A BORN BOXER

Beware of the Zona Norte.

A tourist wouldn’t notice much difference when he passed into this border city’s infamous north zone. Unless the tourist made the mistake of openly carrying valuables.

Behind a facade of seedy storefronts and expensive brothels lurk those who prey on the unsuspecting.

One visitor asked if the camera slung over his shoulder would be safe on an evening stroll through Zona Norte. He was told if he took a stroll down one of its streets at midday, he wouldn’t make it to the corner with the camera in his possession.

So it was surprising to a visitor to see a shiny 1998 Chevy Silverado left unattended, but ignored at the corner of Coahuila and 5 de Mayo, right in the heart of the dangerous zone.

It was not surprising to Fernando Beltran.

“They would not touch this car if the windows were rolled down and the keys were in it,” Beltran said.

That’s because the residents of this area know who owns this car: Erik Morales, the World Boxing Council super-bantamweight champion who is managed and promoted in Mexico by Beltran.

No one in the neighborhood would dare damage a speck of paint on a vehicle belonging to Morales, their favorite son. Because Morales, who will defend his title at the Las Vegas Hilton tonight against Juan Carlos Ramirez, has never strayed from his roots.

On the second floor of a building at the corner of Coahuila and 5 de Mayo is the gym in which Morales trains.

On the first floor is the room in which he was born 22 years ago.

When Todd DuBoef, vice president of the Top Rank Boxing organization came down to see Morales and talk about the fighter joining the organization, headed by promoter Bob Arum, DuBoef was stunned by the spartan conditions in Morales’ gym, which is above a grocery store. The ring is in one corner of the dingy room, one side against a glass window.

“This is where you train?” DuBoef asked. “This is crazy. You could smash your head on the glass. Come to Las Vegas and we’ll have you train in our gym.”

Morales, who doesn’t speak English, declined. He prefers to stay among the faces and surroundings he has known all his life.

Morales is 32-0 with 26 knockouts. Twenty-two of his fights have been staged in his hometown, Tijuana.

When Morales fought Junior Jones, a former world champion, last September, the match was staged in the Toreo de Tijuana bullring. The crowd of more than 13,000 was about 3,000 greater than Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez had drawn in an earlier fight in that ring.

Morales loves to repay the loyalty of the locals. At Christmastime, he supplies 500 dinners for those in the neighborhood. He often buys toys for local kids.

When Morales won a tough fight against Daniel Zaragoza in 1997 for the WBC title, DuBoef told Morales he was so pleased, he was going to give the fighter a $10,000 bonus.

Morales was grateful, but wanted to make a request of DuBoef.

Uh oh, DuBoef figured, here it comes. I know fighters. What else does he want? A car? A loan?

“I love computers,” Morales told DuBoef, “I want as many kids as possible in Tijuana to have one. How I can contact a company that will sell me computers for this money?”

Too good to be true? For a while, despite how good he was, it appeared Morales’ dream of becoming a champion wasn’t going to come true.

Because his toughest opponent was in his corner. And his family.

Jose Morales Damian, a flyweight contender in the 1970s who was nicknamed “Olivaritos” because of his resemblance to fellow boxer Ruben Olivares, knew about the rigors of boxing. Damian worked in the refrigeration business as a young man to support his family while trying to carve out some ring time for himself.

It was Damian who first put the gloves on his son when Erik was only 6. It was Damian who took pride in watching Erik win a boxing tournament at that age.

But as Morales moved up through the amateur ranks, Damian saw his dream for his son dissolving.

“He was very intelligent in school,” Damian said through an interpreter. “I got very good reports on him. I wanted him to go to a university.”

Certainly not your typical fight father.

“It was a little weird,” Morales said. “He wanted me to become a college man.”

But Jose did more than hope his son would drop the gloves and pick up his schoolbooks.

When Erik, then 17, decided to turn pro, his father found a tough opponent, one intended to discourage him from thinking about reentering the ring.

“I prepared my son for six months,” Damian said. “I did not want him to get hurt. But I wanted him to feel the punches so that he would say, ‘No more boxing.’ ”

There were stinging punches thrown, all right, but Erik was throwing them. He scored a second-round technical knockout over Jose Orejel in Tijuana.

So after that, Damian had a change of heart?

Nope, he still wanted his son to have nothing to do with boxing.

In Morales’ second fight, against Jaime Rodriguez in Tijuana, he got another second-round knockout.

Still no change of heart.

Finally, after Morales knocked out Oscar Maldonado in the third round of his third fight, Damian accepted what others had already realized.

“My son has got something in his hands,” he said.

Those hands, fast and powerful, have enabled Morales to beat Zaragoza on an 11th-round knockout and to successfully defend his WBC title five times.

They enabled Morales to score his most devastating knockout yet in his last fight. Facing Angel Chacon on the undercard of the Oscar De La Hoya-Ike Quartey title fight in February, Morales sent Chacon on his way down with a powerful right hand. Morales is so quick, he was able to hit Chacon with a left and another right before his opponent hit the canvas.

Morales’ powerful hands have led Arum to label him the “next Chavez.” Arum is known to resort to hyperbole, but Morales may yet live up to the hype.

He earned $255,000 for his last fight and will get $350,000 for Saturday’s bout, his first on pay-per-view.

Morales recently bought his parents a new house in a nice part of Tijuana. But he continues to train on the site of his birth. And continues to leave his car out front.

And like the fighter himself, that car remains untouched.

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The Facts

* What: World Boxing Council super batamweight championship between champion Erik Morales and challenger Juan Carlos Ramirez.

* When: Tonight beginning at 6.

* Where: Las Vegas Hilton.

* TV: TVKO pay-per-view.