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May 1999
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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LA CONQUISTA
It's out of the frying pan and into the fire for Wayne McCullough. Last time out he fought Hamed and now he meets the man tipped as the Next Great Mexican, bantam boss Erik Morales. World title preview by GRAHAM HOUSTON |
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MORALES: the man many believe would topple Hamed
- Get Big Pic As Julio Cesar Chavez fades slowly into boxing history, Erik "El Terrible"
Morales prepares to fill the void as Mexico's next superstar. Morales, the 22-year-old from the border city of Tijuana, has won 32 consecutive
fights, with 26 opponents hammered inside the distance. Promoter Bob Arum has just signed
him to a three-year promotional contract worth $10 million. And on 8 May at the Las Vegas
Hilton, Morales faces potentially his most gruelling fight when he defends his World
Boxing Council super bantamweight (8st 10lbs, or 122lbs) title against Wayne McCullough,
Las Vegas-based but Belfast born and bred. An American reporter named Michael Rosenthal has blasted the fight as a
"mismatch", writing in the Los Angeles Daily News: "McCullough has
neither the skills nor the speed to cope with this rising champion." But others may
take the view that McCullough has the grit, the seasoning and the durability to extend his
opponent to a degree not reflected by the odds of 7-1 on the defending champion. But, yes, it is the sort of match that seems to be made for Morales to win. Morales is
most definitely on the way up. The WBC has just named him its "Sensation of
1998" after the way this tall, dark-eyed young man blew away three challengers last
year, most notably Poison Junior Jones, who was overpowered in four rounds in a Tijuana
bull ring last September. And Morales has scored another knockout to open 1999. Promoter Arum, never one for understatement in these matters, says Morales will be one
of the greatest Mexican champions of all time. Veteran matchmaker Bruce Trampler agrees,
saying: "He's a throwback to the great Mexican champions, and his biggest and
best fights are coming." The fight with McCullough, to be televised on pay-per-view in the U.S., ties in with a
Mexican national holiday and Arum is billing it as "La Conquista" (The
Conquest). Hundreds of Morales's supporters are expected to travel up by bus from Mexico.
Chants of "May-hee-co" will rock the Hilton's 3,000-seat ballroom. But
McCullough, 28, has been in these intense-pressure situations before, not least when he
went to Japan and soundly outpointed Yasuei Yakushiji in 1995 to win the world bantam
title. That was McCullough's finest moment but it is possible that he reached his peak
that night. The non-stop, swarming, high-energy attack that earned him his "Pocket
Rocket" nickname has not lately been in evidence the way it used to be. Although McCullough successfully defended the bantam title twice before outgrowing the
8st 6lbs (118lbs ) division, one of those fights was a life-and-death war with the Mexican
veteran, Jose Luis Bueno. And when McCullough moved up four pounds, he was surprisingly outpointed by the
39-year-old Mexican Daniel Zaragoza in a super bantam title bid. Then came promotional problems, a long layoff, a couple of unimpressive wins and a wide
points defeat by Naseem Hamed in a featherweight title fight last October. So it is easy
to see why the critics are not giving McCullough much chance of upsetting Morales. It is a good fight for Morales, on paper at least. McCullough is a name fighter with
solid credentials (former world champ and currently WBC No. 2 122lbs contender) who may be
ready to be defeated in dramatic fashion by a young banger such as Morales. Indeed, the
Mexican has promised to become the first to knock out McCullough. The older man scoffs at the temerity of such a prediction, but Morales has a
seriousness beyond his years and is not given to idle boasts. I met him in Texas last year
and asked him, through his manager, Fernando Beltran, what he thought of McCullough, who
has long been a potential opponent. His reply: "Tough, but not much boxing
ability." But despite his seeming total certainty about the outcome, Morales is not the type to
leave anything to chance. He is always well-prepared, physically and psychologically, Still, it has taken time for Morales to win over the doubters. He has not always been
impressive, although he showed his character when surviving a rocky moment to come back
and pound Daniel Zaragoza in the 11th round in September 1997 to capture the super bantam
title. There was a mature calmness about Morales in this, his biggest fight up to that point.
