It was the classic matchup: age and experience vs youth and raw talent. The southpaw Daniel Zaragoza was a graying veteran, survivor of 65 professional battles and some 21 world title fights with champions like Carlos Zarate, Paul Banke and Jeff Fenech. In the opposite corner was Erik Morales, the 21-year-old sensation, considered by some to be the next great Mexican champion. At stake was Zaragoza’s WBC Super Bantamweight crown. Airing on HBO, Zaragoza vs. Morales was billed as Morales’s kickoff party, his first shot at a world title, and the introduction of him to American boxing fans. Most expected a changing of the guard.
The first rounds were close. Morales fought conservatively, with respect, while Zaragoza threw looping left hands, some of which landed. In the third Morales began to pick up the pace, forcing Zaragoza back and landing jabs and slicing rights. Late in the round, he drove the champion to the ropes with his attack, but the veteran returned fire and landed a hard left just before the bell.
Morales seemed content to get past Zaragoza in the fourth, his more direct strikes dictating the terms, but that changed near the end of the round when one of the champion’s haymakers finally came home. A savage right hand swept over and landed flush on the younger man’s jaw, bending his knees. Zaragoza lunged and the two traded with abandon until the bell, landing both men. In the fifth, an emboldened Zaragoza pressed the action, forcing Morales to fight off his back foot as he continued to attack, throwing wide, arcing shots and adding a few headers for good measure. Amazingly, after five rounds, Zaragoza had the upper hand.
But thirty seconds into round six, Morales stole the momentum with a vicious left hook that put the old champion on the run. The fight was getting wild. An accidental clash of heads opened a small cut to Zaragoza that drew warnings for low blows and hit the break. The champion continued to pressure Morales, forcing him back, but another hard left hook late in the round stunned the veteran.
Morales appeared to take a breather in the seventh round, allowing Zaragoza to press on and throw more of his punches, but the challenger came out strong in the eighth round, throwing powerful right hands, one of which got the older man in serious trouble. Staggering around the ring, grievously injured, the proud champion simply refused to budge as the crowd roared and Morales pummeled him from one side of the ring to the other before surprisingly, Zaragoza launched a counterattack just before the bell.
By the ninth it was clear that Morales was slowly but surely gaining control of the fight. Losing respect for the champion’s power, he began to open up, hitting Zaragoza with hooks and inside hooks. Midway through the round, a hard forehand forced the champion to stop. El Terrible’s advantages in power and strength were becoming more apparent, but the old man never stopped launching sling shots as the crowd, urging him to dig even deeper, chanted “Zar-a-go-za! Saragossa!”
But the well was dry. A tired champion visibly slowed down in the tenth round, Morales pummeled him over and over again. Three hard right hands to the head and then a thunderous right hand to the body forced the champion to his knees. Zaragoza got up and, showing amazing courage, tried to force the fight again, stepping in behind those overhead shots.
But he had nothing left. Morales was connecting at will and just before the bell, with his opponent on the ropes, he parried his attack, unwilling to apply more punishment. At the end of the assault, the two Mexican warriors, for the first time in combat, touched their gloves, as if to mark or recognize something. As they did so, Morales seemed excited and confident, while Zaragoza’s face, wrinkled and cracked like an old chunk of limestone from years of hard fighting, wore an expression of grim resignation.
Round eleven found the young challenger in complete control. The only question now was whether the proud old warrior, the first four-time world champion from Mexico, would be able to hear the final bell. Morales couldn’t fail with either his right hand to the body or his right uppercut and with a minute left in the round, the fight turned into what he had been threatening to become, a one-sided blowout. Finally, mercifully, Morales landed one last big right to the pit of Zaragoza’s stomach, the force of the blow knocking the old warrior to his feet and onto his back. Rolling into a sitting position, the soon-to-be former champion smiled and pumped his fist at Morales as if to congratulate his conqueror. He didn’t bother trying to beat the count.
And so the youth was served and the torch was passed. After the fight, Zaragoza admitted that he had reached the end of the road and commented sadly that although “today was bad”, if he kept fighting, “tomorrow will probably be worse”. He had put up a valiant stand against his younger and more powerful opponent, but it was time to move on. Meanwhile, the legend of “El Terrible” was just beginning, and momentous matchups against Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao awaited Morales. Like Zaragoza, he would eventually win four world titles and Hall of Fame status and when he fell to a young Danny Garcia in 2012, he had come full circle and it was his turn to finally go.
—Roberto Portis
