HBO Championship Boxing

February 28, 2004

MGM Grand - 6:30pm PT
Las Vegas, Nevada

Former WBC super bantamweight and WBC featherweight champion Erik "El Terrible" Morales headlines

HBO championship boxing on February 28th. Morales, who moved up in weight in his previous bout, will be

looking to capture the WBC super featherweight title from champion Jesus Chavez.

Morales won his last bout in November of 2003 by third round TKO over former WBC featherweight

champion Guty Espadas (37-6, 23 KO's) in a WBC super featherweight title eliminator bout. Morales has

only lost to Marco Antonio Barrera (57-4, 40 KO's) back in 2002 via a controversial unanimous decision.

Since his only loss, Morales has won four in a row including his last bout.

Chavez just captured the WBC super featherweight title in his last bout in August of 2003 when he defeated

Sirimongkol Singmanasak (43-2, 25 KO's) by 12 round unanimous decision. Chavez had won 31 fights in

a row since his first loss in 1995 until he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2001. Chavez lost by ninth round

TKO to Mayweather.  Chavez rebounded and has now won five in a row including his last bout.

Also on the card, the WBC International Jr. welterweight champion Miguel Angel Cotto will put his

undefeated record on the line against Victoriano Sosa.

Cotto's last bout was in December of 2003 when he defeated Carlos Maussa (16-1, 15 KO's) by eighth

round TKO. Cotto's last six bouts have ended by way of knock out or technical knock out (hasn't seen a

decision since September of 2002).

Sosa is a hard knocking veteran who has fought for the lightweight title twice. The first time was in 2000

when he fought and lost to Paul Spadafora (36-0-1, 14 KO's) for the IBF lightweight title via 12 round

unanimous decision. The second time was in April of 2003 when he fought and lost to WBC lightweight

champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (also by 12 round unanimous decision). Since his loss to Mayweather

Jr., he has fought twice and won. The first was in November of 2003 when he defeated Miguel Angel

Huerta (18-6-1, 12 KO's) by 10 round unanimous decision and the second was on January 5th of this year

against Danilo Alcantara (8-10-1, 5 KO's) which Sosa won by fourth round TKO.

HBO Line-up:

(1/27/04)