Erik Morales is heralded as one of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time after becoming the first man from his country to be a four-weight world champion, and he has now named the fighter whom he believes to be the current pound-for-pound king.
Morales won his first 41 professional contests and captured the WBC and WBO super-bantamweight titles, as well as the WBC featherweight crown along the way, before suffering a defeat in a rematch with fierce rival Marco Antonio Barrera in 2002.
The Tijuana-born legend bounced back to reclaim the then-vacant WBC super-featherweight strap in the fight that followed and made two defences before moving up and capturing the WBC super-featherweight title and then the IBF belt, before losing to Barrera once again in their trilogy bout.
After overcoming Manny Pacquiao, Morales then went on to lose four straight contests – including two defeats to ‘Pac Man’ – with Morales then making the decision to retire.
After three years away, Morales made his comeback and knocked out Pablo César Cano to get his hands on the WBC super-lightweight world title in 2011 to make Mexican history – before retiring for good after two losses to Danny Garcia.
Morales has now been speaking about the current generation and in an interview with ES News he named fellow four-division conqueror and reigning undisputed super-bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue as the best fighter on the planet.
Inoue has held world honours at light flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight and super bantamweight, with the latter two divisions seeing him also earn undisputed status.
The Japanese superstar is expected to remain on the sidelines until spring 2027, when he could collide with fellow pound-for-pound star Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez in one of boxing’s most in-demand match-ups.
