One
of the hottest prospects in the sport gets his opportunity at a coming
out party next Friday night, as super bantamweight Roman Morales takes
on tough Alexis Santiago in a Showtime-televised co-featured attraction
emanating from the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California.
Morales (10-0, 6 KOs) of San Ardo,
California has impressed virtually everyone that has seen him fight in
person or in his two previous televised outings. This time around
Morales is not just a swing bout that makes TV after a quick knockout.
Morales knows he is going to be under Showtime’s bright lights and in
front of the camera before his night begins. However, that knowledge
fails to effect the composed Morales as he goes into his biggest fight
to date. “It’s like any other fight,” says Morales. “I know I am ready
because I’ve trained hard. I just have to do what I have to do in the
ring.”
Helping keep the 20-year-old wunderkind
grounded is his trainer and father figure Rodolfo Tapia. “He’s still the
same humble guy,” reveals Tapia. “That’s one thing I always put in his
mind. ‘You could be a world champion, but to be recognized as a good
boxer you have to be the same person.’ You don’t want people around you
to get the impression that you think you are a bad ass or something. You
have to be a humble person, and you will have more people around you
and cheering for you. He is still in the same place with his feet on the
ground, and it has to be that way for him to become a world champion.
Otherwise, everything we have been working for will go into the
garbage.”
Aiding Morales’ stable maturity is likely
all the rounds he has logged with top professional fighters since
before he turned pro himself in early 2011. Morales has become a
favorite sparring partner of world champion Nonito Donaire Jr. among
other top pros. Recently, Morales took to the ring with former prized
prospect Charles Huerta in preparation for July 20th.
“With Huerta, he’s pretty strong,” says
Morales. “He pushed me forward a couple times. With him, I feel his
punches because he hits pretty hard. And he makes me work, so I know I
have conditioning to last every round of the fight. I was just trying to
be smart when I was sparring him. It was really good work and I know it
helps me out a lot.”
Morales’ opponent is the dangerous Alexis
Santiago (11-2-1, 5 KOs) of Phoenix, Arizona in an eight-round bout.
Santiago may be best known for giving unbeaten Randy Caballero a tough
fight one year ago. “He’s good, but he made mistakes in that fight with
Caballero, which we watched on YouTube,” says Morales’ trainer Tapia.
“He leaves his body open a lot, which is a big mistake against Roman.
That is one of the things we always work on, is going to the body and
then to the head. We’ve been working hard on that. The kid is good. He’s
aggressive, but when he feels Roman’s power and sees how he works….I’m
sure it’s going to be a good fight.”
Team Morales admits the selection of
Santiago as an opponent was to give them a chance to tell the world that
they have the better prospect if the comparison is to be drawn with
Caballero. “He’s way better than Caballero,” says Morales’ manager Repo
Ric without hesitation. “Caballero only has three punches. That’s all he
got. He has a jab, a wild left hook and a straight right. That’s all he
has. He don’t have anything else. And his defense is terrible. They are
going to keep feeding him bums. He just fought my friend from St.
Louis, 5-5. You can’t have a title and you are fighting bums. They ought
to be ashamed of themselves putting him in there with a kid like that. I
definitely made the fight because of Randy Caballero. We are going to
take down Santiago to show Randy what we’d do to him. But Randy will
never fight him anyway. The other guy I want is Jonathan Arrellano, that
kid has some type of title belt. But, none of these guys want to fight
Roman. So Santiago will do it.”
Morales himself, honest to his core,
admits that he does have the goal of outshining Caballero’s hard-fought
victory over Santiago last July. “Yes, of course,” said Morales when
asked about the inevitable comparison. “That’s what I am going for. I
am going to put everything I got up in the ring and try to show my best.
I am going to try and do a better job than he did.”
In addition to preparing for a tough
assignment in a featured televised fight, Morales has another fight on
his schedule next month. Morales is slated to headline an event at the
Tulare County Fairgrounds in Tulare, California on August 24th against rough customer Jonathan Alcantara in another eight-rounder.
Though that fight will be close to home, and Morales undoubtedly already
has friends bugging him for tickets, the composed future champion
remains focused on the task at hand.
“I am not even thinking about the other
fight,” says Morales of his scheduled showdown with Alcantara. “I am
just thinking about this fight and training hard for this fight. Once I
finish this fight, I will think about the other fight. But until then, I
am just thinking about this one right now.”
Just seven days away from ‘showtime,’
Morales sounds ready to show and prove. “I am pretty sure he’s coming
ready, and I am ready,” says Morales. “So I think it is going to be a
really good fight. I am just ready to go out there and fight him
already. It’s fairly close to my area, so a lot of people are going to
come out to see me and I am plan to give them a good fight.”
Tickets for the July 20th event, promoted by Gary Shaw Productions, are available online at StarTickets.com.
Tickets for the August 24th event, promoted by One World Boxing Promotions, are available online at TulareFair.org or by calling 559-686-4707.
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