"Controversial Fight #2": Marco Antonio Barrera vs Erik Morales I.

PowerPuncher · Sep 26, 2011

8-4 MAB plus the KD, it doesn't matter if you didn't think it was a KD, if the ref call's it you're obligated as a judge to score it as much, those are the rules

LancsTerrible · Sep 26, 2011

:deal Good man. That was my understanding aswell.

IsaL · Sep 26, 2011

I had Barrera winning the fight when I watched it live....But when I re-watched it I scored it for Morales...Very close fight, I usually have Morales winning this fight, and the second fight.

bailey · Sep 26, 2011

I cant remember round by round scoring but I remember having Morales a 1 point winner.
It was a very close fight that I wouldnt have argued either way, but Im one of the few who had it for Morales.
The last 30 seconds of a fight shouldnt necessarily take a round if the other fighter has predominantly won the first 2 1/2 mins.

Morales

IsaL · Sep 26, 2011

bailey said: ↑

I cant remember round by round scoring but I remember having Morales a 1 point winner.
It was a very close fight that I wouldnt have argued either way, but Im one of the few who had it for Morales.
The last 30 seconds of a fight shouldnt necessarily take a round if the other fighter has predominantly won the first 2 1/2 mins.

Morales
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:good agreed

...I gave it to Morales on effective agression and activity....Where as MAB's effective clean and harder punching made the fight extremely close.

bailey · Sep 26, 2011

IsaL said: ↑

:good agreed

...I gave it to Morales on effective agression and activity....Where as MAB's effective clean and harder punching made the fight extremely close.
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Thats what I felt. You have to look at a whole round rather than a 10 sec eye catching flurry. I think the judges watched the rounds closely.
Still it was such a close fight where neither fighter should have been called the loser

Samurai's Slice · Sep 26, 2011

LancsTerrible said: ↑

Round 1: Barrera 10-9 Morales
Round 2: Barrera 10-9 Morales
Round 3: Barrera 10-9 Morales
Round 4: Barrera 9-10 Morales
Round 5: Barrera 9-10 Morales
Round 6: Barrera 9-10 Morales
Round 7: Barrera 9-10 Morales
Round 8: Barrera 10-9 Morales
Round 9: Barrera 10-9 Morales
Round 10: Barrera 9-10 Morales
Round 11: Barrera 10-9 Morales
Round 12: Barrera 10-8 Morales

Final Score: Barrera 115-112 Morales

This is one of the greatest fights of all time no doubt. It has pretty much been my favourite fight for aslong as I can remember (expect for a brief period where Carbajal vs Gonzalez I was). I'm no quite sure just how many times I've watched this fight but its got to be well into double figures. Its just that ****ing good. Barrera was coming into this fight with two losses to Junior Jones on his record and a 12 round war and stoppage of Jones conquer Kennedy McKinney. Morales on the other hand was undefeated and had come into the bout with a vicious stoppage of Junior Jones, and solid wins over the likes of an ageing Zaragoza and of 92 Olympian Wayne McCullough. Both men are personal favourites of mine, and I regularly struggle to decide who I like more.

What separates this fight for me from the likes of Castillo-Corrales and Gatti-Ward is rather than just brutality, what you have on show is a display of incredible highly tuned technical skills being thrown out of the window at times for a good dose of skull thumping. Morales was the slightly younger fighter but both men where clearly in their primes and where certainly experienced in their craft. Barrera started off the stronger, with his first action of the fight being a three punch combination of a jab, straight right, left uppercut. That sort of sets the standard of what was about to transpire. For the first few rounds you have the more fluid fighter in Barrera charging ahead working well on both the inside and outside. On the inside he was working well with that beautiful left hand he has, working it as a left hook to the body or a left uppercut to the body and head, shot flowing into the next. On the outside he was working well being a high guard parrying the jab of Morales and only once or twice being overwhelmed by Morales's own combinations which failed to show the same sort of effectiveness as Barrera's. For what its worth while I don't think Barrera had quite reached his defensive peak I do think he displayed the clearly better defence throughout, although he allowed his high guard to be broken through multiple time by Morales's vicious right uppercut on the inside.

The real swing in momentum for me came in the fourth where I thought Morales started to bully the action on the inside and keep Barrera guessing on when he could inside with his footwork. I've never been a massive fan of Morales's footwork in the same style I have as say...Lopez's, but during rounds 4 and 5 I thought he put on a masterclass here and worked his way in to really bully these rounds off Barrera. While Morales really put on quite the show in middle four rounds I scored for him, and while Barrera was working to the body nicely at times and managing to hit Morales big, I felt he couldn't match Morales's activity and at times was just allowing his guard to be broken through by Morales's right uppercut.

