23rd March, 2012
Erik Morales and Jose Luis Castillo, two of the all-time great Mexican fighters, appear on the same card in Texas tomorrow night as they seek to make the most of their days as headline stars.
Morales, still only 35, puts his newly-won WBC light-welterweight title on the line against unbeaten Danny Garcia.
To put things into context, Garcia started his career in 2007, when Morales was retired after four straight losses.
The Mexican legend, the first man from his country to win world titles at four different weights and a fighter inexorably remembered for his rivalry with Marco Antonio Barrera, returned in 2010.
Defying health concerns, Morales worked his way back into title contention and his star rose in a narrow defeat to big-hitting Marcos Maidana in a showdown in Las Vegas in April last year.
Having beaten Pablo Cesar Cano in his last fight to win his current crown, Morales puts it on the line against Garcia in the Reliant Arena in Houston. He insists his career is far from finished.
“I’m very excited to be fighting and building towards better things. It makes me proud to know that all the hard work pays off. It motivates me to continue,” Morales told Boxing Scene recently.
Morales has plainly found a second wind since his run of back-to-back losses in 2005 and 2006 – to Zahir Raheem, David Diaz and Manny Pacquiao (twice), which appeared to have ended his top-level career.
But for others, even one-time greatness is no guarantee of longevity. Three years older than Morales, Jose Luis Castillo will fight on his undercard on Saturday night as a shadow of the superstar lightweight he once was.
By rights the last anyone should have had to see of Castillo in a boxing ring was the night in June 2007 when he was folded up by a Ricky Hatton body shot in their fight in Las Vegas.