23.02.04 – By Marc Abrams: After a 3 week hiatus that seems closer to 3 months, the boxing world gets back in to full swing with one of the 1st big names in the game making his initial appearance of 2004, that being former Featherweight champ Erik Morales. Morales will be trying to wrestle the WBC Super Featherweight championship from tough as nails Jesus Chavez. The strong co-feature pits the continued ascension of Puerto Rican slugger Miguel Cotto as he tries to go from prospect to contender when he tangles with former 2 time world title challenger Victoriano Sosa of the Dominican Republic.
Chavez is 31 year old the champion, is making the 1st defense of the belt that he won last August, when he won a uninanimous decision victory over Sirimongkol Sigmanasak of Thailand in Chavez’ hometown of Austin, Texas. He will bring an impressive record of 40-2(28 Knockouts). His only 2 losses were to Carlos Gerena in his 5th fight way back in January of 1995. He later avenged that defeat when he knocked out Gerena in the 6th round in their March, 2003 bout. His 2nd defeat was at the blazing hands of the superstar, Floyd Mayweather Jr in November, 2001. Since that loss he is 5-0(4), including that title fight win. Chavez has some impressive wins on his ledger. Some of those wins include a victory over currant lightweight belt holder Javier Jauregui(12 round UD); Louis Espinzoa(8 rd Tech.Dec.);John Brown(12 round UD);Troy Dorsey(7th round TKO); and former featherweight champ Tom Johnson(7th round TKO).
The 27 year old Morales is regarded one of the finest fighters pound for pound in the world. The Tijuana, Mexico native, brings a record of 45-1; 34 KO’s and is making his 1st attempt at a 130 pound world championship. He won the WBC super Bantamweight title in September of 1997 with an 11th round KO of longtime champ Daniel Zaragoza. He defended that belt 9 times including such wins over Junior Jones in September 1998(TKO 4); Wayne Mccullough in October of 1999(UD). The defining moment of his career to date was the 1st of 2 memorable fights he has had with Mexican rival Marco Antonoio Barrera. The 1st fight took place February 2000 and was a classic. Morales was awarded a very controversial split decision and acquired Barrera’s WBO belt in the process. This fight was the Ring Magazine’s 2000 fight of the year. Morales vacated the WBO belt and moved up to win the WBC featherweight title with a 7th round TKO over Kevin Kelley. He made 2 defenses of the belt with close decision wins over Guty Espadas and In-Jin Chi. The only blemish on his ledger was another controversial decision loss to Barrera. He re-won the belt with a hard fought decision of Paulie Ayala. Morales defended that title 2 more times before advancing up to 130 pounds. His only fight at 130 was a rematch 3rd round Knockout of Espadas.
I expect this fight to be a war. Chavez loves to just stick his head in his opponent’s chest and set up shop right in front of him. For one of the few times Morales won’t have to stalk because Chavez will be right there. This should be the classic saying of styles make fights and this has all the makings for an early fight of the year candidate, both fighters should be throwing and connecting on a lot of punches. I see the possibility of both fighters visiting the canvas. Morales should win this by knockout somewhere in the 9th or 10th round area, and setting up a unification fight with Carlos Hernandez sometime this summer.
The super prosepect Cotto, has been nothing short of spectacular so far in his young career. The 2000 Olympic representative has mowed through all 18 opponents., with 15 knockouts, and is coming off an 8th round shellacking of Carlos Maussa, last December.. For only 18 fights he has fought good competition and has handled it all with relative ease. He has all 1 sided affairs with fighters such as Justin Jukko (TKO 5); John Brown (UD); Cesar Bezan (TKO 11); and Demetrio Ceballos (TKO 11).
Sosa has an impressive record of 37-3-2 with 27 Knockouts, but he is probably more known for the loss he had to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Although he lost by a wide margin on the scorecards, he fought very gamely and hard for all 12 rounds. Sosa almost captured the IBF lightweight title in March of 2000 when he lost a narrow decision to champ Paul Spadafora. Since the loss to Mayweather, Soas is 2-0 with 1 KO and is coming off a 4th round TKO over Danilo Alcantara this past January 5th.
This fight is shaping up to be another but bigger stepping stone for Cotto. I believe Sosa will present some problems and give Cotto his toughest test to date, but I see Cotto winning a decision with the possibility of a hard fought late round knockout. Should Cotto prevail here, there has been a rumor of him fighting on the May 8th Undercard of Mayweather/Spadafora against a Gianluca Branco type of fighter. This would be a great idea for Cotto’s promoter as there is a huge Puerto Rican fan base in the big apple.