In a fight that many fans of the sweet science would have enjoyed, Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales may now want to consider hanging up the gloves when he lost a unanimous decision to Danny Garcia at the Reliant arena in Texas.
Morales looked vastly different compared to when he fought Marcos Maidana in May last year as there was a lack of spark in his performance throughout and the Mexican looked slow and faded, but Garcia’s very tactical style possibly had a lot of influence on the pattern of the fight as he gave his Mexican rival a lot of respect by picking his shots selectively, going upstairs and down. In the third round, Morales was driven to the ropes by a straight right hand that temporarily disorganised him but the experienced 52-8-0 (36 KO’s) veteran quickly regained his composure to come back and give the Philadelphian challenger more to think about.
In the sixth round, Garcia was successful with another right hand to the head and unloaded on Morales who had his back against the ropes, but Garcia soon found himself having to cover as Morales turned the tables on him, and this time it was Garcia that had his back against the ropes but the bell rang before Morales could really capitalise.
In what was the most action packed round of the fight, the eleventh saw Garcia’s nose streaming with blood early in the round but a big left hook from him connected on the jaw of Morales to send him to his knees and take a count. Laurence Cole began the count and, although weary, the ever gallant Morales was ready to continue. Unfortunately for him, he shipped more punishment almost until the end of the round when his head began to clear and fight back.
The final three minutes reverted back to the light tempo of the earlier rounds in the match but the fans were eager to hear the decision. Rather wide scores of 117-110, 116-112 and 118-109 were heard in favour for Danny Garcia, who now wins the WBC title which previously became vacant due to Morales unable to make the weight. He weighed in at 142lb, two pounds over the weight limit of the light-welterweight division.
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