By Geraldo Gomez: When Marcos Maidana fought Victor Ortiz many boxing fans including myself had not heard of Maidana. All I knew is that he had a good record and good knockout ratio. Many people on paper saw this fight as a pathway for bigger things to come up for Ortiz. I was at the Staples Center for the fight and by the end of the first round, I knew it was going to be an explosive fight. The rest is history. Maidana would eventually win the fight and put on hold all the plans Golden Boy had for Ortiz. It was because of that fight that the boxing world was introduced to Marcos El Chino Maidana.
Fast forward to tonight’s fight between Erik Morales vs Pablo Cesar Cano. Golden Boy’s role is being filled in by the corrupt Suleiman and the WBC, Ortiz role is being played by Morales and Pablo Cano is filling in the role of Marcos Maidana.
The WBC has basically already given the belt to Morales. Erik is supposed to win. Cano is supposed to be a stepping stone for Morales historic night. But, this is boxing and anything can happen. To be honest, I don’t think this fight should be for the title, no disrespect to Cano. This should be a non title fight and if Morales wins then have him fight for his 4th belt the legit way. A win against Cano is like Saul Canelo Alvarez beating Matthew Hatton for the 154 belt, a strategic move made by the corrupt Suleiman.
Pablo Cesar Cano could put a hold on Morales dream of being the first Mexican to win a belt in 4 different divisions. And to be honest, I wish he does. A win will not only make him the new WBC champion but it will be good for boxing and give a black eye to Suleiman and demonstrate to him that he can no longer continue to fix fights at the expense of fighters popularity. More importantly, a win by Cano will give fans the opportunity to embrace him just the same way fans embraced Maidana and propelled him to bigger fights to come. Only time will tell if Pablo Cano is ready to fill in the role that Maidana executed in his fight against Victor Ortiz.