Goodbye, EL Terrible, And Thanks For The Memories!

09/14/201610/21/2012 ESB

Goodbye, EL Terrible, And Thanks For The Memories! (Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By James Slater – It was some night last night in New York, as world championship boxing made a return to the Big Apple for the first time in over 80-years. Inside a buzzing Barclay’s Centre, we got off to a sluggish start and saw a snoozer of an opening world title clash, as Randall Bailey seemingly gave up his IBF welterweight title without much of a fight of it. Throwing few punches, those he did let go failing to do any damage to Devon Alexander, “The KO King” never came close to living up to his nickname.

The only interesting question regarding this fight is, will new champ Alexander face British star and mandatory contender Kell Brook next? Bailey must surely call it quits.

The second fight of the night made up for the stinker, as unbeaten middleweights Peter Quillin and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam gave us the battle of the night. In an amazing shootout, “Kid Chocolate” put the defending WBO champ down a whopping six times, looking oh, so close to getting the stoppage win more than twice. But N’Jikam, showing Rocky-like heart and guts, would not quit. Coming back to WIN a number of the later rounds (this after being turned into a yo-yo in the 4th and 6th-rounds), the Cameroon warrior made his name in defeat. A rematch would be a great idea.

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Danny Garcia destroys Erik Morales in 4!

09/14/201610/21/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron — On Saturday night at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, universally recognized Junior Welterweight Champion Danny “Swift” Garcia proved to the boxing world that his initial victory over future Hall of Famer Erik “El Terrible” Morales on March 24th was no fluke.

By using superior speed and strength, the 24 year old fighter from Philly overwhelmed the Mexican legend and more than likely put a dagger in the once brilliant career of the four division world champion with a massive left hand bomb at the 1:45 mark of round number four.

The courageous “El Terrible” immediately flew back into the ropes upon impact and spun onto the ring canvas. Before the third man in charge, Benjy Esteves Jr, could begin to count, a Morales cornerman jumped into the ring and Esteves instantaneously called a halt to the bout at the 1:43 mark of the fourth and final round.

Most ringside observers could see the difference in athleticism and power at the opening bell.

To begin the contest, the two men fought a very tentative round that could be described as a feeling out stanza for the customarily action oriented warriors. Aside from a few good shots landed by both fighters, the action didn’t begin to heat up until the subsequent 3 minutes.

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Erik Morales vs. Danny Garcia: Paulie Malignaggi’s big fight preview

10/20/2012 ESB

By Joseph Herron: On September 25th, reigning WBA Welterweight Champion Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi visited “The Pugilist KOrner” radio show and offered his analysis of the big rematch between Mexican legend Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KOs) and current WBC/WBA Junior Welterweight Champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (24-0, 15 KOs).

The highly anticipated title fight is slated to headline the big Golden Boy fight card on Showtime premium cable network tonight at 8PM EST/PST.

While many boxing pundits have questioned the second pairing between the two fighters, “The Magic Man” feels it has the potential to be a very entertaining scrap.

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Erik “El Terrible” Morales vs. Danny “Swift” Garcia: To be or not to be…that is the question

09/14/201610/20/2012 ESB

(Photo credit: Adrian Hernandez) By Joseph Herron – On March 24 th of this year, the boxing world thought they had seen the last of Erik “El Terrible” Morales (52-8, 36 KOs) in the ring…again.

After losing his WBC Junior Welterweight title to the scales, the four division world champion took a beating at the hands of undefeated Danny “Swift” Garcia (24-0, 15 KOs), en route to losing a unanimous twelve round decision.

During the post fight press conference, the defeated Mexican legend stated that he was unmotivated for the fight and questioned whether or not he had the hunger to continue fighting any longer.

But after the unlikely WBC Champion shocked the world by knocking out Amir Khan in the third round of their unification contest on July 14 th , the 36 year old warrior began to view his previous performance from a different perspective.

Was Erik’s twelve round loss to Garcia merely the result of taking a relatively unknown fighter from Philadelphia a little too lightly?

