaragoza, Morales, Jose Luis Bueno. I didn’t take any easy fights coming up, I took tough fights against Mexicans.

Rab****es really did have a concrete chin. That was my 13th fight and his 50th fight and he was a former champion, No. 1 in the world. I hit him with everything and he hit me with everything too. That was the first time in boxing I lost a round. When I hit him in the chin he didn’t go anywhere. I remember looking at him and he had metal teeth! Every time I hit him it didn’t even faze him, he just kept coming and coming.

BEST PUNCHER
Morales: The biggest puncher was Erik Morales, pound-for-pound. From the first round until the 12th round he punched just as hard. The first round he hit me hard and the 12th round his punch didn’t diminish, he still kept the same intensity throughout the fight. He was really the hardest puncher for sure.

Hamed was strong, he had physical strength. He said to me when the fight was over, ‘You’re super strong.‘ Strength and punching power are two different things. The only guy to hurt me was Victor Rab****es. I think Hamed and Morales didn’t hurt me to the point where I was wobbling. Hamed was strong but Morales was pinpoint, he’d put a shock down the left side (of your body) every time he hit you.

FASTEST HANDS
Morales: Hamed, I could see his punches coming; I didn’t think Hamed was fast, I could see everything coming. Morales would hide his right hand with his jab. Nobody stood out as having fast hands. I think Morales gets it because he hid his right hand behind his jab. I’d probably give it to him.

FASTEST FEET
Hamed: I would say Hamed because he ran! I told him at the press conference, ‘What is going to happen when you hit me on the chin I’m still standing, what are you going to do?‘ and he just ran for 12 rounds! I actually had blisters on both of my feet running after him. I called him on four or five different times, ‘Lets fight.‘ He definitely had the fastest feet.

SMARTEST
Daniel Zaragoza: Zaragoza for sure. He could adapt to anything. Just the years he fought – even at 40 years old he was still fighting and winning world championships. I’d give it to him.

STRONGEST
Scott Harrison: Scott Harrison for sure. I was never really a featherweight, I moved up to fight Hamed and back down (to 122 pounds) to fight Morales. That was five years after I fought Hamed. On fight night the guy was just bigger, (at) the weigh in we were the same. I put on two or three pounds and I think he put on maybe 20 pounds. Scott Harrison for sure. Hamed was strong, his strength was unbelievable too but I remember in the interview after I said Scott Harrison was the strongest.

BEST OVERALL
Morales: Erik Morales for sure, definitely. We became good friends after the fight. He hit me with good shots and I laughed at him. Every time he sees me he goes, ‘You’re loco, you’re loco.‘ He always calls me Crazy Irish man. The man could box, he could punch, he moved around. At 122, 126 were his best weight classes but when he started moving through the divisions, when he fought at 140 and 147 I don’t think he belonged there at all. Overall, Erik Morales was definitely the best for sure.'

 

Interesting McCullough article about punch resistance

''Many boxing fans think that to have a good chin you have to have a big, muscular neck, be built like Mike Tyson and have legs like tree trunks.

I'm known as having one of the best chins in boxing. Many have likened my chin to a slab of granite, but contrary to what people believe, I've got a skinny neck and I'm certainly no Tyson.

In my opinion, you are either born with a good chin or you're not. But having a good "chin," so to speak, is as much a mental thing as it is a physical one.

A lot of fighters are known for having a good chin but when they get hit by a big shot, their brain tells them to go down. Personally, I don't think you can have a great chin and still be put on the canvas.
It's been highly publicized both online and in my autobiography that I've been out on my feet just once in my career. Back in 1994, I fought former world champion Victor Rab****es in an eliminator fight for a shot at what would become my WBC world championship title.

I was very inexperienced and still adapting to the American style of fighting. Rab****es had about 50 fights under his belt, whereas it was only my 13th, but I was sure he wasn't going to stand in my way of becoming a world champion.

Nevertheless, in Round 9, Rab****es almost shattered my dreams when he hit me with a shot so hard that my head snapped back and all I could see were black flashing lights and three of him. Within a millisecond, I was faced with the choice of staying on my feet or going down. I choose to stay on my feet.

When you get hit with a hard shot -- that makes you consider going down -- you definitely feel a buzz going all the way down your body to your toes. I've felt it and seen the black flashing lights that come along with that feeling.

