Erik Morales Reveals Surprising Hardest-Hitting Opponent in Boxing Career

Erik Morales fought some massive punchers during his illustrious career.

Perhaps none more so than Manny Pacquiao, whom he locked horns with three times.

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The Filipino icon carried his power through the weights, knocking out adversaries from flyweight all the way up to super welterweight and famously rebounded from a unanimous decision loss to Morales in 2005 to stop him in back-to-back bouts.

Despite this, Morales doesn't hail Pacquiao as his hardest-hitting opponent.

Instead, the Hall of Famer reserves that distinction for Junior 'Poison' Jones.

"I really felt it when he connected," Morales said of Jones' power during a Ring Magazine 'Best I Faced' segment.

"I remember freezing for a second in the second round of our fight when he caught me with a right hand."

Morales squared off against Jones in 1998 in a defence of his WBC super bantamweight crown at the Bullring by the Sea in Tijuana, Mexico.

Jones had dropped his WBO super bantamweight title in his previous outing against Kennedy McKinney and entered fight night with a point to prove.

The American came flying out of the gates, looking to impose himself on the contest immediately.

Early in the second stanza, he buckled Morales' knees with a stiff right hand and continued to pour on the pressure.

The then-unbeaten Morales was still taking heavy artillery in the fourth round when he turned the tide with a looping right.

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Morales' punch scrambled Jones' senses and sent him tumbling to the canvas after a follow-up flurry.

Jones bravely made his way back to his feet, but he was blasted away against the ropes with seconds left in the round.

The loss prompted Jones to move up to featherweight, where he failed to win the IBF belt against Paul Ingle in 2000. Jones hung up his gloves two years later as a two-weight world champion.

Morales boxed on to unify his WBC 122lbs with the WBO strap by overcoming Marco Antonio Barrera via split decision in 2000.

However, his compatriot exacted his revenge in a rematch at featherweight.

In the preceding years, Morales became the first Mexican to win world titles in four separate weight classes from super bantamweight to super lightweight, trading wins and losses with the divisional elites.

He eventually retired from boxing in 2012 following a pair of losses to Danny Garcia and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame six years later.