Columnist Dean Juipe: Morales’ successors are coming, Arum says

Dean Juipe

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 10:24 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Erik Morales may yet be a young man at the age of 27, but the vaunted Mexican slugger has 47 fights under his belt as he goes into a Saturday fight against Carlos Hernandez at the MGM. At some point, that mileage is going to show.

Likewise, today's other leading and best known fighters from Mexico are at or slightly past their physical primes.

Marco Antonio Barrera is 30. So is Jose Luis Castillo. So is Juan Manuel Marquez. Even Rafael Marquez, who is also fighting Saturday in Las Vegas, is 29.

The point is, Hispanics -- and Mexicans in particular -- drive the sport of boxing with their fierce loyalties and insatiable appetite for big fights, yet the most widely known fighters from south of the border are starting to get a bit old.

Offhand, it would appear as if there may be a gap in store between this group of Mexican stars and the next batch, assuming, of course, that another batch is even en route. And if there is a gap, wouldn't boxing suffer?

But promoter Bob Arum and his Top Rank matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, are confident that the parade of excellent fighters from Mexico (and beyond) will continue unabated.

"Not to worry," Trampler said Thursday. "You fish where the fish are, and there are plenty of good fighters coming out of Mexico."

Arum was equally enthused.

"There's definitely another wave to come," he said. "We've already signed a group of fighters from Mexico and their unveilings will begin this fall.

"As a matter of fact, the field among Hispanics is very, very rich. I'm very optimistic."

Arum, of course, wants and needs fighters such as the current world champions mentioned above, let alone crossover superstar Oscar De La Hoya, to keep his business operating at full speed. "It takes luck and a long time," he said of developing a big star such as De La Hoya, but he feels fighters on the level of the Marquez brothers and Morales will continue coming along.

Toward the goal of increasing their presence, Arum said he is attempting to merge U.S. and Mexican pay-per-view outlets so that a spirit of cooperation would allow for increased exposure of the Hispanics he has under contract.

"Whether I do or don't get involved with (Mike) Tyson, getting this pay-per-view merger going is something I'm going to be working on," Arum said. "Our problem isn't not having enough Hispanic fighters, it's having a place to put them."

Trampler believes the exposure Antonio Margarito will receive in his Sept. 11 fight in Puerto Rico against Daniel Santos will help build him into a star. Likewise, he points to Hispanics that Top Rank controls such as Miguel Cotto, Jose Aguinga and Steve Luevano as potential stars, with Cotto easily the most advanced of that group.

Many other Hispanic fighters are developing solid reputations, Rocky Juarez and Juan Diaz among them.

Yet none of these young men has the status or enjoys the name recognition of an elder counterpart such as Erik Morales. But is patience all that is needed here?

"The kids coming up will ease the transition," Trampler said. "We're OK."

In fact, after considering the line of questioning he had been subjected to for a few minutes, Trampler offered an alternate viewpoint that may require further study.

"The boxing business today is H&H," he said, referring to heavyweights and Hispanics. "The real story might be, what's happened to all the black fighters? There was a time when the biggest attractions in boxing were black, but not anymore.

"You don't see them as much in baseball, either. What's happened to them?"

That's a subject for another day.