6’, 80 inch reach, 266-311 lbs Won gold medals in the 1998 and 1999 U.S. Junior Olympics at MW as a 15 and 16 year old (the only MW to win the JO’s back to back from its inception in 1972 to at least 2004), 2003 U.S. National Golden Gloves SHW semi-finalist at 19 years old, reports of “100+” and “250” amateur bouts Trained by his father Raul Morales and Luis Tapia 6-14-7 (2007-2013), 5-6-7 in 4 rounders, 1-8-0 in 6 rounders 0 KO wins 2 TKO defeats (both allegedly due to injuries), never officially knocked down 21 of his opponents were undefeated, 25 had winning records: combined 136-17-4 Of the 20 opponents he fought with unblemished records, he beat four and drew with six Often took fights on 1-2 weeks notice, even when he’d recently fought All of his fights were on the road in the U.S., 20 of them versus an American Three of his losses were by SD or MD Of the 25 fights which went to a decision, 13 were SD/MD/D 2-0-4 after his first six fights Three rematches, one against 7th opponent “40-36 UD winner” Jonte Willis Retired four boxers, including Matt Mychajliv who got a UD over Morales Signed to fight future world title challenger Michael Hunter in 2009 but Hunter decided to remain in the amateurs Beat Olympian and future world title challenger Razvan Cojanu Got a draw against future world champion Charles Martin First fighter to take Olympic bronze medallist and future 10 consecutive defence world champion Deontay Wilder past 2 rounds First fighter to take future unified world champion Andy Ruiz the 6 round distance (55-59), 27 year old Morales got paid just $2500 https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...s-larry-smith-rbr.343211/page-5#post-10723953 This content is protected
Good find! That video at the end looks like the two most annoying opponents in a fighting video game facing off against each other.
To do 6 rounds against prospect Andy Ruiz? And that was Morales in the prime of his career, surely among his best paydays. I think it goes to show how underpaid most boxers are, even fairly skilled (though unknown) journeymen who fight a lot of names.
Not officially. Wilder caught Morales with a right hand, left hook combination and followed it up with a push, which caused Morales to hit the canvas. Morales claimed to have hit his head after going down from the push. The referee didn't score a knockdown and Morales stayed on the floor for 20-30 seconds, causing the referee to wave it off. There isn't footage of this fight (as there isn't of 26/27 of Morales' fights) so it's a bit ambiguous. How hard was the push? Was Morales badly hurt from the punches? Did he actually hit his head? Was he disorientated to the point of being KO'd or did he quit because he was trying to NC/DQ Wilder? (which is perhaps what you'd expect from such a cagey vet). We know that Wilder punched Morales hard enough to the point where a push was enough to send him over. If nothing else, it's the closest Morales ever came to being knocked down by a punch.
Yeah, but there isn´t a lot of money in small time boxing. So 2500 for showing up last minute in a 6 rounds fight is good money. If you go further back in time, fighters were lucky to make 2500 for a 6 rounder. FNF used to pay promoters 50k per cards, or something like that. And even they eventually closed shop because it wasn´t worth it.