Zaragoza piled up points in the early rounds but Morales was steady and patient and
gradually took command. His youth and superior power became increasingly evident and
eventually he took all the fight out of his fellow-Mexican with body punches. One of Morales's defences last year was a second-round demolition of Jose Luis
Bueno, the fighter who had given McCullough so much trouble. Morales practically walked through Junior Jones in the fourth after staving off the New
Yorker's attempts at scoring an early knockout. And in February, on the Oscar De La Hoya-Ike Quartey show at Las Vegas, Morales was in
devastating form once again as he knocked out the Puerto Rican, Angel Chacon, in two
rounds. Chacon had never been stopped. It was Morales's fifth defence of the title
and his eighth KO win in his last nine fights. Indeed, Morales is one of those fighters who seem stamped for greatness. He was born in
Tijuana's tough "Zona Norte" and practically grew up in the gym, strongly
influenced by his ex-boxer father Jose Morales (whose nickname of "Olivaritos"
was bestowed because of a resemblance to the former great fighter Ruben Olivares). The younger Morales started boxing at five and is said to have been sparring with top
professionals as a 12-year-old. But it is said that when Morales turned pro at 16 in 1993,
after 181 amateur wins, his father purposely asked for tough opponents, apparently hoping
his son would find boxing too demanding and pursue academic qualifications instead. But
Morales kept winning, although to please his parents he continued his high-school
education while boxing. His father is now his trainer, A problem with Morales is that he tends to start slowly (as against Zaragoza and a
previous opponent from Belfast, John Lowey) but once he gains momentum he is a tough man
to keep at bay. It would seem likely, then, that McCullough will try to jump on Morales from the
outset. Attempts to reach McCullough on the phone were unsuccessful, so I was unable to
put the question to him, but I have talked with him about Morales in the past (a fight
between them was once scheduled but contracts were never signed). He has always felt that
his pressure would be too much for Morales, that he can test the chin of a fighter who has
not always looked rock-solid. He feels that the Mexican's stand-up style and
willingness to stand and fight will be to his liking. Morales is the taller man, younger, the bigger puncher, but McCullough seems to be the
physically stronger and definitely will throw more punches. And although Morales, with his
32 successive wins, has had more professional fights, McCullough (22 wins, two losses,
with 14 opponents halted) has been around at the top longer. The challenger has been
tutored by old master Eddie Futch and has that Olympic silver medal background: McCullough
is the old pro in this fight, if we can call a boxer of 28 "old". Form points strongly to Morales, because he stopped Zaragoza and easily knocked out
Jose Luis Bueno, whereas McCullough had tough 12-round struggles with both and lost to
Zaragoza. But it is not as simple as that. Zaragoza, although he fought well in the early rounds, seemed to grow old late in the
fight against Morales (although the younger man's body shots had something to do with
it); Bueno fought McCullough as a bantamweight, when the Belfast boxer was struggling to
make weight. The win over Junior Jones looks good for Morales, but the New York boxer may have been
weak at the weight and has a well-known suspect chin. Yet McCullough simply has not been impressive in the past few years. Although he was
brave and always willing in the fight with Hamed, the fact is that he was well-beaten by
an opponent who was sloppy and unfocused that Halloween Night. It seems unlikely that McCullough can knock out Morales, so he will have to try to
overwhelm him with the volume and accuracy of his punches. But McCullough is hittable, and
the big right-handers of Morales could start to tell by the middle rounds. The Mexican, no question, has to be fancied here, and if he can fulfil his prophecy of
a knockout it will surely set him on the path to greatness - if he isn't on it
already. But I suspect it is more likely that Morales will have to settle for a points
win, and possibly a hard-earned one at that. |
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