It will be the Battle of Midway when three-division world champion ERIK “El TERRIBLE” MORALES, making his Chicago debut and seeking his record fourth world title in as many weight divisions, rumbles with WBC lightweight champion and Chicago native DAVID DIAZ in the main event of “The War for 4!”  Promoted by Top Rank Inc., in association with Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Promotions, “The War for 4!” world championship extravaganza will take place  Saturday, August 4 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, ILL. and broadcast live on pay-per-view.

 

            The pay-per-view broadcast will also feature two additional world title fights and the Chicago debut of undefeated welterweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., son of the legendary three-division world champion and Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez. Tickets for the fight, priced at $300, $200, $100, $50 and $35, go on sale June 13.

 

“Erik is out to grab some history,” said promoter Bob Arum, CEO and founder of Top Rank. “He is already one of the all-time greats. If he can win this title it would be a fitting conclusion to what has already been a Hall of Fame career, but it won’t be easy. Diaz is no walk in the park and Morales needs to be at the top of his game for this fight.”

 

            "With two great trilogies against Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales has earned his place in the hearts of boxing fans the world over", said HBO PPV's Mark Taffet.  "Adding a title in his fourth weight class would be the icing on the cake of Morales' hall-of-fame career, but champion David Diaz has the opportunity to measure himself against a ring legend."   

 

Morales (48-5, 34 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico will be seeking to become the first Mexican boxer in history to win four world championships in four different weight classes, a feat not even achieved by the legendary Chavez . Morales held WBC world titles at 122, 126 and 130 pounds.

 

            Recognized as one of the best and most exciting fighters in the world, Morales is 18-2 in world championship fights and his pair of trilogy fights against Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera produced some of the best fights in boxing history. His three fights against Pacquiao exceeded one million pay-per-view buys, a record for that weight class. 

 


 

            “I will always fight for the people,” declared Morlaes. “I have given them all I can inside the ring and hope that they will believe in me one more time as I try to accomplish my biggest personal goal in boxing: to become Mexico’s first  four-time world champion.”

 

            At age 21, Morales became a world champion for the first time when he stopped Hall of Famer Daniel Zaragoza to win the WBC super bantamweight championship in El Paso, Texas in 1997. He successfully defended the belt seven times. In February of 2000, he unified the title, beating WBO champion Marco Antonio Barrera, which was awarded “Fight of the Year,” by The Ring magazine.

 

            He added a second world title to his trophy case, winning a unanimous decision over Guty Espadas, in February 2002, for the WBC featherweight title.  Morales joined the great Julio Cesar Chavez as a three-division world champion by defeating Jesus Chavez to win the WBC super featherweight championship in February 2004, a title he would unify in his next fight, in July 2004, when he won a unanimous decision over IBF champion Carlos Hernandez.

 

            Morales became the only Mexican to beat Manny Pacquiao, giving the Filipino icon a true boxing lesson, in their March 2005 fight, in what many consider Morales’ best performance of his great career.

 

            Diaz (32-1-1, 17 KOs), a 1996 U.S. Olympian, will be making the first defense of his title.  He waited a long time to get his opportunity for a world title and when it came he was ready. Diaz stopped the then interim world champion Jose Armando Santa Cruz in the 10th round of a fight he was losing before knocking out Santa Cruz.

 

            “Winning the world championship was very special, but facing a great champion like Morales is just as special. This will be a fight to remember”, said Diaz.           

 

The Morales vs. Diaz pay-per-view telecast, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, has a suggested retail price of $44.95, will be distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be available to more than 61 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. For your daily Morales vs. Diaz fight week updates visit www.hbo.com.