It was reported yesterday that legendary Mexican fighter Erik Morales was picking Manny Pacquiao over Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the May 2nd mega-fight taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Technically, I never saw one video of Morales making a literal pick, although respected outlets like Boxingscene.com reported that Morales is indeed picking Manny to win. Instead, most of the interviews have Morales making inferences that suggest “Pacman” has a better chance than most are giving him.
It is a bit surprising that Morales is going with Pacquiao because he has been one of his former advisory’s biggest critics in past years. Morales owns a victory over Pacquiao but ended up 1-2 in their legendary featherweight trilogy. This is what makes his pick even more surprising because Morales is known to hold grudges.
Furthermore, Morales has stated in the past that he favored Mayweather in the mega fight and even though we all have the right to change our opinions, it seems odd that Morales is so adamant, after all, these years.
The one man that is definitely picking Mayweather is his father/trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. Floyd Sr. wasn’t too happy with Morales and tracked him down after the initial comments were made. The two legends had a lighthearted conversation, but both maintained their stances firmly.
“I heard somebody say that this man (Erik Morales) said that Pacquiao had a chance. I’m going to tell you right now; Floyd gon’ beat the hell out of Manny and you gon’ see for yourself that it’s going to be no contest. You can’t hit what you don’t see,” Mayweather Sr. said in an interview posted on Thaboxingvoice.com.
Morales laughed and didn’t take Floyd Sr. too serious as he began to spout his trademark nursery rhymes regarding his prediction for the mega fight.
“Erik Morales is a good man, I train him once before, too, but him saying that Pacquiao gonna be Floyd? I can’t believe that. I don’t believe Erik said that,” Floyd Sr. continued.
Morales was heard apologizing in his interview, but it was more of a “sorry not sorry” apology and never backtracked once. At the end of the interview, Morales maintained his take on the fight and clearly has no intentions of reevaluating his choice.