The real deciding rounds in this fight for me and for everybody else I'm guessing are those insane championship rounds. After 7/8 rounds of relentless beating on each other, both men somehow turn it up a gear and manage to weather the tsunami of pain they throw at each other. As for these rounds what can I say? They're pretty close aside from round 12 and maybe round 10, but Barrera just works through them with that sickening left hand he possesses. Both men get cut and both men get tagged with megashots, yet it seems rather ironic that after a display of nifty footwork and being hit by titanic shots, Morales goes down due to his own sloppy footwork and rather light shot. I'm not quite sure how I sum up how both men do as far as technically go in these rounds, other than with the words, holy ****.

The final scores are read out in favour of Morales via split decision and while all scores all close besides those of Dalby Shirley (who scores it like I do) I fail to see how this can go in favour of Morallah. He certainly showed balls out there in the face of a fluid combination puncher, with a dynamite left hand on a warpath, but that doesn't win fights, what wins fights is fluid combination punches and having a dynamite left hand. Both men will go on to rematch a division above and I shall talk of that another time.

Thoughts?

(tl;dr I scored the fight for Barrera).
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One thing that is recognized in fights like this. Is anyone really a looser. No. They both put a war and came to fight. Ward won the first Gatti fight. Does that make Gatti a looser? no! He made one of the best trilogies and for that matter one of the best fights of all times.

Bill Butcher · Sep 26, 2011

I`ve seen this fight more than any other fight, it is the best fight of all time IMO... my score is......

1. Barrera 10-9
2. Barrera 10-9
3. Morales 10-9
4. Morales 10-9
5. Morales 10-9 (Best round of the entire trilogy, amazing)
6. Morales 10-9
7. Morales 10-9
8. Barrera 10-9
9. Morales 10-9
10. Morales 10-9
11. Barrera 10-9
12. Barrera 10-9 (the KD was bull**** but MAB won the round IMO anyway)

115-113 Morales :good

Bill Butcher · Sep 26, 2011

Addie said: ↑

The greatest fight I have personally ever seen. Yes, it was brutal, but the fight was still contested at an incredibly high skill level. I usually score the fight in favour of Marco Antonio Barrera, but by no means was the decision a robbery. Morales won his rounds and got his work done almost purely on work rate. He was throwing more punches more consistantly, whereas Barrera was landing with the showier shots. Rounds 1 and 9 in particular could have been scored either way.

My last scorecard was something like this.

Barrera - 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12
Morales - 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10

People really need to mute the commentators and rewatch the opening round. I must be the only one who scores that in favour of Morales. The last minute is all Erik. I think people expected Marco to lose and were excited to see him go out there and take the fight to the younger man, but he didn't win that round in my opinion.
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Good post, Addie.

I`ve said for ages now that people should watch this fight on mute, it really is a razor close fight & it definitely was not a robbery... Morales could have easily won round 1, I gave it to MAB but it was 1 of those toss up rounds.

Bill Butcher · Sep 26, 2011

PowerPuncher said: ↑

8-4 MAB plus the KD, it doesn't matter if you didn't think it was a KD, if the ref call's it you're obligated as a judge to score it as much, those are the rules
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No.... I score reality, not incompetence.

beefman180 · Sep 26, 2011

116-111 Barrera I believe was my scorecard last time I watched.

Then I thought Morales deserved the 2nd fight. atsch

Bill Butcher · Sep 26, 2011

beefman180 said: ↑

116-111 Barrera I believe was my scorecard last time I watched.

Then I thought Morales deserved the 2nd fight. atsch
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Erik won the 2nd fight pretty clearly IMO, the clearest fight of the trilogy.

LancsTerrible · Sep 26, 2011

I'll be scoring the second fight next. Probably Thursday or Friday. I actually thought that was the closest fight and I believe I last had Morales edging it by a point but...lets see how this one goes. Can't wait.

Harvin87 · Sep 26, 2011

would you guys expect a war in Canelo-Chavez??

LancsTerrible · Sep 26, 2011

Harvin87 said: ↑

would you guys expect a war in Canelo-Chavez??
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I think both have been brought along to the top too quick. Both men are fair game to the rising talent in their divisions and this fight had to be made before one lost momentum which could be a fight or two away. It will be good their styles will mesh well I think. I think Chavez has the style advantage but Alvarez is the more polished and well rounded fighter.

If both men had made it to the top slower, had that extra time in the gym to progress and then win a title. I think you would have had a better fight on your hands.

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