In what will surely prove to be a candidate for Fight of the Year, Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales showed why they are two of the most exciting fighters today. In this fight there were no breaks in action or dull rounds, there was only the straight-forward collision course that made for an action packed fight.

As expected, Pacquiao stuck to his true form, as he came out with his usual fury determined to knock Morales out. He came straight forward like a steamroller landing vicious left hands to the head and body of Morales. But unlike most of his other opponents Morales proved to be able to take Pacquiao’s power punches and even dish out his own punishing blows.

Overall Morales fought a very smart, strategy driven fight as he tried to outbox Pacquiao instead of simply standing toe-to-toe with him. There certainly was a prodigious amount of brawling going on as each fighter refused to be the first to take a step back, but it was also obvious that Morales and his corner tried to keep this type of action under control and to a minimum. Pacquiao kept coming forward, Morales did his best to stick to his strategy, and in the end it was Morales who prevailed with a narrow two point lead on all scorecards. The final particulars were 115-113 on all of the judges’ scorecards for Erik Morales, who earned a tough yet clearly deserved unanimous decision win.

There were two points worth mentioning that may have affected the outcome or at least make us entertain the possibility that the fight could have gone differently. First it is the cut above Pacquiao’s left eye that he received from a head-butt in round 5. In his post-fight interview Manny claimed that as a result of the butt he was unable to see out of his right eye during most of the fight. Second, was the controversy regarding the gloves used for this fight which were selected by the Morales camp and were not the gloves Pacquiao normally uses. When as asked if he believes the gloves made a difference,  Pacquiao replied that with his usual gloves he would have knocked Morales out. Now we do not know whether the result of the fight would have been different and I suspect it wouldn’t have been if these  two events did not occur. In any case these two points of contention make the possibility of a rematch that much more exciting.

Both fighters should be proud of their performance because as in every great fight the real winners are the fans. We can only hope that these two boxers will decide to fight each other again and who knows we may get another historic trilogy out of this. Styles make fights but so does the fighter’s mentality and when you get two boxers who keep coming forward and are not afraid to mix it up, the result inevitably is a great fight.