ERIC MOREL vs HERIBERTO RUIZ

Former flyweight champion Eric Morel has had his problems in and out of the ring, the low point coming when he served a brief prison term. Now Morel has started over again, fighting in his Puerto Rican homeland, seemingly with a renewed dedication.

Morel boxes on tonight’s PPV show in Puerto Rico when he meets Mexico’s Heriberto Ruiz in a 12-round clash of veterans. The WBO’s North American bantam title is at stake, which for the winner will be a stepping stone to bigger things.

This is without question a fight that the 32-year-old Morel must win. There will be no coming back if he loses. Defeat means he will become just an opponent. A win, though, and he is back in the world title picture.

It seems a long time ago when Morel was one of the elite boxers in the lighter weight classes. A U.S. Olympic representative in 1996, he won 33 bouts in a row before being outscored by the skilful Venezuelan, Lorenzo Parra.

To give an idea of how long Morel has been around, he topped the bill on the ill-fated KO Nation series on HBO eight years ago when he outclassed a strong, undefeated but limited Thai, Sornpichai, in a WBA 112-pound title bout.

That was the high point of Morel’s career. He was well beaten on home soil in Puerto Rico by Parra, and I thought he looked like a fighter at the end of his career when he was soundly beaten by Martin Castillo in Las Vegas in 2005, although Castillo was brilliant, absolutely at the top of his form, in that fight.

Morel was inactive for three years but he has won three in a row in his comeback. He struggled in his initial comeback bout, which was to be expected after so long out of the ring, but he has stopped his last two opponents. In his last fight, a Telefutura main event three months ago, Morel came into the ring with his head shaved and looked intense — and also strong physically — when he blew out the Colombian veteran Jose Bernal in three rounds.

Although Morel essentially had nothing to beat that night, he did have the look of a man who is serious about his career, as if he knows it is now or never. The look of his body indicated that he has been working hard. It was an encouraging effort by the ex-champ.

Tonight, though, Morel is going to be tested. Ruiz, 30, has been boxing at a high level for a long time. Lately, though, Ruiz hasn’t been winning the fights that could have re-established him as a contender. I wonder if something was taken out of him by the crushing third-round knockout defeat he suffered against Rafael Marquez in 2004, when he was dropped face-first by a huge right uppercut after holding his own in the first two rounds. Since then, Ruiz has been outpointed by the former flyweight champion Irene Pacheco and stopped in the sixth by talented Alejandro Valdez.

Although Ruiz has won his last four bouts, he seems to have had a difficult time against a veteran named Francisco Garcia. Although Ruiz won the unanimous decision it was a close fight on the scorecards, and this against a long-serving 36-year-old with 23 losses on his record.

While Ruiz must still be considered a capable fighter, it could be that, after a near-14-year-career, he is just starting to wear out a bit. (This, anyway, is what Morel’s people will be hoping.)

Ruiz still has ambition and he is coming into the ring as a winning fighter, but although he is a competent technician I think that Morel has the greater overall talent even though he isn’t the fighter he was eight years ago. The issue with Morel is how he will respond in a long, hard, difficult fight, which this one is likely to be.

My guess is that Morel can get the job done. He looks good physically as a bantamweight and while the Beranza blowout wasn’t a good guide I did get a positive feeling about Morel’s commitment to his comeback.

I’m going with Morel in this crucial fight. I think he has enough speed and savvy to outscore Ruiz in nip-and-tuck exchanges and Morel might even be able to hurt Ruiz a bit with body punches. I make the odds a bit tighter than they are at the sportsbooks, but I do anticipate a Morel win, on points. While Ruiz obviously wants to win, Morel, in the situation in which he now finds himself, has to win, and that. I feel, will make the difference.