09/22/1991
By Mike Wagner
Special to the Times
Indio, Calif. – El Paso challenger Fernie Morales experienced something new Saturday in his unsuccessful bid to win the International Boxing Federation bantamweight championship.
He was knocked to the canvass. Not once, but twice.
Orlando Canizales, 29-1-1 as a pro with 23 knockouts, successfully defended his IBF title for the seventh time with a 12-round unanimous decision over Morales.
A crowd of about 2,000 Desert Expos Center fans saw Morales, now 28-5 with 12 knockouts, visit the ring floor a couple of times by the welcoming hand of the fellow Texan from Laredo. The first came in the second round and the second just before the final bell, leaving some in the crowd to wonder if referee Robert Byrd had halted the contest.
Morales bled from the head throughout much of the battle. Judge Paul Gibbs of Seattle scored it 116-111, Gwen Adair of Los Angeles, 118-109 and Houston’s Ron Ralston 119-108.
“My best fight,” Morales said in the ring as he signed autographs.
“I was down. I’d never been down in my life,” he said continuing in a crowded and emotional dressing room.
“Now I know what it feels like. And I know I can get up and keep fighting and I can fight with the best. I thought it was a lot closer than that but I feel god about myself.
“I got a fat lip and I don’t fell I can eat a steak.”
Canizales never bled from any of Morales’ punches, dodging numerous jabs throughout the contest, but the champion showed a number of bruises about the upper body as he answered reporters’ questions in the adjacent dressing room.
“I saw ‘em coming but I stood there,” Canizales said. “I’m quite disappointed that I let him. He has an awkward style and it is hard to get shots in. He came here to give it his best. I was just taking my time. I wasn’t waiting for a certain punch to knock him out with.”
The loss raised some questions about Morales’ future in boxing.
He and Frank Morales – the boxer’s father, trainer and manager – still plan on boxing in the 118-pound class. Just going the distance with Canizales may have advanced his career.
“Fernie put himself on the bantamweight map,” said Mike Marley, a boxing writer for the New York Post who was also serving as a television color announcer for the overseas broadcast.
“I’ll be starting to train in about a week or two,” said Morales, smiling despite a swollen face. “After my lip gets better. I’m staying bantam. He’s (Canizales) a good champion, so I’ll try again. I’m a pretty tough guy to give up.”
The other dressing room was not so sure.
“It was hard for that kid. It might have hurt him,” aid Jesse Reid, Canizales’ trainer. “He got hurt a lot but he’s got a big heart. At the (final) bell he was talking but he didn’t know where he was at.”
“He’s a tough fighter,” Canizales said. “He gets hit a lot. He’s slow but you can’t say he’ll never win a world’s title. You never know. He got some good shots in but he never hurt me.
“I think I fought a smart fight, I knew we would exchange blows at times and at times he did and at times I would catch him with uppercuts. He was tired and I was tired.”
Morales’ father, however, had a different point to make. He would like to see a rematch and felt everything was not on the up-and-up in Canizales’ making the 118-pound weight.
“If they do the (post-fight urine) tests right, he is going to be coming up with some kind of dope in his system,” Frank Morales said with the help of a niece interpreting as he sipped on a beer. “He lost a lot of weight before they weighed him.”
Said Red: “He was six pounds overweight and we ran him. At 10 (p.m.) we ran him six miles and then we ran him four miles in the morning. The next day he ran four miles and walked two. He came here as heavy as a house.
“Drugs? He’s a cleancut kid. He’d never touch anything. No way. Let ‘em claim it. They’ll try anything.”
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