By Ron Borges

Manny Pacquiao is not yet the king of the little men, but he certainly appeared to be the heir to their throne after becoming the first man to knock out the standard bearer of boxing's most exciting weight divisions - three-time world champion Erik Morales - Saturday night in Las Vegas.

     

Pacquiao has now overwhelmed and stopped both Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, the two men who have ruled the featherweight and super featherweight divisions with iron hands (and chins) for some years now. Pacquiao may not yet be finished with either of them however despite those two stoppages because Barrera claims he was distracted by personal, medical and managerial problems at the time they met while Morales holds both a victory over Pacquiao and a guaranteeed rematch clause and a lot of people around him who will urge him to exercise it to get a rubber match that would be a major pay-per-view event when it happens.

Although Pacquiao can make big money facing either of them, again his dominance of Morales was so complete it hardly seems necessary it be repeated despite the potential size of the payday but when did the likelihood of making a lot of money ever stopped anythng from happening in boxing? Never, yet at least that remains the opinion of Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach.

"If we fight him again it will be easier,'' Roach said after Pacquiao twice knocked a tired and beaten down Morales to the floor in the 10th round before referee Kenny Bayless stopped the assault at 2:33 of the round before the police decided to intervene.

"Morales has had a great career but he's been in a lot of wars. Pacquiao is a younger guy still coming up. He's fresher. Erik still fights well with momentum when he's coming forward but if you put pressure on him and back him up he struggles."

"Manny's body attack really hurt Morales. You could see he was tired and in trouble by the sixth round. The body attack took it away from him.''  

It also took Pacquiao to the front of the line in one of boxing's busiest weight classes. He has not yet taken over the place Morales and Barrera held in the division for so long but the way he disarmed and destroyed Morales, who had been down only once before in his career until Saturday night, seemed a strong argument advocating for Morales to abandon any thought of exercising that rematch clause.

"I was tired from making weight and I was tired because of all the tough fights,'' the 29-year-old Morales (48-4) admitted before he left the Thomas and Mack Center for Valley Hospital, where he was taken early Sunday morning to have his battered head and broken nose examined.

Pacquiao (41-3-2, 32 KO) dominated the second half of the fight after Morales set a brisk early pace that had allowed him to back Pacquiao up, the one thing Roach feared. Morales led on all three judges' cards going into the sixth round but he did not win a single round after that, slowing down noticeably from the effect of a savage body attack that took away his legs slowly at first and then quickly later and left him with only his sizeable heart intact. This time it was not enough.

"I saw I hurt him every time I hit him in the body,'' Pacquiao said.

"I could see he was having problems taking my punches. I had no problem taking his. In the sixth round I hit him with a body shot and I could see it really hurt him. By the eighth and ninth rounds he was really tired. I knew he was hurt, but I had to take my time.''

He did and now it's become Pacquiao's time in the featherweight and super featherweight divisions. Barrera remains formidable, Morales will likely still be there for him and there is another big-money fight with featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez if Pacquiao wants to pursue it.

Pacquiao dropped Marquez three times in the first round a year and a half ago but not only was unable to finish him but nearly was beaten by him when Marquez made a furious late rally. He rocked Pacquiao in the fifth round, cut him in the sixth and won five of the final six rounds on one judge's card and four of six on another to earn a draw no one would have thought possible after the way he was flattened in that opening round. Marquez has wanted to settle the score with Pacquiao for some time, believing if he had been more cautious and respecteful at the outset he would have come away the winner.

Barrera, too, still thinks he's Pacquiao's superior despite the way their meeting ended. One could argue that Pacquiao was even more dominate against Barrera then he was against Morales however, dropping him twice, cutting his eye and forcing Barrera's cornermen to stop the fight at 2:58 of the 11th round before he suffered even more damage. Yet Barrera claimed he was ill-prepared and unfocused that night because of his outside-the-ring problems and talk of serious medical issues as a result of a past head injury that had not been previously known about publicly.

It was a similar explanation to the one Pacquiao made after losing a unanimous decision to Morales in their first fight last year. The fact that he came back and so clearly confirmed his explation had validity argues strongly for Barrera to be given the same opportunity against him that Morales provided Pacquiao.

Morales can insist his rematch clause be enforced as well, of course, and like a Barrera rematch it would be another big payday for Pacquiao, who earned $2 million for defeating Morales Saturday. But Morales has struggled to make 130 pounds for some time now and despite having lost his first fight in the lightweight division to Zahir Raheem that seems a more likely direction for him to take his career.

If he does, Pacquiao will not follow him because he and Roach agree his best weight is no higher than 126 and, frankly, he doesn't have to. For most fighters, the loss of such a high-profile opponent would be costly because most boxers wait their whole careers for one such money-making opponent. But Manny Pacquiao is not in such a predicament.

By destroying both Morales and Barrera, and with Marquez still waiting in the wings, he is the rarest of modern-day fighters. He is a fighter with options not held by any promoter but rather ones controlled by the depth of his own skills, the power of his punches and the attractiveness of his style to a growing fan base that is desperate to pay for what he delivers - action fights and spectacular victories.