BraggingRightsCorner.com - " Morales-Pacquiao: The Fans Win Regardless... "... by Aladdin Freeman

MORALES-PACQUIAO: THE FANS WIN REGARDLESS...
By Aladdin Freeman

Photo Credit: Chris Farina/Top Rank

Trying to pick a winner in the upcoming fight between Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao isn’t easy and it should be a great fight, so the fans will win no matter how the chips fall. Personally I’m going with Erik Morales and for a couple reasons. First, I think Pacquiao can be timed when he rushes headlong in and will give Morales some opportunities to land his uppercuts on the inside. Something Erik Morales does very well is time people with a straight right hand over their jab and if you go back and breakdown the 3^rd fight between Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera you’ll see Morales really timing him from rounds six on, the same thing happened when he fought Paulie Ayala the last southpaw he has fought in a while. Morales was able to impose his will on the smaller Ayala, who did some pretty good body work but just couldn’t deal with the power punches Morales was throwing. In fact that’s another point, Morales is 6 and 0 in his career against southpaws, granted none of them could punch on the level of Manny Pacquiao but if Morales can take his power then expect the fight to go some rounds.
Another reason I’m going with Morales, and this one is a huge on for me, is bragging rights. Morales is still mad about losing a close controversial decision to Barrera so you just know he has been training doubly hard to get a chance to stop the guy that knocked out Barrera. I’m willing to bet this will be the best shape Morales has been in for a long time and because of that I think he’ll stop Pacquiao in the later rounds. I don’t want to sound like a Manny Pacquiao hater because I did have Manny Pacquiao winning his last fight vs. Juan Manuel Marquez, but I did think he looked like he had a pretty simple style of just coming forward using that right jab and then firing a left hand right down the middle; other than that there wasn’t much change in his game plan. Also I saw Marquez trying to time him as he came in and I know Morales is better at doing this than Marquez is.

As far as the fight plan, we all know Morales loves to get inside and brawl and if -and it’s a huge if- he can take Pacquiao’s punch who is fighting his first fight at Jr. Lightweight so we don’t know how much effect his punches will have on Morales' sturdy chin; but if Morales is able to deal with the power then he’ll have success fighting on the inside and out, if he can’t he’ll be in trouble unless he’s on his toes boxing and moving something he does pretty well when he decides to.

Manny Pacquiao has never had to have a plan B, because everyone he’s ever fought had a tough time dealing with his power and relentless attack. He is now coming up in weight for the 3rd time and for me that’s a huge question especially when he’s in with a guy like Morales who can take big shots. If you have any doubt about Morales chin go back and watch the 2nd round of his fight with Jesus Chavez when he got rocked with a huge right hand went back to the ropes and regrouped and went on to bust up Chavez. I don’t doubt for a bit that Freddie Roach won’t have Pacquiao at the top of his game but the old saying goes a good big man usually beats a good small fighter.

Hopefully we'll get a great fight, and hopefully whoever wins does it by knockout so that the Las Vegas judges won’t get a chance to screw things up and have the fight end in controversial fashion so that they can have two more rematches and generate revenue for their city. That being said, no matter who you are rooting for, betting on or whatever, just make sure you cheer for a knockout so that the fans will win.

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