You grit your teeth when you're hit full force. It's almost as though your brain is offering you a deal -- a 50-50 chance, per se -- go down or stay up.

I have always chosen to stay up.

I believe that not going down has a lot to do with your mental state of mind. Your head and body are telling you one thing, but your heart and determination to go on are telling you another.

A few years after the Rab****es fight, I fought a prime, 23-year-old Erik Morales.

Coming into my fight with Morales, the Mexican was riding a nine-fight knockout streak and was promising to do the same to me -- nothing I hadn't heard before.

After the fight, I understood how those previous nine guys had been knocked out. I just don't know how I wasn't. In the second round, he hit me with a three-punch combination -- a left, right, left uppercut. Every punch landed flush and they almost took my head off. Instead of going down I did what looked like an Irish jig and tried to push Morales back.

It didn't really work, so I said to him, "hit me harder." Only problem was, he did!

From that point on we both knew he wasn't going to knock me out but the shots I took that night should, and could, have knocked anyone else out. My choice was to stay on my feet and take all the punishment he wanted to dish out.

Morales was a great puncher. He hit me as hard in the first round as he did in the 12th, carrying his power through the fight.

He told me afterwards that he thought I was crazy that night and we still joke about our fight to this day. Maybe I am crazy or perhaps I was trying to play a mind game with him, but I was hurting so bad and ready to go down; I just didn't want him to know that.

On the other side of the spectrum are fighters who are blessed with a great punch but no whiskers. Tommy Hearns, for example, could knock almost anyone out with a single punch but if he got hit on the right spot, he went down.

Honestly, I'd rather have a solid chin than be a one-punch knockout artist. As long as I've got my strength and jaw, I can mix it in the ring with anybody for 12 rounds. In over 300 amateur fights, over 30 pro fights and thousands upon thousands of rounds in the gym, I've never gone down.

So if there's anybody out there who has the image in their head of the big-necked or stocky guy, come take a look at me -- all 122 pounds of me soaking wet!

 

I don't think it's mental either. Mental strength, heart and determination will help you withstand more punishment but if you get caught right and your chin isn't sturdy enough to take it then you're going down.

 

Utter madness. Floyd couldn't break his young daughter or their baby momma's nose with a bare fist when he was in a psychotic rage, no way he's breaking El Terrible's with sparring gloves on. Morales has an iron beak. :deal


> WBC 122 lb. champion Erik Morales recently spent a few days training at
> high-altitude Big Bear, CA. While there, Morales sparred with WBC 130 lb. champ
> Floyd "Pretty Boy" Mayweather. According to a Los Angeles newspaper, for two
> rounds the smaller Morales put some serious hurt on the larger Mayweather.
> Mayweather didn't like it one bit and stormed out angry.

By Diamond Damon
Quote:
> Due to numerous requests from readers wanting to know what really happened
> between Erik Morales and Floyd Mayweather when they sparred at Big Bear, CA,
> Diamond Damon went right to the source. Erik was not at home but I did speak with
> Erik's chief second Fernando Fernandez who was there when they sparred. He told
> me that when Erik and Floyd were sparring together on the first day that Floyd
> was trying to teach Erik some of his defensive moves and Erik told him "No way,
> you can't do it
> like that or you'll get hit". Floyd didn't believe him so Erik started started
> feinting him and then peppering him with shots. Fernando said Erik did land some
> big shots on Floyd and that Floyd looked really surprised and eventually stormed
> out of the ring all
> ****ed off. The next day they were supposed to spar again but Floyd didn't show
> up, electing to train in the afternoon instead of in the morning with Erik. The
> same
> story was told to me by Erik's brother Diego Morales, the WBO super flyweight
> champion. Boxing Mania! reporter Ramiro Sanchez will be seeing Erik at the fights
> Friday night in Tijuana and will try to get more information. Erik is generally a
> pretty
> modest fellow so he'll probably try to downplay it, but I believe it's safe to
> say that
> Erik more than held his own with the larger Mayweather.

He sure did. Spaddy paddled his ass something rotten. Totally outfought, out-thought and out-slicked him. Lamont Peterson also beat the snot out of Floyd in sparring too. Some Irish LW amateur gave him a right good pasting in the gym as well. Broke his rib.