Morales Outlasts Scrappy Chi

You know it’s a good fight when both fighters look as if they need sunglasses after the final bell.

That was the case for Erik Morales of Mexico and Injin Chi of South Korea, whose featherweight fight featured toe-to-toe action most of the bout.

In easily the best bout of Saturday night’s fight card at Staples Center, Morales showed why he’s quickly gaining notice as one of the sport’s best fighters with a hard-earned, unanimous 12-round decision over Chi to retain his World Boxing Council title.

Morales (41-0) not only had to survive Chi’s aggressive crouching style but also an accidental head butt in the sixth round that opened a deep cut on his left eyelid. By the time the fight ended, Morales could barely see out of the eye because of severe swelling.

“I wanted to show in this fight a different Erik Morales . . . I wanted to show a faster and more destructive [fighter],” Morales, a native of Tijuana, said through an interpreter. “But unfortunately, the head butt in the sixth round made me change my game plan.”

Chi (24-2) gave Morales all he could handle. Chi is not a stick-and-move fighter. All he knows how to do is attack and fight with heart, which had Morales in trouble at times.

“I’m very happy to have fought Morales,” Chi, a Seoul native, said through an interpreter. “I just want boxing in Korea to be revived again.”

Morales won on all three judges’ scorecards. Lou Filippo had it 116-111, James Jen Kin had it 117-110 and Daniel Van De Wiele had it 116-112.

Chi did not waste any time showing Morales what kind of fight he was in. In the opening round, Chi smothered Morales every chance he had, but the champion met the challenge with a series of accurate rights to take the round on two of the judges’ scorecards.

The same thing happened in the second and third rounds, with Morales getting the best of several inside exchanges. Heading into the fourth, each judge had Morales ahead by a point.

That’s when Morales’ better fighting skills began to take over. Instead of allowing Chi to tie him up, Morales was able to land better and cleaner punches and won the round on all three scorecards.

Morales did it again in the fifth round as he began to swell Chi’s face with accurate punches. By the time the round ended, Morales appeared to have gained control of the fight.

But in the sixth round, Chi came out swinging. By throwing punches from all angles and also moving his head in first, Chi had Morales on the defensive early in the round.

That set the stage for Chi to catch Morales with his best blow of the fight. After referee Jose Cobian stopped the action to check Morales’ cut from Chi’s head, the champion responded with a series of punches to slow Chi.

“When he hit me with a head butt, I couldn’t see anything,” Morales said.

“[But] I’m Mexican . . . I will never quit.”

Despite having his vision affected, Morales continued to answer every charge by Chi. He dominated the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds and the South Korean seemed to get frustrated because Morales was not bothered by his relentless attack.

In the 10th round, Chi had a point taken away for pushing Morales’ head down after a break. Morales won the round, giving him a two-point edge.

Chi pursued Morales all over the ring in the final two rounds, but by then he had lost plenty of power in his punches.

Morales continued to take advantage when Chi moved in, landing several crisp punches.

In the 12th round, Morales gave the fans a lot to cheer about when he didn’t back down from Chi, even though he led on the three judges’ scorecards. Morales responded to every hard punch thrown by Chi and ended the fight on a strong note.

“It was a very difficult fight because he did not back down,” Morales said. “It was also difficult fighting with only one eye.”

In an another championship fight, Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis of New York retained his World Boxing Assn. welterweight title when his bout against Ricardo Mayorga of Costa Rica was ruled a no-contest because of a head butt at the start of the second round.