point in the tenth round. Morales vs. Barrera II Morales then tasted defeat for the first time in his 42nd professional fight when he lost (this time) a controversial majority decision and his WBC title against Lineal Champion, Marco Antonio Barrera in June 2002, in a re-match of their February 2000 fight. Morales constantly pressed forward and dominated much of the first half of the fight (clearly winning at least 4 of the first 6 rounds). He was cut on the bridge of the nose in the 2nd round, and cut and swollen over his right eye in the 8th. However, he punched Barrera to the canvas during the middle rounds but this was called a slip. Barrera fought cautiously in the early rounds, but rallied as the fight progressed, although Morales seemed to narrowly win rounds 10 and 11, which when including his dominance in the first half of the fight, seemed to seal him the close victory on the score-cards. HBO's unofficial ring-side scorer: Harold Lederman, scored the fight 115–113 (7 rounds to 5) for Morales. Morales bounced back with a dominating twelve-round decision victory over former world champion, Paulie Ayala in November 2002 to regain the vacant WBC Featherweight title. The early rounds were close, but Morales started to dominate in the middle rounds, consistently landing the harder punches and Ayala's left eye began to swell. He slowed his pace in the late rounds and Ayala rallied, but Morales rocked him with a series of punches in the 12th round. Morales defeated Eddie Croft in March 2003. He scored three knockdowns and stopped Croft in the 3rd round. All the fighters on the card donated their purses to "Vamos Mexico," a children's charity headed by Marta Sahagun, wife of Mexican president Vicente Fox. Morales defeated Fernando Velardez later that year. He knocked down Velardez in the 1st, 4th and 5th rounds when the fight was stopped without a count. In October 2003, Morales defeated Guty Espadas Jr. in a rematch of their first close fight. This time Morales knocked him out in three rounds. Super featherweight Morales vs. Chávez Morales vacated his WBC Featherweight title and moved up to the super featherweight division. On February 28, 2004, Morales captured the WBC Super Featherweight title by unanimous decision over Jesús Chávez. Morales twice knocked down Chávez, which Floyd Mayweather Jr. had been unable to do. Morales was rocked