Morris East

Courtesy of boxrec.com

When we talk about young prodigies in the boxing world we usually talk about fighters who turn professional very young, get matched softly and go on to have a long and fruitful career at the top. For some however things aren't that simple and in the case of former WBA Light Welterweight champion Morris East (20-4-0-1, 12) he certainly wasn't given the cotton wool wrapped boxing beginnings of many other top youngsters in the sports great history.

Born in August 8th 1973 in in Olongapo City, Zambales East was the son of a Filipino woman and black American navy sailor. Unfortunately due to his fathers job the two didn't meet until East had become a world champion and his father was himself in bad health passing away not long after they first got in touch with each other.

East first took to boxing as a very young teenager under the guidance of Sammy Gello-ani, a very well known promoter in the Philippines. Gello-ani took East under his wing and brought him to the Cebu Coliseum gym and it was after spending some time there that Gello-ani would help to organise amateur bouts for East, who of course used the money from the fights to feed himself.

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Having fought for a bit as an amateur East would then turn his attention to the professional ranks and he'd make his debut on May 3rd 1989, aged just 15. On his debut he defeated fellow debutant Jessie Miranda via a 6th round TKO in what was to be Miranda's sole bout.

Knowing that he was fighting for his every meal East would kept busy through the remainder of 1989 and fight 5 more times before the year was out. Although East did lose one of those contests, a 10 round decision to Boy Masuay, he managed to avenge the loss stopping Masuay in the 6th round of a rematch just a few months after their first meeting.

After having gone 5-1 (2) in 1989 it was obvious there was something natural there for East. He was still just a kid but was looking like a young man with real promise in the boxing world.

In 1990 East would build on the previous year and although he again suffered a defeat, a very tight decision loss to Fernando Palad, he would generally impress. We say generally because of his very poor performance against Jojo Cayson in which the referee, Geronimo Creer Jr, waved off as a no contest in the 6th round with neither man showing much inclination in to actually fighting.

The Cayson bout was bad in the ring though also bad outside of it with East completely failing to make weight, weighing a ridiculous 141lbs against Cayson's 132.75 lbs. At the time is was almost a laughable error though looking back it appears that it was East's body merely growing up, he was no longer just a boy but was pretty much a man, a young man admittedly but a man all the same.

Following the Cayson debacle East would remain inactive for 6 months before returning to score what was, up to that point, the biggest victory of his career defeating Joey Corpus via a 10 round decision. Despite being inactive for 6 months of the year East still managed to fit in 4 bouts before the year was over as he advanced his record to 13-2-0-1 (7).

To begin 1992 the 18 year old East would travel to South Korea and fight for his first professional title as he faced the OPBF Light Welterweight champion Pyong Sup Kim. Although Kim was more experienced than East, and was fighting at home he was unable to defeat East who stopped him in the 12th round as the young Filipino claimed his first title.

East wouldn't defend his OPBF title and instead focused his efforts on getting a world title fight which he got just 7 months later in Japan against Akinobu Hiranaka. Hiranaka, a hard punching and offensive minded fighter, was 28 and in his physical prime. He had claimed the title just months earlier defeating Edwin Rosario in 92 exhilarating seconds and many were expecting him to do something similar to East.

Instead of being over-whelmed by the aggressive Japanese fighter East held his own showing grit and determination to ride out some hairy moments before stopping Hiranaka in the 11th round with a tremendous left hand on the point of Hiranaka's chin. The punch, which later won "Ring Magazine's KO of the Year 1992", was not only a fight ending shot but it was also ultimately ended Hiranaka's career.

The victory over Hiranaka was a major high point for East who became the youngest Filipino to ever win a world title, a record that still stands now, some 20 years later.

Soon after winning the title East traveled to America and managed, with help from CNN, to track down his ailing father, Morris East Sr. The two would have their first meeting broadcast by CNN and although East helped his father out for a short while, Sr would unfortunately suffer a fatal heart attack a few months later.

East would fight just once in 1993 traveling to Argentina to far Juan Martin Coggi to defend his world title. Unfortunately East would lose his title in his first defense being stopped by Coggi in the 8th round after having been dropped and out boxed throughout, barring some success in round 7.

Having lost his world title East would be out of action for over a year before returning up at Middleweight where he stopped Yung Yong Lee in 6 rounds. He would follow up the victory over Lee by defeating Australian veteran Jeff Malcolm as he worked his way down to Light Middleweight.

In 1995 East would suffer his 4th career defeat being out pointed in Japan by the then reigning Japanese Welterweight champion Jintoku Sato. This was to be the final loss of East's career he returned to the Philippines and fought just twice more. In the first of those bouts he stopped Jun Castillo inside a round to claim the Philippines Games & Amusement Board (GAB) Light Middleweight title, a title he would defend once by out pointing Robert Azumah.

Following the victory over Azumah, East would retire despite only being 21 years old. He has s said since his retirement that he couldn't trust anyone in the sport and felt discouraged by the lack of money he saw coming his way after the likes of managers and promoters had taken their cut.

Since retiring from boxing East has done incredibly well for himself and is currently an entrepreneur, boxing manager and trainer. His training has seen him working with Nonito Donaire, Zab Judah and Chad Dawson.

The full fight of East v Hiranaka can be seen below thanks to TSURUGIpassB.