BoxRec

Manny Pacquiao did his part, but Erik Morales stumbled against slickster Zahir Raheem Saturday night at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, throwing a wrench into a Morales-Pacquiao rematch. Raheem (27-1, 16 KOs) shocked Morales (48-3, 34 KOs), basically schooling him over twelve rounds. Morales fighting for the first time as a lightweight seemed slow as Raheem outboxed him over the first several rounds. Raheem had a big round five, landing many powershots. "El Terrible" picked up the pace in round six but Raheem continued to be effective with his speed, skills and workrate. Morales seemed to hurt Raheem in round eleven, but both fought on even terms in the final stanza. Scores were 118-110, 116-112, 115-113. By contrast, Pacquiao (40-3-2, 31 KOs) methodically broke down Hector Velazquez (42-11-2, 16 KOs) to earn a sixth round TKO. Pacman dropped Velazquez late in round six with a vicious barrage of punches and referee Lou Moret waved it off at 2:59.

Shocked Morales lost, looks like the wars and weight movement has finally caught up on him...gutted :(

steve689 wrote:Shocked Morales lost, looks like the wars and weight movement has finally caught up on him...gutted :(

I remember Raheem coming over here with the US amateur team in 1995. Also on that team was DeMarcus Corley. They beat England in the Hilton Hotel in London. I thought both looked pretty handy. Raheem got controversially stopped in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta by a Cuban, I think.

I knew Raheem might win a world title, but not at the expense of Eric Morales!

I stuck 20 on Raheem on Betfair to pull off the win. Looks like he will be avoided by the best though as he has the slickster style to trouble a lot

He had the better of it against Rocky Juarez but lost and after Juarez was beaten by Soto it looked certain Morales would beat Raheem, all the people calling this a mismatch as well :P

Can't believe he did Morales though, shit!!
Claude Abrams was way out with that one

Well, Raheem still isn't a world champion, only an international belt was on the line.

Got tipped off that Raheem had the skills to win this one from a few US e-mail contacts but they were like 60:40 in Morales' favour and I was convinced Erik would get to him eventually and break his heart. Got that one wrong.

Sounded like a damn good bill, Brian Villora is a new WBC Light Flyweight title with a stunning 1st round KO over Eric Ortiz. Didn't expect him to stop Ortiz (although thought he would win) as his power hasn't looked great up till now. I saw the Villora vs KeeBaas fight last year and following that I really wanted to see Villora in with Damean Kelly as I saw it as a wonderfull fight for people who admire great skill. I would have made Villora the favourite, but would have given Kelly a decent chance cause I didn't think Villora had the power to really hurt him - looks like I could be wrong there.

Morales lost!!!!

I'm in shock.

I know Stu Jones pointed out the other day that a fair few the other side of the pond were tipping Raheem, but I couldn't see it myself. Sounds like Raheem did a right job on him, so fair play to him. I bet this makes up for apparently being screwed by the judges against Juarez.

JimmyJamJerusalem wrote:Can't believe he did Morales though, shit!!
Claude Abrams was way out with that one

Yeah i was just reading his review while having a shit, he really went all out for Morales, to be fair i doubt many people saw it panning out this way though.

steve689 wrote:

JimmyJamJerusalem wrote:Can't believe he did Morales though, shit!!
Claude Abrams was way out with that one

Yeah i was just reading his review while having a shit.

Thank you Steve, a truly inciteful perspective into your leisure reading habits. :P