It was billed as "unification is the only justification". But you could have justified pitting Erik "El Terrible' Morales against Carlos 'Famoso' Hernandez by more reasons than putting their meaningless alphabet trinkets on the line.

On a night which had four bouts each featuring a Mexican fighter, Morales added Hernandez' IBF hardware to his trophy collection and retained his WBC title as the two went toe-to-toe for twelve gruelling, action-filled rounds at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Morales was just too much for the pride of El Salvador, who gave a tremendous effort by going after Morales and tryiong to rough him up. Morales, who is a much better boxer than Hernandez, obliged, ripping the smaller man with uppercuts and flush short right hands. In the 4th round, Morales sustained a cut from an accidental headbutt, but it only made the Tijuana native fight back harder. The light-punching Hernandez, who kept hitting on the break and trying to frustrate Morales, showed why he's never been knocked down in forty-four pro fights- he has an iron jaw. Morales rocked Hernandez early and often, mixing jabs into his arsenal, but the determined 'Famoso' kept coming forward. In the end, Morales couldn't put Hernandez away but still won a lopsided unaniomous decision by scores of 119-109, 119-109, and inexplicably, 115-113 (I scored it 119-109 for Morales).

Morales, who once said he thought he looked fat at 135, expressed his desire to fight Manny Pacqiuao and then move up to lightweight. It's not yet clear whether Morales has carried his power up with him to 130, as he knocked out Guty Espadas in his junior lightweight debut, but couldn't finish off a one-armed Jesus Chavez or a steel-chinned Hernandez. One thing is clear, however- the 27-year-old Morales, now 47-1 (34), looks better with each fight, and a showdown with the winner of Saturday night's bout between Diego Corrales and Acelino Freitas would be the biggest test for Morales since his second fight with Marco Antonio Barrera.

On the third undercard of Morales-Hernandez was bantamweight Rafael Marquez versus fellow Mexican Heriberto Ruiz. After each winning a round, the hard-hitting Marquez absorbed a missed right hand by Ruiz and threw a highlight reel right uppercut to his chin that dropped Ruiz like a sack of potatoes. The referee waved off the fight and Marquez was awarded a 3rd round KO, improving his record to 32-3 (29). The punch is being spoken of as being punch of the year, so far.

The second undercard and a real crowd-pleaser was the son of Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez, Julio Jr, taking on a poor, out-of-shape kid named Jason Smith in a four-rounder. Listed as 18 but looking not a day older than 14, the tall, rangy lightweight Chavez used his jab effectively and landed punishing straight right hands to Smith's head, turning his face into a smorgasboard of red and probably breaking his nose. The referee did the 29-year-old no favours by allowing him to end the fight on his feet, and Chavez Jr. improved his record to 10-0.

In the first fight of the night, strawweights Ivan Calderon of Puerto Rico and Roberto Leyva of Mexico fought a good, technical, exciting fight which saw the quicker, more skilled Calderon improve his undefeated record to 20-0 (3) via decision. The pro-Mexican crowd booed Calderon while cheering the effort given by Leyva.