Morales Doesn’t Miss a Bite

Standing in front of a bank of microphones at the head table of an L.A. restaurant Tuesday afternoon, Carlos Hernandez looked to his left and broke into a big smile. There was his opponent in Saturday’s 130-pound unification title fight, Erik Morales, head down, devouring the meal in front of him.

Fighters attend news conferences such as Tuesday’s all the time, sometimes several a week in the days before a fight. They rarely if ever eat a bite, too concerned over their rendezvous with those unforgiving scales at the weigh-in before the match.

Not Morales. He barely came up for air Tuesday.

“I see Morales is really hungry,” Hernandez said.

Hungry, or unconcerned and overconfident? Morales certainly has much to bolster his confidence. Holder of the World Boxing Council super-featherweight title, Morales has also been the WBC featherweight and super-bantamweight champion, the featherweight champ twice. He has lost once in 47 fights, winning by knockout on 34 occasions. His only defeat was by decision in 2002 to Marco Antonio Barrera, an opponent Morales had beaten by split decision in their first meeting two years earlier.

The mention of Barrera’s name can cause the normally calm Morales to bristle. But Hernandez causes no such emotion to emanate from Morales, who seems to regard Hernandez with little more respect than he would afford a sparring partner.

“You have to have some skills, and I don’t see any skills in him,” Morales said after polishing off his meal. “I don’t see the emotion in him.”

Arguments can be offered over skill levels, but no one can argue that Hernandez, a 4-1 underdog, is not approaching Saturday night’s fight at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena with his adrenaline flowing. Hernandez, the International Boxing Federation champion who is 40-3-1 with 24 knockouts, sees Saturday as far more than an opportunity to unify a title.

“Beating Erik Morales would be the highlight of my career, of anyone’s career,” Hernandez said. “He is one of today’s legends, today’s Julio Cesar Chavez.

“That’s what psychs me up. I’m trying to beat a Goliath. I just tell myself, ‘I can, I dare, I will.’ ”

He could, he dared, he did in winning the title last year against David Santos and then defending it against Steve Forbes. But both decisions were tainted by cuts. The Santos fight was stopped in the eighth round because of a vertical slash over Santos’ right eye. Ahead on all three judges’ scorecards, Hernandez won a technical decision. It was Hernandez who suffered cuts in the Forbes fight, the match stopped in the final round. Again, Hernandez was ahead on all three scorecards.

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Saturday’s Fight

The WBC and IBF super-featherweight (130 pounds) championship is a unification bout scheduled for 12 rounds:

* Who: WBC super-featherweight champion Erik Morales (46-1, 34 KOs) vs. IBF super-featherweight champion Carlos Hernandez (40-3-1, 24 KOs).

* Site: MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas.

* TV: Card airs live on HBO pay-per-view ($39.95) starting at 6 p.m.

* Tickets: $50-300; available at mgmgrand.com or ticketmaster.com.