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Garcia vs. Morales + Undercard: Something for everyone

10/19/2012 ESB

By Peter Wells: With just over two months left of the year, boxing fans are suddenly being handed early christmas presents as week after week world title fights are swarming out TV’s. On saturday night Golden Boy have delivered boxing fans with 4 world title fights on one single card. And there’s something for everyone. Danny Garica headlines defending his WBC and WBA titles in a rematch with Erik Morales. Paulie Malignaggi defends his WBA Welterweight title in front of his home fans against Pablo Cesar Cano. Hot prospect, Peter ‘Kid Chocolate’ Quillin takes on unbeaten WBO Middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam and what could be the fight of the night, Devon Alexander challenges hard hitting IBF Welterweight champion Randall Bailey. So, what isn’t to like about this weekends super show live on Showtime.

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Angel Garcia: Erik Morales will be down on his knees by the 5th against Danny Garcia

09/14/201609/11/2012 ESB

Angel Garcia: Erik Morales will be down on his knees by the 5th against Danny Garcia By Rob Smith: Angel Garcia, the father and trainer for WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (24-0, 15 KO’s), believes that Danny can take out the aging 36-year-old former four division world champion Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO’s) when they fight on October 20th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.

Angel said to RingTV “Danny needs to go out there and to to the body and start hitting him hard. He needs to go downstairs early and then, by the 5th, Erik Morales should be down on his knees.”

I’m not sure that the 24-year-old Garcia has enough power or the offensive skills to stop Morales. It’s not that Morales is someone that is unstoppable because we’ve seen him get taken out by Manny Pacquiao on a couple of occasions in the past. However, Garcia doesn’t put his punches together the same way Pacquiao does, and he doesn’t really go after his opponents in a sustained enough manner to take them out.

The only time Garcia seems to go after an opponent is when he’s got one of them hurt, like he did in his last fight against Amir Khan last July. Garcia did an excellent job of finishing off Khan after knocking him down late in the 3rd round from a left hook to the neck. Khan made it easy for Garcia by trying to slug with him early in the 4th, resulting in Garcia chopping him down.

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36-year-old Erik Morales promises to give Danny Garcia a boxing lesson on October 20th

09/14/201609/06/2012 ESB

36-year-old Erik Morales promises to give Danny Garcia a boxing lesson on October 20th By Dwight Chittenden: Former four division world champion Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO’s) sees himself schooling unbeaten WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (24-0, 15 KO’s) in their fight on October 20th at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York. Morales already fought Garcia last March and was decisively beaten by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 117-110, 116-112 and 118-109.

Morales looked stiff, slow and old in that fight. The performance has since been partially blamed on Morales having recently come off of gallbladder surgery. While that sounds like a good excuse it doesn’t take away from the fact that he was beaten by Garcia, and it’s hard to see Morales improving enough from that fight to beat him in the rematch next October.

Morales said this about the Garcia rematch to Suljos.com “I think Danny Garcia is talking too much. He feels confident but I warn him I will defeat him. I will take him some boxing.”

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Khan will make a mistake if he dumps Freddie; Danny Garcia’s strategy wrong for Morales rematch too

09/14/201609/02/2012 ESB

Khan will make a mistake if he dumps Freddie; Danny Garcia's strategy wrong for Morales rematch too By Paul Strauss: Amir Khan apparently is looking for another trainer, because he doesn’t want to continue sharing Freddie Roach’s time with Manny Pacquiao. On the surface that seems reasonable; although, it presents obvious problems finding a suitable replacement. It’s a safe bet he’s going to find similar circumstances exist with all of the big name trainers.

Some boxing fans, not necessarily Khan’s, claim Freddie can’t teach the defensive skills Amir needs to protect what some fans believe to be his suspect chin. There’s some truth to that, but it isn’t because Freddie doesn’t have the know-how. Rather, it’s because Freddie’s fighters are generally aggressive fighters, and everyone knows a fighter is most vulnerable when he’s punching.

Of course there’s the old adage that a good offense is a good defense. In football, it can simply mean out scoring your opponent, but it can also mean keeping the ball out of the hands of the opposition. They can’t score without the ball. For it to work, the team better have a good line and a punishing running back, or maybe a good short passing game, because if they just throw it down field, hoping to score fast and big, it’s not likely they will keep the ball long enough to accomplish what they want. In fact, the reverse might be true.

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