Daniel Zaragoza vs Erik Morales

21-year-old Erik Morales won his first world championship by knocking out Daniel Zaragoza at two minutes and 59 seconds of the 11th round at the County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas, on September 6, 1997. The challenger took the World Boxing Council super-bantamweight title from a champion 18 years his senior, but only after a hard and often untidy contest in which Zaragoza used all his experience to keep the result in doubt well beyond the halfway stage.

Zaragoza weighed 122 pounds and was making the fifth defence of the championship he had regained from Hector Acero Sánchez in November 1995. The Mexican southpaw entered with a record of 55–7–3 and had already contested 21 world-title bouts across the bantamweight and super-bantamweight divisions. His latest reign had included victories over Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, Tsuyoshi Harada and the unbeaten Wayne McCullough. Morales weighed 121¼ pounds and brought an unblemished 26–0 record, with 20 knockouts. The Top Rank promotion was televised by HBO and presented Morales to a wider American audience as one of Mexico’s leading young prospects.

The opening rounds were closely fought. Morales began with caution, working behind straighter punches while studying the awkward angles of Zaragoza’s southpaw attack. The champion threw wide, looping blows which were difficult to read and landed enough left hands to prevent Morales from taking immediate control. In the third round, the challenger increased his activity, forcing Zaragoza backwards with jabs and sharp rights. Morales drove him towards the ropes late in the session, but Zaragoza answered before the bell with a solid left.

Morales continued to box neatly through much of the fourth, beating the champion to the target with straighter punches. Zaragoza changed the round near its conclusion when a wide right came over the top and landed flush on Morales’s jaw, buckling the younger man’s knees. The champion followed at once and drew Morales into a fierce exchange in which both connected before the bell. Encouraged by that success, Zaragoza pressed harder in the fifth, making Morales give ground while throwing punches from irregular angles. He also used his head at close quarters, adding to the rough character of the contest.

The direction changed in the sixth. Approximately 30 seconds into the round, Morales caught Zaragoza with a strong counter-left hook and forced him into retreat. An accidental collision of heads opened a small cut on the champion, who also received warnings from referee Laurence Cole for low punches and hitting on the break. Zaragoza continued advancing whenever possible, but another left hook near the end of the round shook him. Morales reduced his output in the seventh, allowing the champion to come forward and swing freely, although Zaragoza expended considerable energy without landing consistently.

Morales resumed with greater force in the eighth. A hard right hand badly hurt Zaragoza, who staggered across the ring as the challenger followed with punches from both hands. Morales drove him from one side of the ring to the other, but Zaragoza refused to go down and, remarkably, mounted an attack of his own just before the bell. By the ninth, however, Morales was beginning to impose his advantages in youth, strength and punching speed. He worked inside with uppercuts and hooks, and a heavy right halfway through the round forced Zaragoza to hold. The champion continued throwing, but his punches were becoming wider and slower.

Zaragoza’s condition worsened in the 10th. Morales repeatedly beat him to the punch with right hands to the head, then drove a heavy right into the body. The champion dropped to one knee and received the bout’s first count. He rose and immediately attempted to regain the initiative with his familiar overhand swings, but Morales was now landing almost at will. Near the bell, with Zaragoza against the ropes, the challenger briefly checked his attack rather than continue striking an opponent who appeared nearly spent. The men touched gloves at the end of the round.

Morales was ahead after 10 rounds on two of the three official cards, but the scoring showed how competitive the earlier action had been. Terry Smith had the challenger leading 95–94, and Bob Logist scored it 96–93 for Morales, while Tom Kaczmarek had Zaragoza ahead 95–94. The knockdown gave Morales an important two-point round, and without it the contest would have remained exceptionally close on the official totals.

The 11th was one-sided. Zaragoza could no longer avoid Morales’s right uppercut or protect his body from the straight right. With a minute remaining, Morales increased the pressure as the champion offered diminishing resistance. In the final seconds, he drove a right hand into the pit of Zaragoza’s stomach. The force of the blow lifted the older man from his feet and deposited him on his back. Zaragoza rolled into a sitting position, smiled and gestured towards Morales in acknowledgement, but made no attempt to rise before Cole completed the count. The knockout was recorded one second before the bell.

Morales became champion in his first world-title contest and began a reign which would include nine successful defences. For Zaragoza, the defeat brought an immediate end to a 17-year professional career. He retired with a record of 55 victories, eight defeats and three draws, having held world championships at bantamweight and super-bantamweight. The final result suggested a straightforward passage from one Mexican champion to another, but Zaragoza had required Morales to overcome difficult angles, rough inside work and sustained resistance before the younger man’s strength finally settled the matter.

I remember this fight because of the age difference. Daniel Zaragoza was 39 and contesting his 22nd world-title fight, while Erik Morales was an unbeaten 21-year-old having his first. Everyone expected a straightforward changing of the guard, but Zaragoza was far too clever and proud for that. He had already beaten Wayne McCullough and Joichiro Tatsuyoshi during this late championship run, so he wasn’t merely an old name being fed to a prospect.

Zaragoza’s awkward southpaw style gave Morales real problems. He threw punches from strange angles, roughed him up inside and badly shook him with a wild right in the fourth. After five rounds, I thought the old champion was ahead. Morales then began trusting his strength, countering with the left hook and landing the straighter punches. By the eighth, the difference in age and power was becoming clear, although Zaragoza refused to fold.

The cards remained surprisingly close after 10 rounds, but the fight itself had turned. Morales’s right hand to the body put Zaragoza down in the 10th, and another drove him onto his back with one second remaining in the 11th. Zaragoza knew the job was finished and accepted the count.

This was a proper passing of the torch. Morales had to solve an experienced champion, absorb hard punches and keep his discipline when the fight became rough. Zaragoza lost nothing in defeat, while Morales proved he was more than another heavily promoted youngster. He had the temperament of a world champion.