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Erik Morales came in overweight for his WBC junior welterweight title defense against Danny Garcia and has been stripped of the title. After coming in at 142 pounds, Morales did not try to take advantage of the extra poundage, instead opting to immediately start rehydrating and suffering the consequences.
In addition to being stripped of his title, Morales will give $50,000 of his $1,000,000 purse to Garcia who sees his pay jump to $225,000.
Related: Breaking Down Erik Morales vs Danny Garcia
The title will still be on the line for Garcia, who can win the title with a victory and he says that he still plans to approach the fight as a title bout (Via ESPN):
"I feel stuff like this hurts the sport of boxing and I love boxing," Garcia, 24, of Philadelphia, said. "For me, it's still a championship fight but I believe what he did is a disrespect to boxing and to boxing fans. The first fight every boxer has is to make weight and he didn't do it and I did. Now all I have to do is go out there and beat him up."
The bout will air on HBO Saturday night.
Morales wasn't the only fighter on the card to miss weight. In more predictable news, Jose Luis Castillo missed weight for his welterweight bout against Jose Cotto (older brother of Miguel). Castillo has had weight issues for much of his career, most notably in two of three scheduled bouts against Diego Corrales and Timothy Bradley.
Related: Yesterday's Champions, Today's Journeymen: Morales, Juda, Castillo & More Fight On This Weekend
There was originally uncertainty over if Cotto would go ahead with the bout but multiple sources are tweeting that the bout is off.
Bad Left Hook will have coverage of the HBO broadcast which will see Morales vs. Garcia as well as James Kirkland against Carlos Molina.