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Following Saturday night's loss in Houston to Danny Garcia, former four-division titleholder Erik Morales is pondering his future and sounds like he may be on the verge of retirement, or at least giving serious consideration to hanging up the gloves for a second time, and this time for good. From notifight.com, via BoxingScene.com:
"I'm going to relax and think about what I'm going to do in the future. In the eleventh round I had him, but he hurt me with that punch to the jaw. He caught me and knocked me down. I honestly thought that I would dominate and knock him out, but never mind. Danny is young and hits hard. He is a normal fighter, not great, but it seems that the weight of the years have taken their toll."
Morales (52-8, 36 KO) forfeited the WBC junior welterweight title on Friday when he failed to make weight, and then sort of laid an egg on Saturday night, but was still fairly competitive overall, despite the wide scores against him.
He clearly lost, I'm not making a case for questionable decision or anything. Just saying he did OK, considering he looked like he was 50 years old in the ring. But then that's more about Garcia, and maybe I'll get more into it sometime, but I don't think Morales is short-changing the new titlist when he calls him "normal" but "not great" -- I think he's being 100% honest, as usual, and I personally believe he's right.
After watching Morales, 35, on Saturday, I really do hope he hangs it up. He does not have a damn thing in the world left to prove to me, you, or anyone else. If he doesn't retire, then the only real interest I have in seeing him from this point is in fights with completely favorable style matchups. If a guy has an ounce of slickness at this point, he's going to give Morales hell. Morales doesn't have the legs or the power or the stamina to keep up with anyone who isn't stationary and basic. He had nothing on Saturday but guts and pride. Good things to have, but they won't prevent him from getting his brains rattled around unnecessarily.