By Jose Camarillo, notifight.com

Tijuana, BC. - This past Saturday Érik Morales won a close twelve round decision over late replacement Francisco Lorenzo to retain the WBC silver 140-pound title. Morales struggled at times in the fight and admits that there were problems because there wasn't enough time to prepare for Lorenzo's style. Lorenzo was brought in a few days before the fight after the original opponent, Jorge Barrios, was denied permission to travel from Argentina to Mexico.

"Lorenzo was a tough opponent and difficult. We were preparing to fight a puncher and Lorenzo is a hard fighter and when he's desperate he holds on to anything," Morales said.

Morales said there are ongoing negotiations with Eric Gomez, head matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions, to face Juan Manuel Marquez in March or April of next year. He says there were personal problems that caused him to limit his training camp to a one month period at the Otomi Ceremonial Center. He knows the training will have to be a lot harder to stand a chance against Marquez.

"Against Marquez I have to work harder. It's already an advantage for me to remove all of the excess weight. I was very happy because of the way the people reacted to my return [to Tijuana] after 10 years. Everyone knows what they saw on Saturday night was not the best Erik Morales," Morales said.